Dom Robinson reviews

Cat.no: 051 835 2

Cert: 18

Running time: 114 minutes

Year: 1979

Pressing: 1999

Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)

Chapters: 18 plus extras

Sound: Stereo

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 5

Price: £17.99

Extras : Scene index, 7-minute montage

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Director:

Franc Roddam (Aria, K2, War Party)

Producers:

Roy Baird and Bill Curbishley

Screenplay:

Dave Humphries, Martin Stellman and Franc Roddam

Music:

John Entwistle and Pete Townshend

Cast:

Jimmy: Phil Daniels (Meantime, Scum, TV: Sex Chips And Rock N Roll)
Steph: Leslie Ash (TV: Cats Eyes, Men Behaving Badly)
Chalky: Philip Davis (Face, Secrets And Lies, The Wall, TV: Births Marriages and Deaths)
Dave: Mark Wingett (TV: The Bill)
Ace: Sting (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Brimstone and Treacle, Dune, The Grotesque, Stormy Monday)
Kevin: Ray Winstone (Face, Ladybird Ladybird, Nil By Mouth, Scum, TV: Births Marriages and Deaths)
Spider: Gary Shail (TV: Metal Mickey)
Monkey: Toyah Wilcox (The Ink Thief, The Tempest, TV: Kavanagh Q.C.)
Jimmy's father: Michael Elphick (I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle, Let Him Have It, TV: Boon, Little Dorrit, The Professionals, Smiley's People)
Danny: Daniel Peacock (Party Party, TV: The Comic Strip Presents, Teenage Health Freak)
Projectionist: Timothy Spall (Secrets and Lies, Sheltering Sky, Still Crazy, The Wisdom of Crocodiles, TV: Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Neville's Island, Outside Edge, Young Indiana Jones Chronicles)

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Amongst it all in a brilliant cast are Jimmy's Mod mates, Chalky (Philip Davis), Spider (Metal Mickey's Gary Shail and Dave (Mark Wingett). Regular watchers of The Bill will know the latter as PC Jim Carver. In this film he has quite an effervescent character, who as I type in late 1999, is a world away from the downbeat, alcoholic he plays in the TV series, on the verge of being sacked.

The film follows Jimmy's failures at work, at home with his parents and his amorous fluctuations (I said *fluctuations* !) including those with the lovely Steph (Leslie Ash) and Monkey (played by an almost-unrecogisable Toyah Wilcox). Add to this a mysterious character thrown into the mix named Ace (Sting, adding to his part-time acting career).

The picture isn't a great deal to shout about. While free of artifacts, the print is fullscreen - but can comfortably be zoomed into 14:9 on a widescreen TV - and shows its age with drop-outs noticeable at times. The average bitrate is 4.86Mb/s, briefly peaking just over 8Mb/s.

The soundtrack is stereo only, but is peppered with superb tunes written John Entwistle and Pete Townshend and performed as The Who. If you, too, like their brand of rock, you'll enjoy the musical interludes as well.

Extras :

Chapters :

Languages & Subtitles :

Montage :

Menu :

Overall :

As a DVD, if you're going to give it regular airings, this DVD is a must and one of its highlights has to be the energetic dancing to "My Generation" early on in the film. However, at £17.99, I'd expect more than a fullscreen transfer so if you can find it at a discount it will prove a worthy look. Carlton recently released a number of old films on DVD without much in the way of features, but at a knock-down price of a penny off a tenner. If Universal followed suit here, this would be an instantly-recommendable purchase.

It's worth noting that the DVD and case greatly complement the target-like appearance of the film's title.

DVD Trivia: Spot the cameo from Eastenders' Nick Cotton.

FILM	 		: ****
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ***
SOUND QUALITY		: ***
EXTRAS			: *
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OVERALL			: ***

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.