Double Take (2001) |
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Double Take (2001) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Action |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-George Gallo (Director) & Malcolm Campbell (Editor) Featurette-Director's Diary Featurette-Clues Companion Storyboard Comparisons-2 Deleted Scenes-5 Extended; 3 Deleted Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Production Gallery Main Menu Introduction |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2001 | ||
| Running Time | 84:32 (Case: 88) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (66:10) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Language Select Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | George Gallo |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Walt Disney Studios Home Ent. |
Starring |
Eddie Griffin Orlando Jones Edward Herrmann |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | Graeme Revell |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 2.0  (192Kb/s)Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English German Czech Hungarian Italian Spanish English for the Hearing Impaired German Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | Yes, Schlitz malt liquor | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, end titles over last scene, voice of | ||
The title of this film - Double Take - is aptly named because nothing in the storyline is what it seems at first sight. Indeed, the plot itself can't quite decide whether it is a comedy, a Hitchcock-style thriller, a road trip, or even a social commentary about class and racism. In the end, the film mixes elements of all of the above - sometimes subtly, and sometimes not.
Daryl Chase (Orlando Jones) is a Wall Street investment banker who embodies the image of the successful black American. He commands respect from those that serve him. His life starts turning upside down one day when someone snatches his briefcase right outside his apartment building. Fortunately, or maybe not, the would be thief is foiled by a street hustler called Freddy Tiffany (Eddie Griffin) who seems to be from the opposite end of the social spectrum. At first grateful, Daryl soon becomes annoyed when Freddy demands money for his effort in stopping the thief. He becomes even more annoyed when he discovers that it may all have been a ruse, for he spots Freddy and the thief conversing afterwards and they seem to be on good terms with each other.
From that moment on, Daryl can't seem to get rid of Freddy. Freddy shows up at Daryl's office, then at a catwalk featuring Daryl's girlfriend, and even when some thugs appear to be wanting to kill Daryl in connection with a multi-million dollar bank transfer that Daryl has discovered recently. This transfer may or may not be associated with a money laundering operation involving Daryl's company on behalf of drug smugglers and Daryl may or may not be implicated in the whole scheme.
Next thing you know Daryl is literally running for his life. His only hope is to make it to Mexico on the advice of CIA agent Timothy Jarret McReady (Gary Grubbs) where the CIA can protect him.
Now if you have been keeping attention you will probably realise it's highly improbable that a man being pursued by thugs employed by drug lords would find it safer to travel across the country into a completely different country which just happens to be where these drug lords are from. And that I suppose is the main fault of the storyline - too many elements of the plot are simply improbable, or illogical, or just plain dumb. And when the film reveals later why it is necessary for Daryl to get to Mexico - the explanation raises even more questions.
Anyway, Daryl flees to Mexico, first on a train, then later on a car. Along the way, he reluctantly accepts the help of Freddy who seems to be tagging along with him. They switch clothes and identities to elude the people chasing Daryl. In doing so, Daryl discovers that people treat him very differently when he is not wearing expensive and smart clothing. What follows is some rather forced scenes featuring Daryl trying to act like a punk and Freddy trying to act posh and sophisticated.
Oddly, I find these scenes somehow offensive. Why would Daryl find it suddenly so natural to "jive" around like he was born and bred in Harlem, unless the film is actually suggesting that all black people innately behave like that and somehow Freddy is awaking the "inner black" within Daryl? And Daryl, who is supposed to be a mild-mannered Harvard educated man, seems to engage in some rather shonky acts - including pushing Freddy off a fast moving train - without even a twinge on his conscience. Does this mean that all black people are inherently evil?
In the second half of the film, the plot tries to turn everything upside down so that you can't take anything for granted. Is Freddy just a low life punk, or is he really a rogue FBI agent as he claims? Are the CIA agents the good guys, or the bad guys? And just who can you trust?
I think the film has a lot of potential, but tries too hard to blend in elements of Shaft, Beverly Hills Cop, Trading Places and Get Shorty together with a Hitchcock thriller. As I've mentioned before, the numerous plot twists leave lots of plot holes and improbable events. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) For example, towards the end of the film, we find that one of the FBI agents turns traitor. But then at the end, we find out that the whole operation is a sting by the FBI to catch the rotten CIA agents in the act. Since the traitor FBI agent would have known all the details about the sting, why would he bother to defect? Also the two thugs who turn out to be FBI agents working for Freddy seem to be very intent on tracing a phone call that Daryl makes to his girlfriend. Again, why would they bother since they can find out where Daryl is simply by contacting Freddy (who has a tracking device planted on Daryl)?
The transfer is in widescreen 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. IMDb states that the film print is 35mm and the intended aspect ratio is 1.85:1 but I suspect that is incorrect as I did not notice any incorrect framing. Also, the audio commentary mentions several times that the picture has been shot in Scope.
