Extras:
Deleted scenes, Making of, Teaser Trailer, Special FX and Location Tests, Audio Commentary
Director:
Robert Allison
(Eightball, Short: Grave Matter, Tranquil Repose)
Producers:
Richard Allison and Jack Vine
Screenplay:
Robert Allison
Music:
Sam Yates-Smith and Ryan Burrows
Cast:
Jon: Max Woollen
Claire: Jemma Garrard
Lytton: Nick Kirk
Tony: Chris Eaglestone
Snipe: Richard Allison
Gummer: David Power
Sam: Jon Barker
Cameron: Aime Lumbuyaka
Klaus: Lee Cooper
Darrol: Sam Yates-Smith
Butch: Jack Vine
Eightball is a low-budget movie
and the first feature-length one for writer/director Robert Allison.
The plot is far from an original one as hitman Jon (Max Woollen, below-right) plans to do one
last job before calling it a day, and it involves a cocaine deal between himself and his
best friend Butch (Jack Vine) and three Germans, but then imitation can be the
sincerest form of flattery and we all know of the success that came for Quentin Tarantino
after his feature-film debut
Reservoir Dogs.
was assisted by the existence of Ringo Lam's
City on Fire.
However, a mysterious sniper looms initially out of sight as the transaction takes place
on the beach, and you know it's not going to have a happy ending. Butch ends up dead and
Jon has to put his skills into practice to survive. The sniper escapes, and Jon knows that
he can't just continue to pretend to his girlfriend Claire (gorgeous up and coming actress
Jemma Garrard, right) that he's working in IT and his friends keep 'leaving town'
from time to time.
With help from another associate, Tony (Chris Eaglestone) and two of the best men
for the job, Sam (Jon Barker) and Cameron (Aime Lumbuyaka), the latter with his
home-made super-charged weapons, it's going to take some doing to rid the place of crime boss
Lytton (Nick Kirk), who lights his cigars with an 8-ball-shaped lighter, and who Jon
still has a score to settle from an earlier time when a game of pool didn't go to plan.
Before this is all over, he'll have to rescue Claire from Lytton's kidnapping clutches, engage
in a car-park shoot-out after a romantic shopping trip and have a quick scrap with some
council-estate chavscum.
Although without the special FX of the first film this movie has a comparison with, Eightball
comes across like a low-budget True Lies meets
Max Payne, as Jon swaggers about like
the assassin in the computer games based on the latter character, and there's entertaining use of
slomo and speedup during fight scenes, with amusing sound FX to match.
The dialogue and acting can be a bit like that found in the cut-scenes and CGI of many computer
games - although Jemma Garrard comes across better than most onscreen - and don'tcha just know it
when Jon's got a '555' phone number. I also like the way when Claire discovers what he's really
been doing for a job, after the car park incident, she just shuts the door in his face in the flat,
at first, as opposed to having a real go at him.
There's a few scenes here which would rival even a mainstream film in terms
of gauging interest and making it a worthy watch. And, if we do get a sequel,
let's hope Jemma gets to go all guns blazing as well!
The film is framed at 1.85:1 widescreen but while the website states the DVD is anamorphic ("enhanced
for widescreen TVs"), the disc I received was not. However, while the picture occasionally comes across
as a little soft, due to the filming on digital cameras and the encoding of the film into Adobe Encore DVD,
what does shine through is that there's great picture composition throughout, combining the juxtaposition
of both fore- and background in shots that require the stylish touch, so director Robert Allison is
certainly confident of the look he's aiming for and is achieving that each time.
The sound is in stereo only, but shoot-outs and special FX come across perfectly well, but a handful of
times I did see that there is some slightly-out-of-sync dialogue.
The extras on this DVD are listed below. Film clips and test footage comes in either anamorphic or
letterbox 16:9, and non-movie content is in 4:3.
The Making of Eightball (13½ mins):
Brothers Robert (director) and Richard (co-producer) Allison discuss how the movie
came to being and there's work-in-progress and other test footage throughout along with
the premiere screening of the movie.
Teaser trailer (1½ mins):
Matted to about 2.00:1, it would've been good to see the whole film in a 2.35:1 ratio
as is possible with digital cameras nowadays.
Special FX test (1 min):
If you go down to the woods today, you'll see co-producer Jack Vine and another crew
member shooting at each other, with slow motion bullets travelling about.
Beach location test (2 mins):
Test footage, as partially seen in the 'making of'.
Deleted scenes (8 mins):
Three scenes which had to get cut, for various reasons I won't explain as they'll spoil
the plot, each with introductions from the Allison brothers.
Audio commentary:
with Robert & Richard Allison and producer Jack Vine.
The DVD was mastered using Adobe Encore DVD which can produce some cool home-made
menus, incorporating a section of music that repeats on a loop. There are no
subtitles which is a shame - these are possible with the program but it isn't
something I've tried yet, although I don't use it a great deal compared to a standalone
DVD recorder I use, turning to the PC to clone the end result to a DVD-R.
Also, for a 70-minute film, 18 chapters are most welcome.
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL
The following is a list of all the Jemma Garrard material online to date :
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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
Eightball is a low-budget movie
and the first feature-length one for writer/director Robert Allison.
The film is framed at 1.85:1 widescreen but while the website states the DVD is anamorphic ("enhanced
for widescreen TVs"), the disc I received was not. However, while the picture occasionally comes across
as a little soft, due to the filming on digital cameras and the encoding of the film into Adobe Encore DVD,
what does shine through is that there's great picture composition throughout, combining the juxtaposition
of both fore- and background in shots that require the stylish touch, so director Robert Allison is
certainly confident of the look he's aiming for and is achieving that each time.