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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Bait (2000)

Bait (2000) (NTSC)

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Released 15-Aug-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Main Menu Audio
Filmographies-Cast
Listing-Crew
Audio Commentary-Jamie Foxx (Actor)
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 119:05 (Case: 115)
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Antoine Fuqua
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Jamie Foxx
David Morse
Doug Hutchison
Kimberly Elise
David Paymer
Mike Epps
Robert Pastorelli
Jamie Kennedy
Case Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI $36.95 Music Mark Mancina


Video (NTSC) Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures Yes
Subtitles English
French
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Every now and then you come across a bit of a gem in the rough. Bait is such a gem, although I guess I shouldn't have been too surprised at this. The director of this movie, Antoine Fuqua, whose previous offering was The Replacement Killers, has fashioned another excellent movie that was enjoyable both from a reviewing and viewing point of view.

    Bristol (Doug Hutchinson), a former government employee about whom we learn surprisingly little during the movie except that he's cold, calculating, a computer genius and has a gripe with his former employers, is robbing the Federal Gold Reserve of $42 million in bullion. Jaster (Robert Pastorelli), his partner, who suffers from a heart condition, is freaked out when Bristol brutally executes the guards who are bound and gagged and takes off with the gold leaving Bristol empty-handed and naturally aggrieved.

    Cut to Alvin and Stevie Sanders (Jamie Foxx and Mike Epps respectively) who are also in the midst of a robbery, only this time a little bit on the low-tech side. They have stolen a load of prawns and are trying to escape from an angry guard dog. Alvin is caught and incarcerated after his story of being chased by angry midgets is unravelled when he is found to be harbouring a prawn on his person. During his stay in jail, he is paired with Jaster who is arrested after being caught driving under the influence. During the time he spends with him, Jaster offers Alvin a clue to where he's hidden the gold - "Brooklyn Zoo, there's no place like home" - which means nothing to Alvin.

    Enter Agent Edgar Clenteen (David Morse), a hard-nosed, unsympathetic agent for the Treasury department who is also aggrieved due to the cold-blooded murder of the guards. He has his sights set on the mysterious Bristol, the mastermind of the robbery, and on the retrieval of the gold. After interrogating Jaster, who suffers a heart attack and dies without revealing anything, he turns his attention to Alvin, who tells him what Jaster told him, but he comes up empty.

    It's 18 months later and Clenteen is still chasing his man, but now he has a plan to lure the elusive Bristol out into the open using Alvin as his bait. Implanting a homing device with both location and audio abilities into his jaw, he has Alvin released from prison and onto the street, then supplies him with enough money to keep him out of trouble after Alvin complicates matters by nearly getting arrested. Slowly Alvin begins to realise there is something amiss as Bristol closes in on him while Clenteen attempts to keep him under close surveillance.

    There is some occasional deadpan humour in this film and for the most part it's not your usual fare which makes it more enjoyable. David Morse is excellent as the driven Clenteen, Hutchison makes a very decent criminal mastermind up until the end and Foxx is a most surprising choice as the reluctant hero of the piece, but carries it off with some aplomb. The rest of the cast make this a very decent movie which only fell on its face with the silliness of the ending.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This is one of the better transfers I've seen for a while and apart from a few minor defects this could have almost been of reference quality. One issue to note: the cover proclaims this as an NTSC Region 4 disc, so although it played fine on my equipment please be aware that you need NTSC-compatible equipment in order to view this properly.

    The original theatrical aspect ratio is listed as 2.39:1. This transfer is in 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness is exemplary in this transfer, with fine detail - crisp and precise. If there was any edge enhancement used it was very minimal and I couldn't produce an example worthy of note. A lot of the movie was shot at night with plenty of darker scenes on offer but the shadow detail is excellent. Much of the background detail is very clear. With grain being almost non-existent and no low level noise on offer this was a superb transfer all round.

    The colour is excellent with a vibrant palette in use. Skin tones are clean and precise and there is subtle use of 'cold blue' lighting to augment darker scenes giving them an eerie look. There were no visible signs of oversaturation or colour bleed.

