Club Dread: Uncut (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Jay Chandrasekhar And Erik Stolhanske (Filmmakers) Audio Commentary-Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme And Paul Soter (Actors) Deleted Scenes-With Optional Commentary
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	113:08
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (76:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jay Chandrasekhar
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Elena Lyons Dan Montgomery Jr. Tanja Reichert Nat Faxon Michael Weaver Kevin Heffernan Michael Yurchak Jordan Ladd Brittany Daniel Richard Perello Steve Lemme Jay Chandrasekhar Paul Soter
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Nathan Barr

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary English Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes, including of drugs.
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, out-takes. Not very funny ones, though.

   The set-up goes like this: ageing rocker Coconut Pete (an always fun Bill Paxton) owns Pleasure Island, a tropical holiday resort off the coast of Costa Rica. Now that he’s no longer touring the world with his terrible, terrible music, Pete plays host to hordes of highly-sexed American college students on Spring Break. Assisting him are a bevy of young and (largely) attractive staff members, including fitness instructor Jenny (frighteningly tight-bodied Brittany Daniel), diver Juan (Steve Lemme), masseur Lars (Kevin Heffernan), tennis coach Putman (Jay Chandrasekhar, who also directs), DJ Dave (Paul Soter), and Fun Policeman Sam (Erik Stolhanske), and more and more. This is an ensemble movie, although a lot of the ensemble doesn’t get much to do, since they’re very quickly dead. Soon after the movie begins, three staff members are engaged in the traditional death-inducing bout of illicit sex. And then a mysteriously masked, poncho-wearing figure cuts them down. With a machete! Cool! Or, in fact, not. Anyhoo, deaths and red herrings start piling up thick and fast, and our heroes must find the killer before he (or she!) murders them all.

   All this is meant to sound derivative and stale – it’s an homage, remember? – but it’s surely not meant to be so. And yet there’s scene after scene of cruddy boo-scares, hackneyed mutual suspicion, and meaningless slashings of barely met characters. When we finally find out whodunnit, the answer makes no sense. Maybe it wouldn’t matter that all this is so perfunctory if the jokes were any good. But aside from a sprinkling of good moments, Putman’s dream sequence in particular, most of the film falls flat. It might entertain a bunch of drunken frat boys; but then again, since the movie made almost no money, it might not. In an effort to lure those of us who lose all control of our wallets when promised extra features (or, more aptly, extra T&A), this special Uncut Edition adds about fifteen minutes of cut scenes back into the film. Some of the extra stuff is good. Some does indeed up the breast quotient. But most of the new scenes are as crummy as most of the old ones. When you’re in a hole, stop digging!

Video

   The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

   The image isn’t quite razor-sharp, but it’ll do. A lot of the action takes place at night (snigger), and the shadow detail is up to scratch. There’s no low level noise.

   For such a lush island setting, the colours are a little drab. The opening footage of the island looks gorgeous, but it was actually shot for The Beach. Whether because of poor shooting conditions, or a low budget, or both, the stuff shot for this movie looks a bit cheaper – more like upper-middle-class TV. The only colour artefact I saw was a little bit of yellow bleed on the window frame at 55:25.

   There were no noticeable MPEG artefacts, nor film-to-video artefacts. The film itself is mostly clean, although there are very occasional flecks and hairs. These are much more frequent in the scene at 62:04 for some reason. Grain is quite restrained, except for the shot of a telephoto moon at 23:48.

   There are accurate, readable and well-placed subtitles for all three soundtracks – the film itself, and both commentaries. Well done!

   This is an RSDL disc, with a layer change at 76:40. This is not a great spot, as it comes in the middle of a rather dramatic sentence, just before a scene change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

   There are three audio tracks here: a default English track in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps, and two English commentary tracks in Dolby Digital 2.0 at 192 Kbps.

   Dialogue is clearly and faithfully rendered, except for a little bit of distortion at 42:28 where the on-location soundtrack ought to have been replaced with ADR. There are no other flaws, and no difficulties with audio sync.

   The music is a combination of somewhat generic party tunes, extremely generic slasher-movie scoring by Nathan Barr, and the awful back catalogue of Coconut Pete. It all sounds clear and (in a sense) good. But you don’t want to get these songs stuck in your head!

   The surrounds are in constant use to supply background noise, and are also effectively employed to generate spooky Look-Out-Behind-You! noises, as at 44:05. It's not annoyingly hyperactive, but this is a substantial track for surrounds.

   The subwoofer is likewise given a thorough workout on the many thumps, whacks, booms and meaty slicing noises this film contains. It’s neither too much, nor too little.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This is a richly supplied disc in the features department, although I can’t say I really enjoyed anything on offer here.

Menu

Commentary - Jay Chandrasekhar (Director), Eric Stolhanske (Actor)

Commentary - Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter (Actors)

Deleted Scenes

   The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

• Nothing

   The video quality is fine.

   The audio quality is very good.

   The extras are copious but not great.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall