Bad Eggs (2003) |
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Bad Eggs (2003) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Menu Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-Rain Audio Commentary-Director's Commentary Audio Commentary-Cast Commentary Featurette-Over Easy: On Location With Bad Eggs Deleted Scenes-1 Storyboards Gallery-Poster-15 Gallery-Fake Newspapers (15); Miscellaneous (13) Theatrical Trailer-(3) With Commentary Interviews-Cast & Crew-Soundtrack Demo Short Film-The Last Aussie Auteur |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2003 | ||
| Running Time | 94:18 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (37:24) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Tony Martin |
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Studio
Distributor |
Macquarie Film Corp Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Mick Molloy Bob Franklin Judith Lucy Alan Brough Marshall Napier Steven Vidler Nicholas Bell Shaun Micallef Robyn Nevin Bill Hunter |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music |
David Graney Clare Moore |
| 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 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| 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, a few written jokes here and there. | ||
After Mick Molloy’s last outing in the rather amusing lawn bowls movie Crackerjack, it somehow seems appropriate that he be cast as a Melbourne cop amongst a bunch of dirty cops in the middle of a conspiracy.
The plot of Bad Eggs is fairly simple. Officer Ben Kinnear (Mick Molloy) and his partner Mike Paddock (Bob Franklin) are part of an elite police investigative branch known as the Zero Tolerance Unit. However, when a Magistrate commits suicide, and these two publicly disgrace the department by gunning his body down in a local shopping mall, Ben begins to suspect they are caught up in the middle of something bigger. While fending off flack from his ex-girlfriend and forme ZTU member Julie Bale (Judith Lucy), now a journalist with the Melbourne Tribune, Ben and Mike attempt to get to the bottom of things before they wind up dead.
If you laughed at the kind of humour they had in Crackerjack, you are likely to get a good laugh out of this. It is nothing too serious, has a go at the pokies again, features many of the same faces, and capitalises on its largely D-Gen brand of humour.
My one real disappointment was the ending. After leading up to such a massive conclusion, I was expecting a mockery of various ‘gun ballet’ action movies like MI:2 and Face/Off to bring this story home – especially after all the talk about guns and how good the characters were at using them, and all the heavy firepower that got brought out for the final sequence. Certainly, the ending is inventive in its own way, but after that fabulous opening sequence …definitely a missed opportunity.
For the most part, however, this show plays at its straight-faced humorous side, and does a fine job at being entertaining, with one of the best ‘car chases’ I think I have seen for a while. Move over Michael Bay, all you really need for a great car chase is ... a club lock? Yep, this is definitely one for a beer and pizza night with some friends, and will not fail to bring out the laughs. Check it out.
Presented in 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced, this is the original aspect ratio.
The picture quality is very good here, with well saturated colours, excellent shadow detail, only very minimal graininess, and a nicely defined image all around. Sure, it has its intentional Melbourne dreariness about it, but that just fits with the show as a whole.
MPEG artefacts were non-existent and there were only the faintest of perceptible film-to-video transfer artefacts, some slight moire on grille panelling in the background here and there. But this is me being very picky. Don’t expect to be bothered by such faults.
There was a little bit of dirt on the print, and the odd small hair, but nothing majorly distracting, although I did pick up a slight flicker in the lighting contrast in the background of some shots.
Subtitles are available in English for the Hearing Impaired only. They are yellow with a black border, and do not seem to substantially deviate from the actual dialogue.
The dual layer pause is at 37:24. It occurs during a fade-to-black and is very easy to miss.
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Audio is available in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround and 2.0 Dolby Stereo. The 2.0 Stereo track does what it does without being stand-out in any respect.
As for the 5.1 Dolby Digital track, dialogue is clear and easy to understand throughout, and there are no audio sync problems.
The score by Dave Graney and Clare Moore is quirky and catchy and suits the film well.
While the 2.0 Dolby Stereo track was completely front driven, the 5.1 Dolby Digital track made good use of the surrounds for directional cues, including some use of the rears to help out with sound effects and round out the music.
The subwoofer was used to give depth to the noise of vehicles, most notably trains drowning out the conversation in one particularly amusing scene, gunshots and the odd explosion.
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All menus are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, and generally have a 2.0 Dolby Stereo audio track.
Presented in 2.0 Dolby Stereo, Martin’s commentary rollicks along at a fine pace, and what he says is fairly interesting, including some humorous behind-the-scenes stories and how certain things got to be the way they are in the movie. He is joined along the way by Gary McCaffrie (2nd unit director), Sancia Robinson (actress), and Greg Sitch (producer).
Presented in 2.0 Dolby Stereo, this track has Tony Martin again, this time accompanied by Mick Molloy, Judith Lucy and Bob Franklin, who are all joined at various points by Pete Smith, Alan Brough, Shaun Micallef and Bill Hunter. These guys play very well against each other and the track is good for a chuckle or two.
Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Stereo, this is pretty much an entire film on its own, and is an absolute pisser. A real stand out behind the camera is Bob Franklin, whose self-deprecating and smart-ass comments never failed to get a chuckle out of me.
Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Mono, this is an absolutely hilarious short film done by the old D-Gen gang for The Late Show, directed and starring Tony Martin.
Presented in 1.85:1, Letterboxed, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Stereo.
Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Stereo, this is a set of storyboards Tony Martin drew for various scenes in the movie.
Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Stereo, there are three galleries:
Presented in 1.85:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Stereo, this is a series of interviews with Tony Martin, Dave Graney and Clare Moore, the latter two of who wrote and performed the score for the movie.
Presented in 1.85:1, Letterboxed, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Stereo, there are three trailers here:
This is the ‘puddle’ Dolby Digital trailer. I might be getting a touch impatient in my youth, but in my opinion, yeah whatever. Fast forward.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
As yet, this movie has not made it to R1 on DVD.
Bad Eggs is quite an amusing straight-faced crime romp with a distinctly Australian flavour, very much in the D-Gen vein. While not brilliant, it definitely has its moments and will brighten up any beer and pizza movie night.
The video is well above average.
Sound is very good.
The extras are exceptionally good.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Panasonic DVD-RV31A-S, using S-Video output |
| Display | Beko 28" (16x9). This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. |
| Amplification | Marantz SR7000 |
| Speakers | Energy - Front, Rear, Centre & Subwoofer |