    This transfer had minor imperfections only. The usual spate of film artefacts were reduced to a mere handful on this disc. The only ones that were perceptible to the eye were at 3:13, 15:29, 62:21 and are the only really noticeable white flecks. At 100:35 there was some black flecking on the face of the moon. At 24:16 there is the slightest of wobbles in the picture. At 31:32 there is a very slight moiré artefact on the twin towers in shot, and again at 100:35 there is the slightest of pixelization on the stair rail in the foreground and some extremely light shimmering on the track rails in the background. There were other minor defects but they were so insignificant that only the very, very observant will notice them.

    There are only two subtitle tracks on offer on this disc; English and French. The font used looks a little squashed with some letters, especially "c"s but they are easily readable and don't interfere with the on-screen action.

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

Audio

    The opening few minutes of this disc really set the tone for the entire movie. Utilising lots of techno, hip hop, some reggae and blues this is a real potpourri of musical sounds mixed into an often grinding and stylistic soundtrack. The usual array of sound effects were also present and accounted for, which really added to the envelope of sound.

    There are 3 soundtracks on this disc; English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks at a reasonable 384 kilobits per second bitrate and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 commentary track at a lower 192 kilobits per second bitrate. I sampled the French track to ensure that it was at the same level as the English version (it was) and otherwise listened exclusively to the English 5.1 track.

    Apart from Jamie Foxx's speech, I didn't find a lot of problem with the dialogue. The audio sync, as usual, was on the mark.

    The music is by Mark Mancina and is a nice mix of many current musical sounds combined with some old fashioned music. He regularly utilises various forms of driving techno interspersed with much quieter mood music. Often, with only the sound of a double bass and whisks on a drum kit, it is an elegant match for much of the on-screen drama. I found this a very enjoyable soundtrack.

    The most pleasing aspect of this movie was the solid use of the surround channels. Heavy usage with redirected music was augmented almost constantly with the special effects giving the surrounds some of the best usage I've heard in quite a while. The envelope this creates is a real bonus.

    There is some excellent .1 work on this disc with the LFE springing into life often. From the thunderous and throaty grumblings of the 18 wheeler at the start, some nice redirected bass from the music and the heavy 'thwump' of a helicopter overhead, the subwoofer works well during most of the movie without being in any way overused.

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

Extras

Main Menu Audio

    A fairly standard menu and simple to navigate. It has a static picture background with some overlaid music from the movie as accompaniment.

Filmographies-Cast

    A salutary listing at best, it includes filmographies for: Jamie Foxx, David Morse, Doug Hutchison, Kimberly Elise, David Paymer, Mike Epps, Robert Pastorelli, Jamie Kennedy and Nestor Serrano

Listing-Crew

Audio Commentary

    Possibly the most boring and tedious commentary I've had to listen to in many a day. Jamie Foxx has almost nothing to say and after 60 minutes of vacuous drivel I gave up. For those of you who find the man interesting, you may derive some value from his commentary, but he neither has the technical knowledge of movie-making nor the anecdotal excellence to cover even the hour I suffered through. Your mileage may vary!

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    After some research, the only two differences I can see between the R1 and the R4 disc is that the R4 misses out on a dual layered disc and the R1 misses out on the awful NOT FOR RESALE notice at the top of the disc (and on the rear cover).

Summary

    Bait is a superb looking movie with an excellent audio track. The plot was surprisingly good, although I did feel it tended to fall away a little at the end. The extras are lacklustre, but for those for whom extras are mere fluff, this is well worth a watch.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Carl Berry (read my bio)
Sunday, August 26, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDLoewe Xemix 5006DD, using RGB output
DisplayLoewe Xelos (81cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderRotel RSP-976. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationRotel RB 985 MkII
SpeakersJBL TLX16s Front Speakers, Polk Audio LS fx di/bipole Rear Speakers, Polk Audio CS350-LS Centre Speaker, M&KV-75 Subwoofer

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