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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.
The Extra (2005)

The Extra (2005)

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Released 22-Aug-2005

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Main Menu Audio & Animation
Audio Commentary-Kevin Carlin (Director)
Featurette-Behind The Scenes
Featurette-' A Little Extra About The Extra'
Gallery-Photo
Theatrical Trailer
Trailer-Upside Of Anger, Man Of The House, You And Your Stupid Mate
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2005
Running Time 91:20
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (69:01) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Kevin Carlin
Studio
Distributor
Macquarie Film Corp
Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Jimeoin
Katherine Slattery
Rhys Muldoon
Bob Franklin
Shaun Micallef
Kristy Hinze
Tayler Kane
Colin Lane
Raj Ryan
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music Roger Mason


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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

Plot Synopsis

    The Extra is little more than the latest Australian rubbish that our tax dollars have been sunk into. The Extra is a clumsy attempt at comedy starring Jimeoin that oscillates between being an overly-obvious, and unfunny, slapstick piece and a horribly misguided attempt at sentimental romance.

    A friend of mine once said "the only Aussies that we should give money to make films are those blokes who made The Castle". While that's a little extreme, I do take her point. Occasionally our local film industry flashes moments of brilliance with fun and quirky comedies such as The Castle, The Adventures Of Priscilla Queen Of The Desert, Strictly Ballroom, and Muriel's Wedding, but sadly most Australian film comedy is tedious and very unfunny. How the script for The Extra got funded is truly a mystery to me. It's just the latest in a long series of let downs.

    Jimeoin experienced lukewarm success with The Craic a few years ago. His follow-up, The Extra, is directed by Kevin Carlin who co-wrote it with Jimeoin.

   In The Extra, Jimeoin dreams of being a famous and glamorous movie star, but ekes out a living as a movie extra on the set of the sword-and-sandal epic The Eternal Flame III. He befriends struggling actor Claudia (Katherine Slattery), but sadly the film's attempt to create a sentimental romance between the two is completely ruined by the constant (and unfunny) references to STDs.

    The hapless Extra also gets tangled up in a ridiculous caper subplot with dodgy faded child star Curtis Thai-Buckworth (Rhys Muldoon), who is producing a short film/trailer in a desperate attempt to get film financing to pay off some nasty loan sharks.

    Oscillating between overly-obvious slapstick comedy and attempted sentimental romance, it's hard to pick what  tone the film was aiming for. After all, jokes that missed their mark the first time are endlessly repeated, and very embarrassingly, a collection of dated caricatures such as busty blondes and leather-clad gays are rolled out as easy targets.

    The film only manages to provide two pleasures: The first is the all-too-brief moment when it allows the talented Shaun Micallef to perform his impressions, and the second is Katherine Slattery, who makes her feature film debut here. Despite the script and direction, Slattery crawls out of this mire with her dignity intact, and is far too good to appear in this rubbish. I imagine that this title will be quickly dropped from her biography in later years.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Overall the transfer is quite good.

    The widescreen transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness of the image is good, as seen in the cityscape at 22:41. The black level and shadow detail are also good, as seen in the club interior at 26:04.

    The colour is spot-on throughout, and the skin tones are accurate.

    Cheaper film stock appears to have been used, and the image can be quite grainy at times, but there are no problems with MPEG, film-to-video or film artefacts.

    English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are present, and they are accurate.

    This is a single-sided, dual-layered disc, with the layer change placed at 69:01. The feature is divided into 29 Chapters.

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

Audio

    There are three audio tracks on this DVD: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s), and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are fine on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

    The musical score is credited to Roger Mason, and the film features both an orchestral score and good use of some songs, such as Ballroom Blitz.

    As a dialogue-based comedy, the surround presence and activity is understandably limited. The surround sound mix is quite front-heavy, but the rear speakers are used effectively to help carry the score, such as at 16:20, and provide ambience throughout.

    The subwoofer is also utilised to support the score, for example in the night club at 50:32.

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

Extras

    A few genuine extras have been included.

Menu

    With audio and animation.

Audio Commentary

    Kevin Carlin (Director) provides a chatty commentary which identifies some of the actors and locations around Melbourne.

Featurette-Behind The Scenes (13:17)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, this Featurette is a collection of footage without commentary or narration.

Featurette-A Little Extra About The Extra (21:29)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, this Featurette is hosted by Richard Wilkins, and includes clips of Jimeoin on the Midday Show in the late 1980s, as well as clips from The Craic and The Extra.

Photo Gallery

    A slide show of photographic stills.

Theatrical Trailers

R4 vs R1

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

    The Extra does not appear to have been released on DVD in Region 1.

Summary

    You'll yawn a lot more than laugh.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is also good.

    The extras are genuine.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Brandon Robert Vogt (warning: bio hazard)
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-535, using S-Video output
DisplayGrundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationSony STR DE-545
SpeakersSony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer

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