Lano & Woodley: The Island (2005)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Lano & Woodley Featurette-The Lano & Woodley Story Featurette-Making Of Featurette-Building The Island
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	54:57
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Simon Francis
Studio Distributor	Liberation Music	Starring	Colin Lane Frank Woodley
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Colin Lane Frank Woodley Adrian Rostirolla

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Alternate Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    As I write this review, the Australian comedy duo of Lano & Woodley are about half way through their final theatrical production, aptly named Goodbye. After twenty years of wooing audiences in Australia and around the world, Colin Lane and Frank Wood (Woodley) have decided to go their separate ways.

    In their twenty-year career, Lano & Woodley have certainly achieved a great deal, both critically and commercially. The duo have played to packed houses at comedy festivals both in Australia and overseas, winning the Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1994.

   Apart from staging many theatrical productions over the years, the duo also produced their own television sitcom in 1997 titled The Adventures Of Lano & Woodley. The renowned BBC comedy director Bob Spiers directed the first series and the show was subsequently sold to thirty-five countries, including the BBC in the UK.

    Even though Colin and Frank will continue to perform in their own right, their comedy partnership as Lano & Woodley will be sorely missed and will leave a void on the Australian comedy landscape for some time.

    The Island is one of Lano & Woodley's more recent theatrical productions, touring the country in 2004. The production features an innovative staircase, which in itself takes on many different roles during the play. This clever prop helps to maintain the audience's focus on the performers and also provides much of the humour in the production.

   Lano & Woodley: The Island was filmed during the Brisbane theatrical season at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in August 2004. The basic premise of the show revolves around an ill-fated holiday trip to Hawaii, which results in Colin and Frank being marooned on an island.

    The show opens with an ambiguous scene of Colin Lane about to hang for the murder of Frank Woodley. From here the comical story unfolds. En route, their plane crashes into the ocean and Lano & Woodley are washed up and marooned on a deserted tropical island. Many hilarious situations follow as the couple fight and argue their way through their survival quest.

    The show is not entirely regimented in following the marooned plot and there are many hilarious interludes, which includes some audience interaction.

    While there are a few pauses in the show for its presentation on DVD, there is no doubt that the heart of the production is presented. This fact will please anyone with fond and familiar memories of the stage production.

Video

    The video transfer for Lano & Woodley: The Island is quite acceptable.

    The show is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.75:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    As is the case with most filmed stage shows, Lano & Woodley: The Island was filmed on video, delivering pretty good results. Sharpness and clarity levels were generally good. Blacks were varied, with some grain occasionally evident, especially over larger dark areas. Shadows were reasonably good and held a consistent level of detail.

    The limited range of colour used in the production was well balanced on the disc and didn't present any problems.

    There were no MPEG artefacts present. There were no significant film-to-video artefacts and film artefacts were non-existent.

    There are no subtitles available on this DVD.

    This is a single sided, single layer disc, so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio transfer is perfectly adequate.

    There are three audio tracks available on this DVD; English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s), English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) and English Alternate Audio Dolby Digital (224Kb/s).

    The dialogue quality is excellent. I had no problems hearing and understanding any of the dialogue throughout the show. Audio sync also appeared very accurate.

    The music is credited to Colin Lane, Frank Woodley and Adrian Rostirolla. This music is well suited to the vibe of the show and includes a couple of very funny songs.

    The surround channels were used mainly to carry music and audience reactions.

    The subwoofer was used quite frequently, enhancing music and the occasional sound effect.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The selection of extras should please Lano & Woodley fans.

Menu

      The menu is suitably themed, static and is 16x9 enhanced. It features ocean and seagull sound effects. Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) surround encoded audio.

Feature Audio Commentary with Colin Lane and Frank Woodley.

    Judging by a couple of comments made during this commentary, I would guess that this session was recorded in early 2006. Fans should enjoy the banter between Colin and Frank, but unfortunately there isn't much significant information on the production itself. I found this aspect a little frustrating, as they constantly digressed from the topic at hand. Still, it is a very amusing commentary and is well worth the listen.

The Lano & Woodley Story (8:35)

    This was filmed during the theatrical run of The Island, with the staircase set clearly visible in the background. Colin and Frank answer a series of questions about their partnership. As you might expect, this is not a serious question and answer session and most of the comments are along comical lines.

The Making Of The Island (10:22)

    This is basically a continuation of the above question and answer session, only with a slight change to the subject matter. Again, the answers are not entirely laden with relevant information about the stage production and are instead more of a humorous nature.

Building The Island (1:45)

    Time-lapse photography records the stage set up from bare stage to fully working set and rehearsals - all in less than two minutes.

Alternate Audio Track - No Swearing

    This option gives the viewer the ability to cut the swearing from the audio track. Any swearing is simply silenced on the soundtrack, which is so much better than the commonly used intrusive beeping. This clever option also allows a younger audience to view the show without parents stressing too much.

    There is no R1 version of Lano & Woodley: The Island.

    Lano & Woodley: The Island  will certainly appeal to anyone who saw and enjoyed the production live on stage and, of course, Lano & Woodley fans in general.

    The transfers are quite acceptable.

    The selection of extras should please fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall