Take Away (2003)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain Audio Commentary-Marc Gracie (Director), Mark O'Toole & Dave O'Neil (Writers) Credits-Alternative Credits Featurette-Burgies TV Commercial Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	84:28
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Marc Gracie
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Vince Colosimo Stephen Curry Rose Byrne Nathan Phillips Matthew Dyktynski Brett Swain Tom Budge John Howard Dave O'Neil Alethea McGrath Matthew Green Peter Rowsthorn Andrew Maj
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$39.95	Music	Yuri Worontschak

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	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	1.85:1
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	No

     If you don't expect too much from this movie, it's not without its own silly charm. It's dumb, and it knows it's dumb, and it plays on its dumbness, but it has moments of daggy giggles and wry smiles, and overall, the actors hold it together pretty well.

     Trev (Stephen Curry) and Tony (Vince Colosimo) are fast food competitors whose shops are but one store away from each other. Their competitiveness is generational, as both have inherited their businesses from their respective fathers. Trev is the good old Aussie slob whose father was a hamburger genius, and Tony is an Italian metrosexual devotee of Tony Robbins' motivational courses and has a passion for hand crafted food. Their rivalry is overcome, though, by the imminent threat of the opening of a "Burgies Bar" right next door, and it's a 2 Davids against a corporate Goliath battle as the pair, and assorted sidekicks, join forces to defend their businesses.

     What ensues is essentially a cartoon caper - subtle as a brick through a plate glass window, complete with fart jokes - that is low on credibility and high in clichés - where you know the outcome pretty much from the beginning, but you're more or less willing to take the ride.

     There are no real surprises, and it's really not destined to equal the likes of The Castle or Priscilla when it comes to memorable Aussie comedies, but it's a daggily fun way to while away an idle 80 or so minutes. Just don't expect too much, and be generous with your plot requirements.

Video

     The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced which the box claims to be the original theatrical release format.

     While this film suffers from occasional low contrast, the luminance overall is quite acceptable. There is no low level noise and reasonable grain levels in general and mostly there was good detail in the shadow areas.

     The colours were vibrant and mostly accurate although they had occasional tendencies to bleeding (32:41). Skin tones were overall well represented.

     There seemed to be a consistent problem in this print with the compression, resulting in frequent occasions where nothing in the scene appeared sharp or in focus. At 19:28 and at 53:13 in particular, it was difficult to find any sharply resolved part of the image. This was a frequent distraction and diminished the viewing experience. There was little evidence of aliasing, and other film to video artefacts were at a minimum.

     Subtitles were clean, accurate and timely throughout.

     This disc is dual layered, but I did not detect a layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     There are three audio tracks on this DVD. The default is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. There is also a Dolby Digital 2.0 English track available, and an English Audio Commentary track in Dolby Digital 2.0. I listened to both soundtracks.

    The dialogue was mostly clear and audible, with occasional muffles that did not overly deter from the aural experience. Audio sync did not appear to be an issue.

     The music by Yuri Worontschak included 3 songs that were written by the director, Marc Gracie, and it was clear that they had a lot of fun in the process.

     The surround channels were actively used throughout the presentation, and the subwoofer had quite a bit of work to do, particular in the final scenes, but never overrode the piece.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

     There was a full menu of extras available.

Menu

     The menu design is themed around the movie. It is 16x9 enhanced. The main menu features a custom designed takeaway menu board, which was fun and easy to navigate. The theme from the music plays incessantly (and rather irritatingly) in the background.

Alternate Credits (2.55)

     The main cast introduce you to their own favourite take away haunts.

Burgies Commercial (0:27)

     We'd seen most of it already. Ho hum.

Trailer (02:28)

Director's Commentary - Marc Gracie (Director), Mark O'Toole & Dave O'Neil (Writers)

     A very chatty, blokey, in-jokey affair where the participants clearly have a marvellous time reminiscing about the film. Occasional technical references, location information and goss about cast and crew.

     This disc does not appear to be available apart from as an R4 presentation.

     This film is not a contender for a classical comedy piece, but it's a generally good natured, over-the-top Aussie melodrama, with all the usual suspects and stereotypes emblazoned on the screen. Disengage brain and indulge if you will in some junk food for the mind.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall