Nice wheels. Dirty deals.
And one mean mother in a kilt.
Distributed by
Momentum Pictures
Cert:
Cat.no: MP165D
Running time: 92 minutes
Year: 2001
Pressing: 2002
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 14 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 2.35:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 9
Price: £19.99
Extras: The Making of the 51st State, Trailer, Photo Gallery,
Production Featurettes, Interviews, Audio Commentary
Director:
Ronny Yu
(The 51st State, Bride of Chucky, The Bride with the White Hair 1 & 2, Chasing Dragon, Freddy vs. Jason)
Producers:
Jonathan Debin, Andras Hamori, Malcolm Kohll, Seaton McLean and David Pupkewitz
Screenplay:
Stel Pavlou
Music:
Headrillaz
Cast:
Elmo McElroy: Samuel L Jackson
Felix DeSouza: Robert Carlyle
Dakota: Emily Mortimer
The Lizard: Meatloaf
Sean Pertwee: Detective Virgil Kane
Arthur: Michael Starke
Iki: Rhys Ifans
Leopold Durant: Ricky Tomlinson
Frederick: Paul Barber
Given the hype and the strength of the cast, I expected big
things from The 51st State.
Elmo McElroy (Samuel L Jackson) is a master chemist who wears a kilt
and can concoct any drug known - and unknown - to man. He's in Liverpool to pull off a drug
deal that'll net him £20 million with the creation of "POS 51", a drug
that comes as a small blue pill and can best be described as being all things
to all people, since it's 51 times more powerful than anything you've ever
tried before.
The deal with local druglord Leopold Durant (Ricky Tomlinson) goes
sour when their business is rudely interrupted by a hitwoman, Dakota (Emily
Mortimer), who takes few prisoners, but leaves along local chancer
Felix DeSouza (Robert Carlyle) who is actually her ex-boyfriend and
the only thing he wants out of it all is two tickets to the forthcoming Liverpool
vs. Man Utd game. With the deal going sour, McElroy needs a new buyer - enter
the offbeat Iki (Rhys Ifans).
Felix visits the dump.... Liverpool.
Other characters thrown into the mix are Meatloaf as The Lizard, totally
pissed off as he was stiffed on an earlier deal by McElroy, Sean Pertwee
as the corrupt Detective Virgil Kane and Michael Starke - aka Brookside's
Sinbad - as his hopeless sidekick Arthur. There's also a cameo for
The Full Monty's
Paul Barber.
Of the cast, the two leads come off best, but still no-one really seems to be
putting in the effort to make themselves seem any different than we've seen
him before. Jackson just tries to be Jules Winfield from Pulp Fiction,
Carlyle just plays the scouse scally, Pertwee grimaces a lot like he's done
before and Starke could easily just pick up a shammy and go back to window
cleaning. Rhys Ifans could phone his "wacky" performance in and there's precious
little for Ricky Tomlinson or Paul Barber to do here.
Add to this a script which starts well but falls flat - especially when you
realise the truth behind what makes the miracle drug - and even at just over
90 minutes in length, it still feels about 20 too long.
Just what is it with that kilt?
On the plus side, there's no quibbling about the sound and picture quality.
It's first rate. A clear, anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen image and both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. I chose the latter as it's invariably
better, with a number of dance tracks playing loudly, each of which are
identified in the subtitles (all films should do this!), in addition to the
usual gunfire and occasional explosion.
The extras begin with a 2-minute 16:9 non-anamorphic Trailer, a
Making Of which lasts just 6 minutes and features the usual mix of
interview soundbites with the cast and crew interspersed with film clips - all
presented in the same way as the trailer and longer Interviews with
Jackson, Carlyle, Emily Mortimer and the director if you want to hear more
about what they have to say, although these only last a few minutes apiece too.
The Photo Gallery is a selection of on-set pictures from the film
set to music, but also twisted and turned about, the latter of which isn't the
way to do it. At least it's 16:9 anamorphic though, but it does last just under
two minutes.
Four Production Featurettes (9 mins) talk about becoming a scouser, dealing
with Michael Starke, Stev Pavlou, the writer and "Dug, a script supervisor
on the edge". The extras conclude with a feature-length Audio Commentary
from the aforementioned writer. All of these are the kind of supplemental
material you'll check out once, but never return to.
The disc just 14 chapters, subtitles in English, while the menus are stylishly
animated but silent.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
