Distributed by
Visual Entertainment

Cert:

Cat.no: VSLD 10351

Running time: 94 minutes

Year: 2000

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 9

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Widescreen: varies

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 5

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Documentary, Music Promo, Trailer, Director's Commentary, Picture Gallery

Director:

Martin Dunkerton

Producer:

Martin Dunkerton and Joanna Garvin

Screenplay:

Martin Dunkerton and Nick Valentine

Music:

Julian Stewart Lindsey

Cast:

Matt ("Mystic Matey"): Justin Brett
Julian ("The King"): Daniel Fredenburgh
Anna: Rebecca Cardinale
Chris ("Beercan"): Daren Jacobs

If you've been 'avin it large in Greece over the summer, then Brothers is probably up your street as the winter is looming just around the corner and you need something to remind you of those hazy, lazy days.

There's no well-known faces here and the characters all have names like Tarzan, Mystic Matey, The King and Beercan and the film revolves around a group of men out to take drugs, get pissed and laid as often as possible. Being hardly a rival for the Chippendales you can tell they're not likely to succeed too often, but at least one of them will find love with the sensuous Anna (Rebecca Cardinale), while the rest are left to flounder with their bodily functions.

When it comes to the picture, I have to ask why we've only been given a 4:3 transfer, even if it looks open-matte, while the trailer is in 16:9 widescreen? Zooming the picture in to fill a widescreen TV appears to pose no problems, but of course you'll lose resolution, not to mention the occasional artifacts problems on outlines. The average bitrate is a low and steady 3.98Mb/s.

The sound is plain Dolby Surround and tunes from Fat Boy Slim, Chumbawumba, Blur and Sash!, to name but four, do boom out quite well, but the dialogue isn't always clear enough and has been presented at a recording level that makes you turn it up to hear it, only to do exactly the opposite when another tune kicks in and the lack of subtitles don't help either.

Extras :

You'd usually expect none for a film of this calibre, but we start at the top with a 21-minute Documentary mixing in clips with chat from the cast and crew, the Music Promo for dance smash "It's My Turn" by "Mrs. Judge Jules", Angelic, a two-minute Trailer, a three-minute Picture Gallery with photos faded in and out to the strains of the aforementioned dance tune, while the package is rounded off with a feature-length Director's Commentary.

The menu features the lad from the cover, sans pubes, against a backdrop of clubbers and music from the film. However, whoever thought 9 chapters was enough for a film of this length needs their head read.

So, after you've spent 90 minutes or so watching this disc, the odds are that you'd rather be out following in their footsteps than sitting through this rubbish again, which just isn't particularly funny and even if you don't make it as far as Greece, the twenty quid you'll save by not buying this will be better spent getting shit-faced instead.