Bootmen (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	89:03
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Dein Perry
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Adam Garcia Sophie Lee Sam Worthington
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	Cezary Skubiszewski

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The first thing you notice about this movie as you are watching it is the number of clichés. Although the tap dancing is done well, with just a hint of homophobia thrown in, it is still a fairly esoteric dance form to base an entire movie around. The script really motors along without too much time taken to develop any of the characters more than superficially, and with most subplots left to dangle without any conclusion. It might be said that this is a set of dance routines woven into a script and made into a movie. But don't be too discouraged - lightweight it may be, and given Perry's background in dance you'd expect nothing less than a full-on dance bonanza, but it still entertains for the full eighty-nine minutes.

    The movie is about two brothers, Sean (played by Adam Garcia) and Mitch (Sam Worthington) who both work at the local steel mill in Newcastle. Sean wants to escape the mill and after an audition at his old tap school, lands a job in a Sydney musical. Mitch also has plans to escape the mill and although also an accomplished tap dancer, his dream is of owning his own truck which he's helping along by stealing cars and selling the parts. This brings him to the attention of the local hoods with whom the brothers have several run-ins. The love interest is played by Sophie Lee (The Castle) as Linda, a local hairdresser, and it seems that both brothers have the hots for her, but she's only got eyes for Sean (but naturally Mitch isn't having a bar of that).

    After blowing off his Sydney opportunity with a well-aimed punch to the star of the show (played by Perry in a cameo role), Sean comes back to Newcastle to find Mitch has been 'boffing' his woman, causing the mandatory rift between the brothers. Sean reluctantly resumes his job in the mills, only to find that the mills are to be closed down. Sensing an opportunity, he decides to put on his own show so that they can use the money to buy computers and retrain the workers, an idea which his father Gary (Richard Carter), the epitome of Newcastle manhood (he likes nothing more than drinking beer and watching rugby), has problems accepting. After all, real men don't wear tap shoes and prance around like homo's in his world!

    From this point on there is more tap-dancing and less plot, except for a rather obvious run-in with the local hoods. Forget the storyline, it isn't going to strain your brain with twists, its towering intellectual content or the depth of its characterizations. You aren't going to see any Academy Award stuff here, but what you do get is some breathtaking scenery and some high energy tap-dancing routines with heavy boots and metal taps. All-in-all, Bootmen is a movie light on plot, long on dance but still reasonably entertaining.

Video

    The aspect ratio is correctly framed at 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness is as good as I've seen in a long time. There is some very, very minor evidence of edge enhancement. The shadow detail is superb with fine line and background detail being as good as I've seen in any movie so far on DVD. Grain and low level noise were non-issues as you'd expect on such a recent vintage movie.

    The colour is probably the best feature of this disc. The colour palette used was superb. Panoramic views offer dying suns in glorious red, daytime skies in brilliant blue with white clouds, while interior shots offer glints of gunmetal and rust. Add to this skin tones, which look totally natural and you have a superb effort all round.

    A couple of minor artefacts spoil what would have otherwise been a reference quality video transfer. There is some minor aliasing at 17:23 (white line on road) and a couple of other incidents crop up later in the movie. Overall, they are relatively minor, albeit visible. There were no film artefacts noted until 66:32 when an obvious artefact occurs right next to Adam Garcia's right eye. It is very noticeable due to its location and thereafter there are some other minor flecks and scratches that become visible.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The only audio track on offer was in Dolby Digital 5.1 and in English. It used a bitrate of 384 kilobits per second and since nothing else was on offer this was what I listened to.

    The dialogue often sounded hollow from the centre speaker. Although the audio sync appeared spot on, the hollowness made it hard to understand what was being said. Subtitles would have been helpful.

    The music was quite well-handled. Composed by Cezary Skubiszewski (Wog Boy, Sensitive New Age Killer) my feeling was that it was designed around the dancing enabling it to mesh with the storyline tightly. Several choreographed sequences were accompanied by excellent toe-tapping sounds that had me wishing I could dance (for all of about 30 seconds). My only complaint was that the music for the finale was fairly tame and a little boring.

    A minor disappointment was that the surround channels didn't get much more than redirected sound effects and music. They rarely kick in with anything more and didn't add the sense of vibrancy that the movie cried out for. Shoes with metal taps on steel plates would have made awesome surround channel effects, especially since the actors often performed routines from disparate locations. The end scene crowd noises are probably the most pronounced activity the rears get in the whole movie.

    Even more of a disappointment was the activity in the subwoofer. There were a myriad of occasions that screamed out for the deep bass rumble that only the LFE can deliver (especially with the band Sandercoe beating out a fairly heavy beat in a lot of scenes), but most times it barely trembled in response. A rather disappointing facet of the sound experience overall.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The video is sumptuous and almost of reference quality, worthy of our preferred media in all aspects.

    The audio was fairly flat and rather poor in comparison. A much better sound is needed for a 5.1 disc with more bite and clarity to it.

    There are no extras or subtitles (naturally) since it's a Rental Only disc at this time.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall