DVDfever.co.uk - Is Anybody There? Blu-ray reviewDVDfever.co.uk - Charts, News and Reviews of Blu-rays, DVDs, Games, CDs, Hardware, Laserdiscs, Cinema Films & more
(Boy A, The Dangerous Husband, Intermission, Is Anybody There?, TV: Celebration, Come and Go)
Producer:
David Heyman, Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub
Screenplay:
Peter Harness
Music:
Joby Talbot
Cast :
Clarence: Michael Caine
Edward: Bill Milner
Mum: Anne-Marie Duff
Dad: David Morrissey
Ena: Thelma Barlow
Tanya: Linzey Cocker
Elsie: Rosemary Harris
Mr Kelly: Ralph Ineson
Mavis: Angie Inwards
Vicar: Miles Jupp
Reg: Leslie Phillips
Lilian: Sylvia Syms
Bob: Peter Vaughan
As Is Anybody There? begins,
an old man called Arnold dies in a seaside nursing home.
Edward (Bill Milner) had the room bugged and recorded the conversations that went
on in there, as well as Arnold's heavy breathing just before he passed away. Clearly not all there and trying to
establish his own early version of Most Haunted, he is then seen walking down the road with headphones on
- not playing music, but the sound of the heavy breathing, at which point he steps into the middle of the road and
causes retired magician Clarence's (Michael Caine) van to crash.
Clarence then moves into the home and both he and Edward do not get on at first, partly because Clarence takes Arnold's
room and it used to be Edward's, but the paying guest takes precedence. By the time 15 minutes of the film has passed,
Clarence has tried to kill himself in his van with carbon monoxide poisoning but, of course, you know they're going
to get on more, once they've resolved their diffrences, though.
Is Anybody There? is set between Christmas 1986 and early 1987, for the most part, but it feels much more '70s
than that, since although the decor of some homes were still quite dated in the '80s, they weren't so bad that everyone
was still wearing plenty of brown clothes, certainly I wasn't as a kid, so why is Bill Milner?
Overall, the film meanders a bit too much at times and needs some tightening up. Also, the elderly famous faces are
sadly underused, even if it is all about the relationship between the two leads. That said, there is great acting from
the key cast members - including Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrissey, who are simply known as Mum and Dad
- and also a small role from The Office's Ralph Ineson as Edward's teacher.
Oh, and one niggle - Edward and his Dad go to see Back to the Future at the cinema in 1987. Erm... I remember
going to see it in December 1985!
For the most part, the picture is nicely detailed throughout whether it's conveying the dull interiors of the nursing home,
or the bright outdoors, and the anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen image is well filled.
For the record, I'm watching on a Panasonic 37" Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.
The sound is in DTS 5.1 HD Master Audio and there's some split-surround FX during a seance - which is one of the
meanings of the title in this film - and out on the road, but nothing else.
The extras are as follows:
Interviews:
Various Q&A-style questions with Michael Caine (8:28), Anne-Marie Duff (6:57), Bill Milner (4:38) and director
John Crowley (9:13).
There's nothing particularly revelatory here, and you won't watch them more than once, but they're certainly worth a
look.
Trailer (2:04):
In anamorphic 2.35:1.
The menu mixes footage from the film with a small portion of the theme.
There are English subtitles but the chaptering is, again for Optimum, appalling with just 12 over the
94-minute running time.
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
Blu-ray: 
As Is Anybody There? begins,
an old man called Arnold dies in a seaside nursing home.
For the most part, the picture is nicely detailed throughout whether it's conveying the dull interiors of the nursing home,
or the bright outdoors, and the anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen image is well filled.
For the record, I'm watching on a Panasonic 37" Plasma screen via a Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player.
