Blame It on the Bellboy (1992)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1992
Running Time	75:16
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Mark Herman
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Dudley Moore Bryan Brown Richard Griffiths Andreas Katsulas Patsy Kensit Alison Steadman Penelope Wilton Bronson Pinchot Jim Carter Alex Norton John Grillo Andrew Bailey Ronnie Stevens
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$14.95	Music	Trevor Jones

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

    Melvyn Orton (Dudley Moore) is flying to Venice to find a property for his boss to purchase. Maurice Horton (Richard Griffiths) is flying to Venice to meet a woman picked for him by a dating agency. Mike Lawton (Bryan Brown) is flying to Venice to perform one final job, as a hit man.

    All three men are staying at the same hotel. Unfortunately for the men, the bellboy at the hotel gets their names confused. The hit man is given the wrong target, the man looking for his date is given the name of the real estate agent, and the man looking to buy a property ends up in a villa owned by a mafia boss who thinks he’s trying to kill him.

    The casting is excellent. This is one of Dudley Moore’s last films, and he gives a good performance in it. The interplay between Richard Griffiths and Patsy Kensit is amusing. Kensit plays the role of Caroline Wright, an attractive real estate agent who will do anything for the sale, while a rather overweight Maurice Horton (Griffiths) is pleasantly surprised by the choice he believes the dating agency made.

    Similarly, the interplay between Bryan Brown and Penelope Wilton was good. Wilton plays the role of Patricia Fulford, an English woman waiting for the mystery man picked for her by the dating agency and instead finding that a hit man is far more interesting.

    Babylon 5 fans will notice that the mafia boss is played by Andreas Katsulas, who played G’Kar in the TV series.

Video

    The transfer is quite sharp, however it suffers from a constant stream of film artefacts as well as low level noise and grain.

    The DVD consists of only a single layer, and that layer isn’t even close to full. The movie is short, and there are no extras, but the bit rate is generally quite low. Despite this, there are no significant MPEG artefacts.

    Subtitles are available in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish and Portuguese.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio tracks fare better. There are three tracks – English, French and Spanish. All are in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 kbps.

    The dialogue is clear, and there are no problems with clicks or dropouts.

    The subwoofer is used in the one scene where it is needed.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None.

    The Region 1 DVD does not appear to offer anything extra over the Region 4 DVD.

    I think this is an underrated movie. The cast is able to this movie work. The movie is short, sweet and has more than a few laughs.

    The video transfer is a little bit disappointing, as is the complete lack of extras. The audio tracks are acceptable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall