The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of Trailer-x2 Audio Commentary Deleted Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	96:02 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (64:55)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	J Blakeson
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	Martin Compston Eddie Marsan Gemma Arterton
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	$39.95	Music	Marc Canham

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

     After meticulously preparing a dingy flat on a quiet street with soundproofing and shackles, two men set about the abduction of Alice Creed (Gemma Aterton). Although the initial plan her abductors, older alpha male Vic (Eddie Marsan) and young schemer Danny (Martin Compston), have is to demand two million pounds from Alice's cashed up father, both have ulterior motives and further connections that the other is unaware of. The straight up kidnapping quickly becomes a three way battle of wills that anyone could win.

     The Disappearance of Alice Creed is an entertaining B-movie thriller with a focus on dynamic plot turns as the motivations and back stories of the three characters are unveiled. Each twist lasts just about long enough for viewers not to start thinking about how silly it is, and on the odd occasion when this realisation catches up with viewers the first rate cast do their best to distract. In the hands of lesser actors the film could have been a real disaster but each of the three, and there are only three actors in the film, capture their characters flawlessly and manage to pull off even the most tenuously constructed parts of the film. And there are more than a few of those. First time writer/director J Blakeson isn't going to fool anyone over his lack of experience, but he shows enough promise that he may deliver more next time if he doesn't try so hard.

     This isn't a film likely to stick in too many people's minds once the curtain comes down, save for any voyeurs wondering what Gemma Aterton looks like minus the clothes and the crude oil, but it is a fun ride for 90 minutes.

Video

     The film is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio and is 16x9 enhanced.

     The video looks good without being anything particularly noteworthy, although given the ultra low budget nature of the film the video presentation is a cut above average. The image is clear and reasonably sharp, although the focus is, noticeably, a little bit out in some shots. The film employs a murky, heavily stylised colour palette and veneer of film grain that looks good in this transfer. There is a good level of detail in shadows. There is no sign of compression artefacts in the video or any sign of film artefacts.

     English subtitles for the hearing impaired are present in the film and appear to be accurate and well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     The film features a choice of English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) or 2.0 (224 Kbps). The audio is clean and well mixed. The dialogue is clearly audible in the mix. There are no issues with audio sync.

     The surrounds are used relatively sparingly throughout most of the film, though in a very calculated manner. Given that most of the film is set in a small apartment there is not a lot of environmental audio mixed in; instead the film makes use of plenty of aggressive pans to the featured audio to create quite a tense, immersive environment. The subwoofer is used well to support this audio environment.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

     The disc opens with an unskippable anti-piracy trailer and 3 forced trailers, which can be skipped individually, before the menu opens. Bah humbug.

Audio Commentary with Director J Blakeson

     Director Blakeson offers a dry, overly factual, commentary that is fairly frank about the production process. His honesty makes for interesting listening at times, but the lack of much terribly exciting to say makes it a slog.

Extended Scene (11:54)

     A short EPK-style "making of" featurette. A reasonable watch, chiefly for its interviews with the cast in which they explain how they became involved with this low budget flick.

Extended Scene (8:36)

     A long extended scene, which is not terribly interesting in isolation from the film and which I honestly didn't really notice much difference in.

Storyboard Comparisons (5:36)

     A featurette that plays a series of storyboards and the resulting parts of the film they became side-by-side on a split screen. Fascinating and just the right length.

Trailers

     The UK (1:37 min) and US (1:14 min) trailers for the film.

     The Region 1 edition misses out on the UK version of the trailer and "Making Of" featurette, but picks up 5 minutes of outtakes in its place. The two versions are otherwise identical. A definite win for Region 4.

     An entertaining enough three-man thriller, which holds together chiefly due to it's stellar cast.

     The video and audio presentation is quite good. The extras are reasonable in number and generally quite worthwhile.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall