Garage Days (2002) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Musical |
Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Alex Proyas (Director) Outtakes Deleted Scenes-9 Music Highlights-'Squeeze Me' & 'Master Plan' - Garage Days Band Music Highlights-'Less Than One' & 'After Us' - Sprimp Music Video-Katie Noonan Featurette-Garage Days Backstage Pass Interviews-Cast & Crew-Behind The Garage Doors Interviews |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2002 | ||
Running Time | 101:00 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (67:52) | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Alex Proyas |
Studio
Distributor |
Twentieth Century Fox |
Starring |
Kick Gurry Maya Stange Pia Miranda Russell Dykstra Brett Stiller Chris Sadrinna Andy Anderson Marton Csokas Yvette Duncan Tiriel Mora Holly Brisley Matthew Le Nevez Dave Cotsios |
Case | ? | ||
RPI | $31.95 | Music |
Andrew Lancaster David McCormack Anthony Partos |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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 English Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
Alex Proyas' Garage Days (2002) is a recent Aussie film that poses the question: "What if you finally got your big break and you just plain sucked?"
Egyptian-born, Aussie director, Alex Proyas, achieved some success in the world of music videos, before moving on to the big screen. Apart from Garage Days, Proyas also wrote and directed Dark City (1998), and is best known for directing The Crow (1994). Garage Days looks very different to these very dark movies, and is very different in many other ways as well.
"It's a long way to the top if you want to rock n' roll" (Bon Scott of ACDC)
Set on the grungy streets of Newtown (Sydney), usually around King Street, Garage Days is a rock saga about a Sydney band's quest for a gig and hopefully, a record deal. Set in contemporary times, Garage Days explores a world where pokies have taken over the pubs, and Aussie pub rock has been pushed aside for cheaper recorded music.
Freddy (Kick Gurry) is a singer in a garage band. By day he works in a music store, but by night he dreams of being a rock star. Along with his band-mates, Tanya (Pia Miranda), Joe (Brett Stiller), and Lucy (Chris Sadrinna), Freddy desperately tries to raise money to rent a gig venue, and to make a demo to impress famed band manager, Shad Kern (Marton Csokas). Along the way, Freddy falls in love with Joe's girlfriend, Kate, (Maya Stange), while the other band members also face a few personal issues of their own.
In many ways this movie seemed like the Australian television drama, The Secret Lives of Us, with the odd drum kit in the background. Overall, it is fairly well-acted, and I particularly enjoyed Russell Dykstra's performance as the shonky manager, Bruno. The film is well-shot and edited, and has excellent production values and SFX, with plenty of CGI, funky captions, and fancy cut-scenes.
However, often the story seems to drag. Some of the scenes are far too long, and some of the gee-whiz cool effects get a little tiresome.
Overall, the transfer is excellent.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The sharpness, black level, colour, and shadow detail are all excellent.
There are no problem with MPEG artefacts, or film-to-video artefacts. Very rarely, a few tiny film artefacts appeared, but it is hardly worth mentioning.
Only English subtitles are present, and they are accurate.
This is a RSDL disc, with the layer change placed at 67:52. It was not disruptive.
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The feature only has one audio option: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kb/s).
The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent throughout.
The musical score is credited to Andrew Lancaster, David McCormack, and Anthony Partos. Surprisingly the movie doesn't feature a lot of Aussie pub rock, but rather includes a lot of overseas music of various genres. That said, two ACDC songs feature, which is a nice touch.
The focus of this movie is on the dialogue, and the rear speakers aren't called upon heavily. Occasionally there is some minimal ambience, such as in the pub at 11:34. The LFE track primarily supports the music, such as the deep bass at 14:01.
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Overall |
There are a few extras, which unless stated otherwise, are all presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.
An animated menu.
Presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s), co-writer and director, Alex Proyas provides a screen-specific commentary, in which he discusses what inspired him to write the story. Proyas also refers to some of his other films, and the reception this one got at the Sundance Film Festival. On the whole, I found his commentary to be very dry and uninteresting.
Running for about five minutes, this goof-reel contains a short collection of out-takes.
Nine deleted scenes are included, some of which are extended scenes of those already included in the film.
This extra includes Squeeze Me and Master Plan performed by the Garage Days Band; Less Than One and After Us, performed by movie-band Sprimp; and a music video featuring Katie Noonan.
Running for about four minutes, this extra features Proyas and some behind-the-scenes footage.
Running for about seven minutes, this extra features interviews with some of the main cast discussing their characters.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Garage Days does not appear to have been released on DVD in Region 1.
To be honest, I volunteered to review Garage Days because some of my friends had told me how much they had enjoyed it. While there were some aspects of the movie and story that I liked, overall I found it a little boring and simplistic.
The video quality is excellent.
The audio quality is good, but limited in its presence.
There are a few extras.
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Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
Display | Grundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Sony STR DE-545 |
Speakers | Sony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer |