A Common Man (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Trailer-Eagle Entertainment trailers x 6 for other films
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	85:44
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Chandran Rutnam
Studio Distributor	Eagle Entertainment	Starring	Ben Kingsley Ben Cross Patrick Rutnam Frederick-James Lobato Numaya Siriwardena
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Ramesh Vinayakam

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     In Colombo, Sri Lanka an unnamed man (Ben Kingsley) plants five bombs around the city, including in a police station, a train, a bus and a shopping mall. He then rings the Deputy General of Police Morris Da Silva (Ben Cross) and demands that four convicted terrorists currently in prison be released by 6 pm that day and taken to the airport, otherwise the bombs will explode. To prove that he is genuine, the man informs Da Silva of the location of the bomb in the police station. When it is found, Da Silva hurriedly assembles a team including officers Mohideen (Patrick Rutnam) and Ranjan (Frederick-James Lobato) to try to locate the man while gathering the four prisoners to take to the airport. But the man is clever and resourceful and, as he also contacts TV reporter Dilky (Numaya Siriwardena), it seems that he has a hidden agenda.

     A Common Man is based upon the 2008 Indian film A Wednesday that was written and directed by Neeraj Pandey, his screenplay being adapted for A Common Man by writer / director Chandran Rutnam. I have not seen A Wednesday, but it must have been better that A Common Man as the reviews I have read of have been generally positive. In contrast, A Common Man is a pedestrian thriller that is not particularly credible in its plotting. The motivation and background of the Kingsley character is not clear: he maintains that he is merely a “common man”, sick of terrorist acts, but as he has access to high end technology, knows the Deputy General of Police’s secure mobile number and can acquire an aircraft, he is hardly a common man. Who and what he is, is however never explained. As well, other than the main characters, the script introduces a diverse range of other characters and subplots that are not developed, including the he-man, bike riding officer Ranjan, who assaults suspects in a cell with his shirt off, or the wife and young child of officer Mohideen, who are, unknowingly, on the train with one of the bombs. There is also a pointless chase sequence that does not advance the plot because when the fugitive is captured he actually knows nothing. This is a chase for a chase’s sake which, in any case, is dull and poorly executed.

     The main reason for watching A Common Man is the experienced cast and the beautiful Sri Lankan locations. Ben Kingsley has 113 acting credits listed in the IMDb, and is of course an Academy Award winner for his performance four decades ago in Gandhi (1982); his body of work since has been variable but he still has some good roles such as in Hugo (2011). Kingsley’s character in A Common Man does not need him to do much except sit around but he does what is required, especially during the first hour of the film before the twist and indifferently written dialogue kicks in. Ben Cross has 89 acting credits listed including Chariots of Fire (1981), although it is true to say that his CV is less impressive these days. Nevertheless, the two veteran actors do what they can to add some gravitas to A Common Man. The other plus is the beautifully photographed streets and sea front of Colombo.

     For the first sixty minutes or so, while A Common Man concentrates upon the planting of the bombs and the interaction between the characters of Kingsley and Ben Cross the film is reasonably tense and engrossing. After that, however, the film loses credibility and momentum with superfluous characters, subplots, a plot twist and some rather painful dialogue.

Video

     A Common Man is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the original ratio being 1.85:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     The print is sharp and has good detail. Colours are deep and rich showing off the Colombo locations to good effect, blacks and shadow detail are very good, the skin tones are natural, brightness and contrast consistent.

     There was occasional motion blur but no marks or other artefacts, although around 65:24 there was a slight flicker and the end titles were blotchy and hard to read.

     There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
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Audio

     Audio is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track at 224 Kbps.

     The audio is adequate. Dialogue is mostly clear although occasionally it was drowned out by the score. The track is surround encoded and my system directed ambient sounds such as traffic plus music to the rears, as well as some sub-woofer support to the explosion.

     The original music by Ramesh Vinayakam was effective.

     There are some lip synchronisation issues as at times it looked as if different dialogue was rerecorded. In another scene there is a line of dialogue although the woman’s lips are clearly not moving.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Trailers

     On start-up there were trailers for Stranded (1:40), Ring of Fire (2:14), CAT.8 (1:51). Eve of Destruction (1:40), Exploding Sun (1:42) and Delete (2:03). These trailers can also be selected from the main menu.

     The Region 1 US release of A Common Man is in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and without extras. Reviews indicate the same lip sync issues. The only Region 2 version in Europe seems to have been released in Norway as there is no UK listing. Buy local.

     A Common Man has a reasonable build-up but loses momentum and ends up a pedestrian thriller. The main reason for watching is the experienced cast, including Ben Kingsley and Ben Cross, and the beautiful Sri Lankan locations.

     The video and audio are acceptable. Trailers for other films are the only extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall