Ned (2003) |
BUY IT |
General | Extras | ||
Category | Comedy |
Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Director And Actors Featurette-Making Of Short Film-Computer Boy Trailer-Short Film: Liquid Blue Music Video-Jazibel - I Can See Clearly Now Theatrical Trailer Teaser Trailer Deleted Scenes-7 Alternate Ending |
|
Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2003 | ||
Running Time | 78:41 (Case: 80) | ||
RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (64:36) | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Abe Forsythe |
Studio
Distributor |
Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Abe Forsythe Felix Williamson Nick Flint Damon Herriman Josef Ber Michala Banas Caitlin McDougall Jeremy Sims |
Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
RPI | $39.95 | Music |
Gerry Hale Willy Zygier |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Auto Pan & Scan Encoded |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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 | Yes, outtakes roll for almost the entire credits. |
The comedy of Ned is neither witty nor intelligent - this is toilet humour. Now there is nothing wrong with toilet humour if it is done well, and Ned is not too bad in comparison to the rest of the genre - there is plenty of potential here, and at least it's Australian. Written, directed by, and starring Abe Forsythe (noted for winning the Tropicana award at Tropfest when he was just 16 years old), Ned tells the story of how a young Ned Kelly - son of Irish immigrants - wanted nothing more than to become a famous magician. In pursuit of his dream, he leaves his family home and travels to Glenrowan where he joins the Hughes gang in order to finance his magic show. The Hughes gang is a dysfunctional group of men, lead by Dan Hughes (Nick Flint) who suffers from a combination of syphilis and a major inferiority complex. In addition there are Joe Byrne (Josef Ber), a crossdresser who dreams of having a sex-change operation, and Steve Hart (Damon Herriman), a violent man with many issues (and a strong desire to be shot in the face). Ned and the gang proceed to rob the Glenrowan bank (many times), and attract the attention of the tyrannical Irish hating (and hamster obsessed) Governor Sinclair (Felix Williamson) who sets off with his posse of henchmen and the strangest Aboriginal tracker ever in an attempt to capture Ned Kelly and his gang (or is it Dan Hughes' gang?) once and for all.
This film is not bad for what it is, but cannot avoid becoming very much a hit-and-miss affair. There are some jokes that are laugh out loud funny, while others are so far over the line of decency that it isn't even in sight any more. There are those to whom this style of humour will appeal, and for them this film will be even funnier. What Ned does show however, is plenty of potential. In the time that I have been reviewing for this site, I have looked at plenty of movies based on bad-taste humour (among them: The Animal; Dude, Where's My Car?; The Hot Chick; Me, Myself & Irene; Muggers; Not Another Teen Movie; Say It Isn't So; and the execrable Tomcats) and Ned stands up rather well against them. It may not have the polish of some of those films, but the potential of the content is there. This effort is really Abe Forsythe finding his feet in the world of feature film-making, but if Ned is anything to go by, Australian toilet humour has a bright future.
The only real downside to Ned is the number of extended flat spots. There are many jokes that just don't fire, and while those who enjoy the more deranged side of life will probably accept these, the majority will find them simply not funny. Not that everything here is obvious and in-your-face - there are a few jokes that are rather subtle (such as the ghost who doesn't disappear, and the boy-band posing of the Governor's henchmen), and these moments can be quite rewarding for those who are paying attention (watch for the hamster as the Governor and his henchmen approach the leprechaun - it's priceless). It should be made plain that this film's MA rating (for sexual references) is very much deserved - there is plenty of swearing, and the sexual references can be quite crude. Additionally, there are many, many, gay references in this film - as Abe Forsythe says during the commentary "every character in this film is gay", and he's right on the money as far as their behaviour is concerned. Those who may find themselves offended by that sort of portrayal (from either perspective) are advised to stay away. Aside from that, if you feel as if you could do with some low-brow humour, and want to simply enjoy yourself, then you could do much worse than Ned. Those who really enjoy toilet humour will love it, while fans of "stupid" comedy will like it. Others be warned - this is probably not your cup of tea.
Presented at 1.78:1, this transfer is 16x9 enhanced. I was unable to locate any information on the original theatrical aspect ratio of the film, but from the framing it would seem reasonable to assume it was 1.85:1.
Sharpness is good, providing more than enough fine detail, although the image still retains a smoothness to it which is not necessarily a bad thing. There is plenty of background grain, but it is almost always light, and only really becomes obvious on a few occasions, such as at 9:26. Shadow detail is excellent, giving the night-time scenes a very good depth, while still holding deep, rich blacks. There is no low-level noise present.
Colour representation is a little washed out in bright light, or dull in normal light, but this is entirely on purpose as the director and cinematographer both talk about wanting to make the look of the film "dirty" and "real" so the humour would be all the more obvious.
There is a small amount of pixelization in the background during a very few periods of grain, but for the most part there are no compression artefacts, film-to-video artefacts, or film artefacts at all. This is easily one of the cleanest transfers I have seen. The only downside is that there is quite a bit of edge enhancement with fairly obvious halos for much of the film (an example can be seen at 25:44). This is compounded by the decision to shoot much of the night-time action with very bright backlighting, leading to further haloing (and this time not induced by any post processing).
There are no subtitles on this disc.
This is an RSDL formatted disc with the layer change taking place at 64:36 during Chapter 8. It is very well placed, coming right on a static image with no sound. Only the fact that the image seems to pause for a hair too long gives away its placement.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
There are three audio tracks present on this disc. The first two are the original English dialogue, in both Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 448 Kbps) and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (at 224 Kbps). The third is the English audio commentary track, in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo (at 192 Kbps). Note that the 2.0 stereo soundtrack is not flagged for surround decoding, but can definitely take advantage of it.
Dialog is clear and easy to understand at all times. Audio sync does slip out occasionally, but is only obviously poor close to the start at 8:08.
The music is a combination of score from Gerry Hale and Willy Zygier and a number of most definitely non-period pieces (well, unless Human Nature were actually formed in the late 1800s). The score is quite good, and does its job well, while the use of rather anachronistic pieces from time to time are generally for more comedic value, coming off with mixed success.
Surround presence is fairly good, containing plenty of score, and quite often directional sound effects. The surrounds do tend to go quiet from time to time, and carry little in the way of ambience, but all up, this is a pretty good effort.
The subwoofer is well used where needed, and never overstays its welcome.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The video quality is excellent, with only a little too much grain, and an oversupply of enhanced edges causing any issues.
The audio quality is also very good, although the soundtrack does compress down to be very frontal from time to time.
The extras are numerous, and surprisingly quite interesting. A worthwhile package.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-555K, using Component output |
Display | Loewe Xelos 5381ZW. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Onkyo TX-DS787, THX Select |
Speakers | Rochester Audio Animato Series (2xSAF-02, SAC-02, 3xSAB-01) + 12" Sub (150WRMS) |