This is an excellent transfer, and looks very sharp with high contrast, which seems to be a common look for most recent "action flicks." Indeed, it is very difficult to fault, since the high contrast is achieved without loss of detail or giving rise to visible signs of edge enhancement. The only minor complaint I have is that shadow detail is only about average due to the high contrast.
Colour saturation is pretty much reference quality, although the "Mexican" scenes looked somewhat yellowish (I later found out in the audio commentary that this is intentional).
Video artefacts are fairly minor and limited to occasional moire patterns (such as Daryl's tie on Freddy around 20:52-21:37), aliasing (such as on the railway bridge around 23:52), and minor shimmering (such as around 53:14 and 62:35). I did not notice any significant compression artefacts.
There are a number of subtitle tracks present, including both English and English for the Hearing Impaired, plus a German Audio Commentary track (though sadly not an English one). I turned on both the English and English for the Hearing Impaired tracks briefly, and could not detect much difference between them in during the time I had them on (apart from occasional dialogue labelling). The accuracy of the English subtitle tracks are fairly good, with only the occasional simplification of dialogue lines.
This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL). The layer change occurs around 66:10. It is reasonably well placed in a quiet moment just between scenes. There is a blocky area at the bottom of the screen during the layer change.
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There are five audio tracks present: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384kb/s), German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384kb/s), Czech Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192kb/s), Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192kb/s), and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s). I listened to both English tracks.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track sounds loud and fairly immersive - with more of an "action movie" texture than your average comedy. Both music and foley effects are spread across front and rear channels, indicating that some care has been taken in the mixing process.
Dialogue was very clear and easy to understand throughout the film, even when the two characters are doing their best with "jive talking." I did not notice any issues with audio synchronization.
The subwoofer was consistently engaged, and used effectively during explosion scenes - again consistent with an "action movie" mix rather than your typical comedy.
The audio commentary states that the music score, by Graeme Revell, has a "Hitchcock hip hop with a Spanish influence" style. Well, I am not going to argue with that comment!
All in all I had no complaints with the audio track.
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This disc contains a a very reasonable collection of extras, spread over two sub-menus.
The menus are 16x9 enhanced and the main menu includes an introduction, background audio and animation.
Interestingly, if the commentary track is selected the film starts with a disclaimer still.
This commentary track features director George Gallo and editor Malcolm Campbell doing a scene by scene commentary. They are obviously recorded together as they respond to each other's comments and the commentary is pretty much continuous throughout the film (right till the last few seconds).
I found this a pretty fun commentary track to listen to. They talk about various things including not-so-obvious "clues" that provide hints to the plot twists scattered throughout the film (these clues are also covered in a separate featurette), where they shot the scenes (all the Mexico scenes are apparently shot in various parts of California - mostly around Venice where Orson Welles filmed A Touch Of Evil), and how some of the special effects were achieved (particularly the slow motion bullet and the "glass eye").
This is a "making of" and "behind the scenes" featurette presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).
The featurette includes excerpts from the film, behind the scenes footage and interviews:
The featurette covers the shooting of the "New York" scenes, the emu ranch, the fashion catwalk, the final shootout, and crossing the river into "Mexico."
This is a very short summary of all the subtle "clues" embedded in the film that provide a hint of some of the plot twists to come. It includes an interview with writer/director George Gallo as well as speeded up excerpts from the film. The featurette is presented in full frame (apart from some film extracts which are in 2.35:1 letterboxed) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s).
This provides storyboard and film versions of the following scenes:
This consists of a number of extended and deleted scenes. You can choose to play each scene individually, or play them in sequence split across two groups.
Extended scenes:
Deleted scenes:
All scenes are presented in 2.35:1 (with 16x9 enhancement) and Dolby Digital 5.1 (384kb/s).
This is presented in 2.35:1 letterboxed (without 16x9 enhancement) and Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s).
This is a full frame video consisting of pans over a number of photographic stills taken during the shooting of the film, accompanied by an excerpt from the musical score presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kb/s).
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 (currently rental only) version of this disc misses out on;
The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;
Given that the R4 is rental only, R1 wins by default anyway - but it also has a dts track so it is likely to be better than the R4 retail version.
Double Take is full of plot twists, but can't seem to make up its mind whether it's a comedy, a thriller, a road trip or a social commentary. The video and audio transfer quality for this (currently) rental release are superb, and the disc is full of extras (missing only the dts 5.1 audio track from R1).
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV-626D, using Component output |
| Display | Sony VPL-VW11HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics 16x9 matte white screen (254cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Denon AVC-A1SE (upgraded) |
| Speakers | Front and rears: B&W CDM7NT; centre: B&W CDMCNT; subwoofer: B&W ASW2500 |