The Fabulous Baker Boys

Distributed by

Cat.no: CCD 8233

Cert: 15

Running time: 109 minutes

Year: 1989

Pressing: 2000

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 16 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Widescreen: 1.77:1

16:9-enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 5

Price: £9.99

Extras : Scene index, Trailer, Featurette, Interviews

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Director:

Steve Cloves (H)

Producers:

Paula Weinstein and Mark Rosenberg

Screenplay:

Steve Kloves

Music:

Dave Grusin

Cast:

Jack Baker: Jeff Bridges (Against All Odds, American Heart, Arlington Road, The Big Lebowski, Blown Away, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Fearless, The Fisher King, Heaven's Gate, King Kong, The Last Picture Show, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Vanishing (1993), White Squall, Wild Bill)
Susie Diamond: Michelle Pfeiffer (The Age of Innocence, Batman Returns, Dangerous Liaisons, Dangerous Minds, Deep End of the Ocean, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Frankie and Johnny, Grease 2, Ladyhawke, A Midsummer Night's Dream, One Fine Day, The Russia House, Scarface, Tequila Sunrise, A Thousand Acres, To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday, Up Close and Personal, The Witches of Eastwick, Wolf)
Frank Baker: Beau Bridges (The 5th Musketeer, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Rocketman)

The Fabulous Baker Boys are two brothers, womaniser Jack (Jeff Bridges) and his elder brother, married Frank (Beau Bridges), who have been playing the piano together in bars and restaurants for the past 31 years. However, after all this time, the same old patter and the same old tunes just aren't enough any more and they hire a singer.

After a disastrous set of auditions, their last hope lies in the talented Suzie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer, looking a lot better than she does now) whose singing abilities shine through and resurrect the Baker's career. All good things come to an end though and as Frank goes home to actually spend time with his wife when this New Year's Eve come round, affections are let loose between the other two which causes ruptions and spells the beginning of the end for the partnership.

This excellent film only has a couple of slow points, but excels at giving you a brief, personal insight into each of their lives. It also provides some perfect onscreen chemistry between all three with some excellent onliners.

Before Suzie's opening gig, Frank paces about and comments to Jack, "I'm a little wound up, tonight", to which Jack replies, "You're a fucking alarm clock (!)"

At her first stage appearance, in front of many elderly and impressionable people, she couldn't use the microphone and after Frank tells her to flick the switch, her voice only comes on *very loud* and clear when the last two words are spoken from, "What fucking switch?!"

Afterwards Frank complains to Jack, "She said 'fucking' ! I can't believe she said 'fucking' on stage", to which she replies, "I said it okay, I didn't *DO* it!"

Finally, a comedic situation that arises more than once when Frank bugs Jack for one thing or another.

Jack (three times before taking action): "I'm going to hit you Frank"
Frank (surprised): "You hit me!"
Jack (calmly): "I told you I was going to hit you (!)"

There's also a nice cameo from Jennifer Tilly as one of the would-be singers, Blanche 'Monica' Moran.

Presented in an anamorphic 16:9 ratio, the print used is superb and only marred by a handful of small artifacts that aren't any particular reason to stop you from buying this disc. The average bitrate is a so-so 4.56Mb/s, hovering around that mark.

The sound quality is first-rate with all the musical numbers coming across perfectly in surround sound.

Extras :

Chapters and Trailer :

Languages/Subtitles :

And there's more... :

Menu :

An excellent film with sound and picture quality to match. There's not much in the way of extras that you'll go back to again and again, but I'd still be pleased with an anamorphic widescreen film for a mere tenner and this fits the bill just right.

Anyone thinking of buying the Region 1 disc should note it costs $30, similar to this disc's original £20 price, but it's not even anamorphic.

Buy now! The end.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000