Formula 51 (The 51st State) (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	88:56
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ronny Yu
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Samuel L. Jackson Robert Carlyle Rhys Ifans Emily Mortimer Meat Loaf Ricky Tomlinson Sean Pertwee Aaron Swartz David Webber Michael J. Reynolds Sonny Muslim Barbara Barnes Junix Nocian
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Headrillaz Casper Kedros Darius Kedros

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.30:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, including drugs
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, something for the ladies!

    What a ride! You can certainly have a lot of fun with a film like this as long as you don't try to think about it too much. Formula 51, which was released in the UK as The 51st State, is a fast paced action comedy reminiscent of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch without necessarily being as good. I have read that Samuel L Jackson so wanted to make this film that he did a lot of work to raise the finance, hence he also has an executive producer credit.

    The story revolves around master chemist Elmo McElroy (Samuel L Jackson), who has been in the employ of a drug syndicate chief called The Lizard (Meatloaf in a kaftan). Early in the film he 'resigns' from his job in the US and goes to England to sell the formula for a drug he calls POS51 to whoever will give him $20 million first. Other characters he meets along the way include Felix De Souza (Robert Carlyle), a local hard man in Liverpool, Leopold Durant (Ricky Tomlinson of The Royle Family) a crime boss, Dakota Phillips (Emily Mortimer) an assassin sent from the US, Iki (Rhys Ifans) a Liverpool drug dealer and nightclub owner, and Det Virgil Kane (Sean Pertwee) a bent policeman. The film is full of these and other quirky and eccentric characters which is one of the main similarities to the films mentioned above.

   Samuel L Jackson seems to be having a great time playing the crazy, golf club wielding, fast driving, kilt wearing main character. He plays the role with his usual aplomb and attitude. Rhys Ifans is also a stand-out as a strange yoga enthusiast and drug kingpin. Robert Carlyle is also good as a character who thinks he is tough until he meets Elmo. Some excellent comedy relief is provided by a group of punks who repeatedly try to attack Felix & Elmo to very little effect.

    This film will not appeal to everyone and has a number of quite gratuitously violent scenes and jokes that are in bad taste. It is also full of swearing, including many people's most hated, the 'c' word.

    For me, I found this film enjoyable and a fun ride, despite lacking any depth whatsoever.

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 2.30:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is close to the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was generally clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. There was some light grain from time to time. Shadow detail was good, however there were only a few dark scenes.

    The colour was very good throughout with all colours being reasonably well saturated and free from colour bleeding. The skin colouring was very natural. The colours were not as vibrant as some films, possibly due to the drab Liverpool setting of most of the film.

    There were a few small specks on and off throughout the film, noticeable when you are looking for them, but they were not distracting. I did not notice any other artefacts.

    There are no subtitles.

    This is a single layered disc so there is no layer change to contend with.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is very good, with continuous use of the surrounds and subwoofer.

    This DVD contains only one audio option: an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand, except for some accents (which was not a big issue). There were no problems with audio sync.    

    The score of this film by Headrillaz , a UK house group, was very fitting for the modern and fast-paced nature of the film.

    The surround speakers were used constantly for directional effects such as bullets and the like. The subwoofer was used to add to the sound effects.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu included a scene selection function but nothing else. It was static and had no sound.

    This is the rental release and so contains no extras, however, it is available for purchase in both Region 1 and Region 2 with significant extras. The Region 2 seems to be the pick and includes a commentary, making of featurette, DTS sound, 4 production featurettes, on set diary, photo gallery and a trailer. We will have to wait for the Region 4 sell-through release to really compare.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The disc has no extras as it is a rental version.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall