Deathcheaters (1976)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary Featurette-Danger Freaks Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1976
Running Time	91:34 (Case: 93)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (56:24) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Brian Trenchard-Smith
Studio Distributor	Trenchard Production Madman Entertainment	Starring	John Hargreaves Grant Page Margaret Gerard Noel Ferrier Judith Woodroffe Ralph Cotterill John Krummel Drew Forsythe Brian Trenchard-Smith Michael Aitkens Roger Ward Wallas Eaton Dale Aspin
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI	?	Music	Peter Martin

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	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Steve (John Hargreaves) and Rod (Aussie stunt legend Grant Page) became best mates when they were commandos in Vietnam, completing all the grisly missions that no one else dared to attempt. Their experience in war gave them a taste for adrenalin that neither man can shake. These otherwise ordinary men have become virtually addicted to pushing themselves to the brink of death through daredevil antics.

    A decade later, back in Sydney, the pair have found a way to make their adrenalin addiction pay off. Together they are "Cunning Stunts", some of the most sought after stunt-men in the business. The military life draws them back however, when the secret service ropes the pair into stealing some top secret files form a crooked Filipino businessman's industrial complex. Making things even harder, the pair cannot bring themselves to kill another man and must accomplish their mission with all manner of stealthy stunts and non-lethal pyrotechnics.

    Deathcheaters is little more than an excuse to string a truckload of Grant Page's gutsy stunts together and a pretty good excuse at that. The story is cheesy, but the layers of macho 1970s cheese brings a retro charm and good sense of humour (much of it at the expense of the marketing black-skivvy brigade). The filmmakers have a lot of fun with the just how corny and stereotypical the characters are while maintaining enough of a serious tone to the story to make the the stunts genuinely exciting every time they come about. It certainly doesn't hurt that John Hargreaves (truly one of the unsung greats of the era) and Grant Page have more charisma between them than every actor in the Australian film industry today (though given the state of Australian film, that probably doesn't say much).

    The stunts themselves are great. Manic car chases with stuntmen precariously hanging on to vehicles (most impressively a home-made dune buggy), running/abseiling down 20 storey buildings, scaling cliffs without safety gear, and plenty of men running around on fire. It is almost as though the crew sat down with a checklist of every type of classic stunt and checked them off one by one. Furthermore, they are well shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer John Seale (this being his first feature film gig).

    Not only is Deathcheaters a great retro fix, it is a top notch action flick in its own right. Fans of pre-CGI stunt mayhem are guaranteed to enjoy this one over and over again.

Video

    The film is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, which appears to be an open matte of the theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video looks excellent for its age, particularly given that the film was very much a low-budget affair. The image is sharp and clear, featuring a mild level of film grain. There is a good level of colour depth and shadow detail. The colours look quite natural, though a mild fluctuation in brightness is occasionally noticeable (e.g. 18:29).

    There are no noticeable compression artefacts in the video. A mild level of small film artefacts are noticeable throughout the film and get more noticeable towards the tail of each reel (around every 20 minutes). That said the dust flecks aren't terribly distracting and only really show the age of the material.

    No subtitles are present for the feature.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer break occurs at 56:24 but was not noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    A single, mono English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps) audio track is present for the film.

    The audio has a mild hiss and crackle, like a dusty record, throughout. The dialogue is clear and easy to understand. The audio appears to be in good time to the video.

    A very bassy rock score by Peter Martin makes for good accompaniment to the stunts of the film.

    There is no surround or subwoofer usage.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Disc One

Audio Commentary with Brian Trenchard-Smith

    Director/writer Brian Trenchard-Smith, executive producer/2nd Unit Director Richard Brennan and actress Margaret Gerard (now Mrs. Trenchard-Smith). The three provide a very chatty and rather interesting commentary, although it does feature a little too much stating the bleeding obvious. Well worth a listen.

Disc Two

Danger Freaks Bonus Film (90:24)

    Danger Freaks, a feature length documentary on stunt men, is included on the second disc in the set. Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith and primarily featuring Grant Page. Presented with video fairly decent video in a 1.28:1 full frame aspect.

    Danger Freaks is quite fun, though terribly dated and features an awful lot of the same footage that was used in the similar clip movie Stunt Rock.

Danger Freaks Trailer (1:51)

    A fairly conventional, and dated, trailer for Danger Freaks.

Madman Trailers

    Trailers for Stunt Rock, Dead End Drive In, Restraint and Scenes of a sexual nature follow an annoying anti-piracy clip.

    Deathcheaters is not currently available in Region 1.

    A mighty fun ozploitation stunt flick.

    The video quality is very good for a 30 year old flick. The audio is very basic and a little crackly, but adequate. The extras are great; a solid commentary and a good extra movie (which could almost have survived as a separate release).

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall