Garage Days (Rental) (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Musical	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	101:00 (Case: 107)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Alex Proyas
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Kick Gurry Pia Miranda Brett Stiller Maya Stange Russell Dykstra Chris Sadrinna Andy Anderson Marton Csokas
Case	?
RPI	Rental	Music	Andrew Lancaster David McCormack Anthony Partos

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, An amusing dance routine during the end credits.

    I'd only heard a little about the film Garage Days when I volunteered to take a look at the rental disc for review. Firstly, I knew it was directed by the director of The Crow, Alex Proyas. I also knew it featured Pia Miranda and Kick Gurry in leading roles. Now given those two both starred in the delightful Looking For Alibrandi, I thought this might be more of the same. Well, where the similarities end is at the opening credits. After the opening sex scene you are left in no mind this is not a sweet and innocent tale about young high-school love. It's still a dramatic-comedy at its heart, but it's rated MA for a reason: the drug and sex references are frankly presented and no moral stance is taken.

    Kick Gurry is Freddy, a wannabe rocker tirelessly jamming with his band in the hope of scoring a gig. Freddy's the singer, guitarist and self appointed head of the band. Through a series of beautifully filmed and edited scenes we meet the other members of the band. Pia Miranda is Tanya, the bass player. Brett Stiller is Joe, the lead guitarist. Lucius (Chris Sadrinnais) is the pill-popping drummer. The band toils away jamming while their hopelessly incompetent manager Bruno (Russell Dykstra) tries to find them a gig. But in Sydney it seems the local pub band scene has been replaced by the scourge of modern society - the poker machine - so no publican will employ them. It's far easier to milk the punters of their loose change this way. But then fate intervenes, and Freddy bumps into renowned rock promoter and all round sleaze-bag Shad Kerns (Marton Csokas). Somehow he convinces Kerns to have a listen to them. The band might just be on the verge of something, even though they are rather ordinary musos. There are problems naturally enough, otherwise we wouldn't have a story would we? It's all to do with the relationships among the band members. Freddy is currently dating Tanya, but things aren't going all that well. Freddy discovers he has a bit of thing for Joe's girlfriend Kate (Maya Stange), and Joe has been acting sort of strange lately, so maybe he is in with a chance. Meanwhile the band is trying to convince Shad Kerns to give them a break. He wants a demo cut, but demos cost money and the band doesn't have any. So a plan is needed...

    This is a superbly stylish piece of filmmaking which features interesting editing and some amusing moments of outright silliness that take the story off on a tangent for several minutes (the acid trip at the dinner party is particularly amusing). I must admit the characters didn't convince me completely of their musical prowess. I guess that was the whole point - they were supposed to be struggling musicians after all. It doesn't drop into the clichéd story of "struggling band makes good and conquers the world" melodrama. This is at least realistic in its outcome. The soundtrack is highly enjoyable with a real mix of Australian and international artists present, both old and new.

    A visual treat that will certainly entertain.

Video

    This is a pretty decent transfer, with no real problems at all to report.

    It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is complete with 16x9 enhancement.

    This is very sharp throughout with no annoying edge enhancement to contend with. The level of shadow detail is excellent. Grain is minimal and there is no low level noise. Colours are really quite nice. Full, deep, saturated reds are the highlight, but there's plenty of other shades displayed. Vibrant and consistent with a real punch to some of the scenes. All films should look like this.

    I saw no major MPEG artefacts. There was no major aliasing and film artefacts were limited to the usual small spots here and there. None of these impacted on the viewing experience.

    There are only English subtitles. I found them to be adequate if not completely accurate.

    A single layer disc so there is no layer change to consider.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There's a choice of two soundtracks. There's a Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at 448 kb/s and a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 192 kb/s. The latter does not have the surround flag, but when forcing Pro-Logic decoding on there is ample surround activity, suggesting it probably should have been.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is a corker. Not as much surround presence as I was expecting given the couple of extended concert scenes throughout, but it offers plenty of dynamic range across the front speakers, with excellent separation and some really solid low end. The bass is especially prominent and rich. Dialogue levels are excellent with no apparent audio sync issues.

    There's plenty of music present throughout the soundtrack. Both national and international artists get a whirl. Talent like AC/DC (they get a couple of songs, but the opening performance of High Voltage is a highlight),  The Specials, George, Travis, You Am I, and The Superjesus.

    As mentioned, there's not as much surround use as I anticipated, but the subwoofer certainly receives a decent workout on numerous occasions. A few low-flying aircraft sounds, see the best example at 6:27, and when the band cranks it up in the opening and closing concert scenes.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

   This release is almost as bare-boned as the skeletal looking Tanya played by Pia Miranda. No extras at all.

    This title is yet to be released in Region 1.

     Garage Days is an enjoyable romp, though at times it is a somewhat unconvincing story. The visual style of the film is the sure winner, which more than makes up for the lack of believability offered by the lead characters.

    The video quality is excellent, as is the audio.

    There are no extras in this extremely bare-bones rental-only release.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall