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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Tais toi! (Ruby & Quentin) (2003)

Tais toi! (Ruby & Quentin) (2003)

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Released 24-May-2005

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Main Menu Audio & Animation
Reversible Cover
Filmographies-Crew-Francis Veber (Director)
Theatrical Trailer
Trailer-The Closet, Safe, Dinner Game, The Secret Lives Of Dentists
Trailer-Osama, Emile, Apres Vous
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2003
Running Time 83:39 (Case: 87)
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Francis Veber
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring Gerard Depardieu
Jean Reno
Richard Berry
Jean-Pierre Malo
Case Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI ? Music Marco Prince


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
French dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    I love a good French farce, and three of the best of recent years have all been written and directed by the same man, Francis Veber. In fact, they are the last three films he has made. Of course, he has been making excellent films for many years, some only as a writer and others as a writer/director. They include films like La Cage Au Folles which has since been remade by Hollywood as The Birdcage. He was Oscar nominated for his writing on La Cage Au Folles and has many nominations and one win in the French equivalent, the Cesars. The three recent films which I referred to above are Le Diner De Cons (The Dinner Game), Le Placard (The Closet) and this one Tais Toi! or Ruby & Quentin. Tais Toi! actually means Shut Up!

    Tai Tois! is a very funny mismatched buddy/caper comedy about two guys who meet by accident in a prison. One is a master criminal and ruthless killer, Ruby (Jean Reno), who gets caught after ripping off his boss, Vogel (Jean-Pierre Malo). He ripped off his boss in retaliation, because the boss killed Ruby's girlfriend, who also happened to be Vogel's wife. The other man is 'Quentin from Montargis' (Gerard Depardieu), as he always introduces himself. Quentin is a large, dumb, very ordinary criminal who just wants to make friends with Ruby. They meet when Quentin has sent every other cellmate crazy with his constant talking, so the police decide to put him in with Ruby in the hope that that will make him talk. When they both end up getting transferred to the mental hospital, Quentin arranges an escape bid, taking Ruby with him. This starts a chase across Paris with both the police, led by Lt. Vernet (Richard Berry) and Vogel's men out to catch Ruby & Quentin. This leads to many hilarious sequences with Ruby trying to get away from Quentin as well as his pursuers.

    This is a lot of fun and features an excellent comedic performance from Gerard Depardieu, seemingly having more fun in this role than any of his recent roles. Jean Reno's role is the less flamboyant one, playing the straight man, however he is also good and very believable as the serious criminal. There is a great scene early on in their relationship where in the middle of a conversation which is already annoying Ruby, Quentin starts to do horse impersonations. The repartee between the characters is excellent and very well written by Francis Veber. The film moves along very quickly from one amusing set-up to the next, never really flagging in pace.

    This film sits very comfortably alongside Le Diner De Cons & Le Placard as a great French comedy. Highly Recommended.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout although there was some very light grain. There was no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was excellent throughout.

    The colour was very good with no issues to report.

    There were some MPEG artefacts to be seen although they were not too bad. There was aliasing such as on a grille at 9:42 and the bridge at 57:03. Jagged edges were also noticeable, however, they were not too distracting. Additionally there was some minor edge enhancement here and there.

    There were subtitles in English which were very helpful considering that I do not speak French. They were in yellow and were clear and easy to read.
    

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

Audio

    The audio quality is excellent.

    This DVD contains three audio options, a French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s, a French DTS Soundtrack encoded at 768 Kb/s and a French Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s. Strangely the packaging only mentions the stereo soundtrack. I listened to the entire DTS soundtrack and compared large sections against the other two. Considering the nature of the film, any of the soundtracks are quite serviceable, however the DTS track certainly does stand out, bringing more clarity to the music and more punch to the action scenes.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync, although obviously, the subtitles were of more interest to me.

    The score of this film by Marco Prince is very nice indeed, especially the tune over the opening credits.

    The surround speakers added a surprising amount of directional effects and immersive atmosphere considering the nature of the film.

    The subwoofer was mostly used for adding bass to the music, however it did add some extra punch to the explosions.

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

Extras

Menu

    The menu included scenes from the film, an intro, music and the ability to select scenes, languages and subtitles.

Theatrical Trailer (1:53)

    A worthwhile trailer with burned in subtitles in English.

Francis Veber Filmography

    Text listing of his films.

Reversible Slick

    Gives you the ability to switch the slick around so that either Tais Toi! or the alternate title, Ruby & Quentin, is highlighted. Otherwise the two sides are exactly the same.

Madman Propaganda

    Trailers of seven other films including both Le Diner De Cons & Le Placard

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    This film does not seem to have been released in the US as far as I can tell but has received a Region 1 release in Canada. This disc only includes a Dolby Digital soundtrack and has no extras. The Region 2 version is virtually identical to ours. You may as well go for the local product.

Summary

    A very amusing French farce starring Jean Reno & Gerard Depardieu and written and directed by the writer/director of The Closet & The Dinner Game (Le Placard & Le Diner De Cons).

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    The disc has a small selection of uninspiring extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output
DisplaySony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-511
SpeakersBose 201 Direct Reflecting (Front), Phillips SB680V (Surround), Phillips MX731 (Center), Yamaha YST SW90 (Sub)

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