Chain of Fools (2000)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Listing-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer-(2:04)
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	94:25
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Traktor
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Steve Zahn Salma Hayek Jeff Goldblum Elijah Wood David Cross Tom Wilkinson Orlando Jones Kevin Corrigan David Hyde Pierce Lara Flynn Boyle
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	David Hughes John Murphy

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Swedish Finnish Danish Norwegian Polish Czech Hungarian Turkish Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes, frequent
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I'd like to say something nice about this movie, but it's hard - there's not a lot in this movie that's much good. Well, there are fragments that are entertaining, but they're disconnected and, well, fragmentary.

    This movie feels like a Pulp Fiction knock-off. There's no similarity of plot, but that's what it feels like. The multi-layered flashbacks, odd coincidences, and general aura of strange things going on are what evokes this feeling.

    It was directed by Traktor - I thought that was a strange name for a director, but then I discovered that this is not a single person, but rather a team of five directors, and some others. This team has produced hundreds of TV commercials, but this is their first movie. I think this explains some of the strange things about this movie - it feels a lot like a connected series of commercials, more than a single coherent story.

    There are some recognisable actors in this cast - Steve Zahn plays the lead, a barber called Kresk, but there are more recognisable faces among the supporting cast: Jeff Goldblum as Avnet, Salma Hayek as Sergeant Kolko, Lara Flynn Boyle as Kresk's ex-wife Karen, David Hyde Pierce as Kerner. And the most topical of all, Elijah Wood as Mikey - he's the character I liked more than most, an intense 17 year-old hitman. Salma Hayek's character is a detective sergeant, but she (the character) has also posed for Playboy (the photos are carefully arranged...).

    The working title of this film was Shiny New Enemies - the Shiny New Enemies are three very old Chinese coins (supposedly worth millions of dollars) that several people are trying to steal. They are one of the disparate plot elements, which include a hoodlum who keeps getting killed, hitman pride, an illiterate mobster, a transvestite nurse, an overgrown Timber Scout with a belt full of Swiss Army knives, several people whose fathers committed suicide, and a kid who acts like an advertisement for hyperactivity drugs.

    There's nothing wrong with the acting. I think it's a combination of the script and the direction that results in this mess. If you want something to while away an hour and a half, this could do the trick, but don't expect much.

Video

    This DVD is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. According to IMDB, the original aspect ratio was 1.85:1. That seems unlikely, given the framing of the image - I suspect IMDB is inaccurate in this case.

    The picture is sharp and clear. Shadow detail is good, but not wonderful. There are some points where colours fall off into black a little too rapidly. There's no low-level noise in most of the movie, but there is one touch around 70:10, or it may be an artefact of over-compression.

    Colour is well realised, with the occasional really vivid colour in amongst a palette of somewhat duller colours. There are no traces of over saturation or colour bleed.

    There are no film artefacts other than some lines (scratches?) down the right of frame around 38:30. The real issue with this transfer is aliasing. Lots and lots of aliasing. It's distracting. There are scenes without aliasing, but there are about as many scenes with as without. There's not a lot of moiré, and nothing else in the way of artefacts.

    There are subtitles and captions in English, plus subtitles in nine other languages. Both sets of English subtitles are accurate, well-timed, and easy to read.

    The disc is single sided, single layer. That means no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is one soundtrack, in English Dolby Digital 5.1. Not a lot of choice here.

    Dialogue is mostly clear and easy to understand, although a few of the lines delivered by Jeff Goldblum are less than completely clear. There are no audio sync problems.

    The score comes from David Hughes and John Murphy, but much of the music in the film takes the form of contemporary songs (chosen for their lyrics, one suspects). Given that Traktor are known for their MTV ads, this is unsurprising.

    The surrounds are never obvious (no specific directional sound), but they do spread the sound out into a somewhat more enveloping soundscape.

    This is not a heavy action movie - no explosions, and most of the shots fired are through silencers. So the subwoofer doesn't get a lot of LFE work. It does some supporting of the lowest register of the bass, but that's about it.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu is static and silent.

Cast and Crew

    This is a listing some of the cast and crew - no bios, no filmographies, just a single page.

Theatrical Trailer (2:04)

    This trailer tells a somewhat inaccurate version of the storyline.

    This movie hasn't been released (or even announced) in Region 1 yet.

    A mediocre movie given a reasonable transfer to DVD, although spoiled by aliasing.

    The video quality is only fair, because of the constant aliasing.

    The audio quality is rather good.

    The extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall