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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: P921301000
- Running time: 82 minutes
- Year: 2007
- Pressing: 2007
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 16 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired, Swedish
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras:The Truth About Simon Pegg, Pegg-Cam Diary, Holy Moley! The Making of Big Nothing, Audio Commentary, Photo Gallery.
Director:
- Jean-Baptiste Andrea
(Big Nothing, Dead End)
Producer:
- Andras Hamori and Gabriella Stollenwerck
Screenplay:
- Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Billy Asher
Cast :
- Charlie Wood: David Schwimmer
Gus: Simon Pegg
Josie McBroom: Alice Eve
Agent Hymes: Jon Polito
Penelope Wood: Natascha McElhone
Mrs Smalls: Mimi Rogers
Deputy Garman: Billy Asher
80-year-old Blind Man: Julian Glover
Emily: Olivia Peterson
Isabella: Sarah Edmondson
Call Centre Supervisor: Amber Rose Sealey
Max: Colin Stinton
Rev. Smalls: Mitchell Mullen
Oregon Undertaker: Paul Preston
In Big Nothing,Charlie (David Schwimmer), is an unpublished author who keeps coming out with odd number-related facts as if he’s anautistic savant. Gus (Simon Pegg, right with Schwimmer) is a layabout who later refers to Charlie, due to his delivery of random knowledge,as ‘Rainman’ and together they meet while the latter is working at the town call centre and the former manages to do sucha crap job that he gets sacked on his first day.
Gus’ daughter is about to go blind from disease relating to eye-pressure, but he has a plan to blackmail a Reverend for$100,000 for looking at illegal porn sites while at work. However, as the plan gets more complex and one of Pegg’s one-night-stands,teen beauty queen and waitress Josie (Alice Eve, below-right) demands to be in on the deal and ups the ante, the situation just goesfrom bad to worse for the trio. Meanwhile, there’s a sadistic killer on the loose called the Oregon Undertaker, and that plays avery intriguing part in the proceedings.
It’s difficult to say what follows because a series of events follow that, if I were to describe them, would rob thefilm of its surprises, but I can confirm that there is great support from Mimi Rogers as the Reverend’s wife, andNatascha McElhone as Charlie’s wife. Overall, Big Nothing is a comedy/drama with very clever writing that tieseverything together with great style and makes for a tale full of lies and deceit where the comedy isn’t laugh-out-loud butoften nicely underplayed and it’s more the black comedy variety, moreso than I was expecting. It’s also a relatively shortfilm at 82 minutes and certainly doesn’t outstay its welcome.
Presented in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic ratio, there are no problems with the picture and the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundonly really comes into its own for the music now and again, plus gunshots.
The extras begin with The Truth About Simon Pegg (2:45), in which David Schwimmer tours the set talking to the crewand asking them, with a video camera – filming in 4:3, why they hate Simon Pegg so much – all in jest, obviously, although perhaps it has something to do with Star Wars?Then, with the Pegg-Cam Diary (10:27), it’s the other guy’s turn to hold the video camera and more amusing mayhem ensues.Surprisingly, Holy Moley! The Making of Big Nothing (14:03) is shot in 16:9 anamorphic with chat from the cast and crewand from the 16:9 clips of the film it shows that, as it was shot in Super 35, that a decent open-matte print can be struckif one of those TV channels like BBC, ITV or Five continue to be stuck in the dark ages by not broadcasting films in 2.35:1when they’ve been filmed that way.
If an Audio Commentary is your bag then there’s one here from the director, Jean-Baptiste Andrea, plus Simon Peggand Alice Eve. If not, or either way, then there’s a Photo Gallery with 25 images.
The menu features music from the film with shots of the characters moving about, there are subtitles in Englishonly and the disc contains 16 chapters which fine for a film that only runs 77 minutes before the closing credits arrive.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.