Hoodlum (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	124:46 (Case: 130)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (80:46)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Bill Duke
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Laurence Fishburne Tim Roth Vanessa L. Williams Andy Garcia Cicely Tyson Chi McBride Clarence Williams III Richard Bradford William Atherton Loretta Devine Queen Latifah Mike Starr Beau Starr
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Elmer Bernstein

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/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 German French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Hoodlum is set in 1930s depression era New York and in particular the pro-negro area of Harlem. It is essentially the story of a turf war between a white man and a black man for control of Harlem and the profits from an illegal gambling operation. At the top of the organised crime tree is Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia), the mafia head man who rules New York with an iron fist, keeping all the warring sides from killing each other and the various corrupt city officials such as police and DA's under control with plenty of cash. Unfortunately for Lucky, things are about to get a little out of hand.

    Hard man 'Bumpy' Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) has just been released from prison after doing a five year stretch. Harlem is a bit different from the time he went inside, with the depression hitting people hard. Poverty abounds and people are hungry. But one thing has not changed - the numbers racket. This is basically an illegal lottery that at least gives the people of Harlem some chance of survival should they win. For many years the numbers have been run by the Queen of Harlem, Stephanie St Clair (Cicely Tyson) a hard yet elegant woman, who shuns violence, but has plenty of muscle in her support staff when it comes time to bust a few heads. When Bumpy is released from prison he heads straight to the Queen and pledges his continuing assistance and loyalty. Which is just as well, since competition for the numbers racket is coming and it's not going to be pretty.

    Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth) is a foul-mouthed, uncouth and villainous would-be mobster and a former partner of Luciano. He desperately wants a slice of the Harlem numbers action and doesn't mind who he has to kill to get it. When Dutch uses all his coercive powers on corrupt officials to get the Queen stuck in jail for running an illegal gambling racket, Bumpy is forced to take the reigns of the numbers empire. He pledges to the Queen and all her supporters that Dutch will not get his hands on any of the Harlem action and if blood has to be spilled to protect it, then so be it.

    What follows is an all-out turf war with plenty of guns battles, ambushes, murders, and explosions. The body count starts to rise dramatically and the city officials are starting to get jumpy, threatening the stability of all the city's crime lords. It's at this stage that Lucky Luciano is going to be forced to step in and try to calm things down else his own empire might come under excessive scrutiny from the nervous police and prosecutors.

    Hoodlum is certainly slick looking. The production design is first class, with the depression era New York captured to perfection. This looks much like The Untouchables and certainly adds an air of authenticity to the story. The acting is also excellent, with Laurence Fishburne appearing ice-cool yet troubled in his role as protector and Tim Roth capturing the essence of a murderous foul-mouthed villainous mongrel to perfection. The supporting cast is also first rate. The story is a little tedious in the first half, and the climax is not perhaps as fulfilling as many would have liked, but the performances more than make up for those shortcomings. This budget title is certainly worth a look.

Video

    Presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, this transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    There is some excellent production design in this film which captures the essence of depression era Harlem in a splendid manner. Lots of gaudy colours are coupled with the grey and drab looking streets and surrounds, and these are all shown in what is a nicely detailed transfer that maintains an excellent overall level of sharpness throughout the film. There is no discernable edge enhancement and the level of shadow detail never falls below what is considered acceptable. The amount of grain is kept to an absolute minimum and there is no low level noise.

    The colours are incredibly lifelike, with the contrast between some of the gaudy clubs and the depressed and impoverished streets of Harlem looking a treat.

    I noticed no MPEG artefacts. Aliasing was very well controlled and virtually invisible. There are some film artefacts but they were few and far between for the majority of the film.

    There are plenty of subtitle options and I sampled the English variety extensively and found them around 90 per cent accurate.

    This disc is presented as a dual layered disc with RSDL formatting, with the layer change placed at 80:46. It is very nicely placed and is barely perceptible.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    This disc features five Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, all encoded at the higher bitrate of 448Kb/s. Languages supported are English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Naturally enough I listened to the English soundtrack in its entirety. It delivers excellent separation to all channels with plenty of oomph to support the shootout scenes.

    Dialogue was always clear and easily understood. There were no audio sync problems.

    The musical score is by the renowned Elmer Bernstein and is typical of a 1930s period gangster tale.

    The surround channels were used extensively throughout, mostly for street fill in effects, the several loud gun battles and the odd explosion or two.

    The subwoofer pops up nicely during the battle scenes.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Theatrical Trailer

    Running for 2:00 exactly, this is a fairly slick looking trailer that does provide glimpses of pretty much every major scene in the film, but it is edited in such a way that it does not give away any major plot points. Presented in the slightly modified aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and comes complete with 16x9 enhancement.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on;

• Pan and Scan 1.33:1 version of the film
• Production Notes

    The Region 1 disc misses out on;

• German Dolby Digital 5.1

• Italian Dolby Digital 5.1

• Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1

    Unless the inclusion of a meaningless pan and scan version of the film is important to you, it is hard to go past the Region 4 disc, especially considering the budget price.

    Hoodlum is an extremely well-made mobster tale that is perhaps a little tedious in its delivery at times. In addition to the lavish production design, it is the performances that are certainly the highlight of film, with Laurence Fishburne giving an excellent turn as the famous 'Bumpy' Johnson and Tim Roth proving a more than capable murderous, foul-mouthed villain.

    The video is of a very high standard.

    The audio soundtrack is excellent, with full use of all 5.1 speakers.

    The extra is limited to a trailer on this budget release.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall