Shooting Fish

• Cert:
• Cat.no: EDV 9110
• Running time: 99 minutes
• Year: 1997
• Pressing: 2001
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 16 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Pro Logic)
• Languages: English
• Subtitles: None
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £19.99
• Extras: Featurette, Actor’s Research, Sound Bites, B-roll

Director:

Stefan Schwartz

Producer:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

Dylan: Dan Futterman
Jez: Stuart Townsend
Georgie: Kate Beckinsale
Floss: Claire Cox
Mr Ray: Ralph Ineson
Mrs Ray: Nicola Duffett
Mr Stratton-Luce: Nickolas Grace
Mrs Stratton-Luce: Arabella Weir
Mrs Cummins: Annette Crosbie
Mr Gilzean: Peter Capaldi
Ms Ross: Phyllis Logan

Shooting Fish in a barrel seems to be ashard as it is to scam people out of thousands of pounds for compulsiverisk-takers Dylan (Dan Futterman) and Jez (Stuart Townsend)who each want to make a million pounds in London and will put as mucheffort into a scheme that will net them £50,000 as they would for onethat nets them little more than 1% of that.

Both being borne of orphanages, they forever maintain that their funds will beput back in to help those in the place that they needed it when they were thatage, but is that really the case? Either way, they aim to progress by savingmoney in any way possible including using vouchers and entering free prize draws.

They find they may have met their match in the feisty Georgie (KateBeckinsale), a medical student aiming to become a doctor and marryingthe man of her dreams, who first starts out earning extra money as theirsecretary but the two principal characters begin to fall for her charms.Will it be enough for her to take them to the cleaners?

This is far from an essential film, but it is a more entertaining way ofspending 100 minutes than I first thought it would be and the chemistryworks well between the three main characters, but to divulge the exact contentwould rob you of the film’s surprises.

Cameos come in the form of Nicola Duffett, Arabella Weir, Annette Crosbie,Peter Capaldi and Phyllis Logan.

Whereas the rental video was cropped to 16:9, the film really does requirethe full 2.35;1 widescreen ratio and despite the “16;9” label on the backof the box, EiV still haven’t employed someone who can get the packagingright. 2.35:1 anamorphic is how the film appears although it is a little onthe soft side most of the time and there are some artifacts on view.The average bitrate is a fairly steady 4.53Mb/s, occasionally peaking over7Mb/s.

The sound comes in plain Dolby Pro Logic and while it has its moments, plus afew mid-90s pop tunes from Space, The Bluetones, The Supernaturals andThe Divine Comedy‘s “In Pursuit of Happiness” – the track thatbecame the theme tune to Tomorrow’s World – it won’t set the room alightor become a reference disc. Dialogue comes in English only.

In the extras dept, the Featurette is five minutes of film clips (innon-anamorphic 16:9), interview soundbites and on-set footage; Actor’sResearch is two minutes of more chat from the two main stars about howthey scammed the public for real; the Sound Bites section comprisesof 10 minutes or so of raw interview chat from the director and all three leads.Finally, the B-roll of raw work-in-progress footage, which brings to anend a series of extras that you’ll watch once and then rarely come back to.

Subtitles are noted by their absence, there are few chapters with 16 andthe menus are static and silent.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL