The Brush Off (Shane Maloney) (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Sam Neill (Director) Trailer-Murray Whelan Trailers Trailer-Piracy Ad, Happy Together, Tais Toi!
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	90:43
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (54:03)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Sam Neill
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	David Wenham Mick Molloy Deborah Kennedy Steve Bisley Julian O'Donnell Justine Clarke Leah Vandenberg Andrew S. Gilbert Heather Mitchell Bruce Spence John Clarke Robyn Butler Alex Menglet
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Cezary Skubiszewski

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    The Brush Off is the follow-up film to the made-for-television Stiff, both based on the writings of crime/thriller novelist Shane Maloney, and it again stars David Wenham as the bumbling, dishevelled political adviser Murray Whelan.

    Murray and his co-workers at the suburban electoral office are in an uproar when they learn their boss, the very suave Angelo Agnelli (Mick Molloy still looking very unlike Mick Molloy in his expensive suit, braces, and now sporting a furry moustache), has been demoted from the Ethnic Affairs ministry and is now in charge of Water and The Arts. Knowing a little about water (like it comes out of a tap), but next to nothing about the Arts, Agnelli sends Murray down to the new ministry offices to dig around and find out what they are getting themselves in to.

    At the ministry Murray meets all manner of odd people including the department head, Phillip Veale (the marvellous Bruce Spence), and the beautiful but dangerous Salina Fleet (Justine Clarke), the girlfriend of a struggling artist. Somehow Murray hooks up with Salina at a cocktail party later that night and after a little too much bubbly ducks off with her to the botanic garden for a quick bit of passion. But all Murray's fun is disturbed when the intoxicated couple stumble on a body floating face down in the moat of the National Gallery. Further complicating matters is that the body is that of Salina's boyfriend and it appears Murray might be considered a suspect in the young man's death.

    For his own benefit Murray must now investigate why the man died (it appears a suicide from the note left behind - but the police are not convinced), so he can clear his name. His investigations lead to a series of suspect art deals involving a shonky businessman called Lloyd Eastlake (Steve Bisley reprising his Gordon Farkas style role from The Big Steal), Fiona Lambert (Heather Mitchell), a wealthy art dealer and the inner financial workings of both the Labor party and the State Government. If Murray and his boss didn't know much about the visual arts (including puppetry) before they took over, they will soon be up to their ears in it with dodgy investments and fake masterpieces everywhere. On the flip side Murray does get to meet a few new lovely woman and even looks likely to hold down a proper relationship when he meets the delightful picture framer Claire Sutton (Leah Vandenberg).

    The overall production and design of The Brush Off is virtually identical to Stiff, though thankfully this time around the story is a little easier to follow. Wenham again excels as Murray Whelan, with a look that only a mother could love as he bumbles and stumbles his way around the dark underbelly of Melbourne (his effort in breaking out of the old arts centre after he manages to get himself locked in is worth watching this film for alone).

Video

    The video transfer here is virtually identical to the one that featured on the Stiff disc. All up it is an excellent transfer, with no serious issues to discuss.

    It is presented in the widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is also 16x9 enhanced.

    All the vision is sharp, detailed and is consistently good throughout. There isn't a trace of edge enhancement and there are absolutely no problems with shadow detail. There is some grain, but it is well controlled and is barely an issue.

    The colours are excellent, with deep saturation and even and consistent shading. Some of the paintings on display come up especially well.

    There are no MPEG artefacts and video artefacts are also absent. All up, this is a very, very clean image with no problems to report.

    Unfortunately, there are again no subtitles available at all on this disc. This is disappointing.

    The disc is dual layered with the layer change at 54:03.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The exact same audio specifications feature on this disc as they did on the Stiff disc and not surprisingly the audio quality is exactly the same as that effort.
   
    There are two audio soundtracks, these being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at the bitrate of 224 Kb/s that again exhibits some surround activity despite the surround flag not being embedded in the bitstream. This is again a reasonably decent soundtrack with some nice bass, a pretty full and consistent range and clear delivery of all dialogue.

    There is only minimal surround use, while the subwoofer features no discrete use.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio & Animation

Audio Commentary - Sam Neill (Director)

    Not the greatest commentary I have heard, with Sam Neill a little lacklustre in his delivery. Again, much like John Clarke's commentary for Stiff, Neill resorts to a lot of describing what is occurring on the screen, plus a few of the technical aspects of the shoot.

Trailer

    The same trailers for The Brush Off (2:21) and Stiff (2:22) that appeared on the Stiff disc.

Trailer

    The same three bonus trailers that appeared on the Stiff disc. Again the anti-pirate ad that annoys us all when it locks the player at the beginning of many films is included here (0:48). Also included are trailers for other Madman titles Happy Together (1:31) and Tais Toi! (2:01)

      This title has not been released in Region 1.

    The Brush Off is the follow-up to Stiff, the made-for-television film based on the novels by writer Shane Maloney. David Wenham returns as Murray Whelan, the dishevelled and disorganised yet good-hearted bumbling adviser to a minister in the Victorian Labor government. With his boss moved sideways to the Water and Arts portfolio, Murray stumbles on a possible art fraud involving the Labor party and the government, while falling under the charms of a couple of new women. The screenplay adaptation is again handled very well by John Clarke with the directorial duties now handled by Hollywood A-list star Sam Neill.

    The video quality is excellent, while the matrixed surround audio does the job well.

    The extras are limited on this disc, but more are available on a bonus disc if you purchase the title in the boxset with another Whelan film - Stiff.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall