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analysis w/e 14.5.11 |
DVDs out 9.5.11 |
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@ DVDfever Youtube |
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May 11 2011 
DVDfever co uk
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Producer:
Screenplay:
Music:
Cast :
Pavel Zeman (Karel Roden) works 6 jobs, one after another, since his wife, Liba (the captivating Anna Geislerová, bottom-right) likes designer gear and she's also having a bit on the side - and you get the impression this is something for which she has past form. Colin Frampton (Andy Nyman, right with Karel Roden) is a quiet man who worries about every little thing, even to the point of obsessing whether he left the iron on before going for a week in Prague with his wife, Maggie (Klara Low). Sadly, Maggie is killed in a freak accident and, at a loss, Colin wants to die. The only man he knows in Prague is the man who's just been instructed to drive him to the mortuary and so he Pavel Karel to kill him, stating that he'll pay a large amount as he can see the Czech man is a busy one and who wouldn't say no to a nice little earner? Alas, when the film is led by characters who are clearly two of life's great losers, still looking for direction in their lives, things don't go to plan and Colin has trouble dying. Without going into too much detail as there's plenty to discover that you'll want to find out for yourself, the situation also involves a professional hitman, Karlovic (Robert Polo) and his moll, Veronika (Denisa Knoblochová) - stunning, but deadly).
I love Prague. I spent a few days there as part of an interrailing trip back in 1992 and it's the place I'd most like to go back to. It's a fantastic place for great architecture - a perfect antidote to those who think a holiday should revolve around the beach - and all the women are gorgeous! Shut Up And Shoot Me features very understated performances from the two leads and if you're wondering where you might've seen them before, Karel Roden is best known for playing evil villain types in mainstream movies, heralding from either Russia or Eastern Europe, examples including The Bourne Supremacy, as well as RockNRolla and 2006's Running Scared, so it's nice to see him playing a regular guy with a far-from-regular request to digest. Here, in hitman mode, he ends up looking like Leon with his small dark glasses :) Andy Nyman was most recently seen on E4 & Channel 4's zombie drama/comedy Dead Set as the bastard producer of Big Brother and on Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe's children's TV special talking about the bizarre Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson (see a clip here). The film also features such great attention to detail about the way of human life, such as when Colin goes to collect his late wife's remains from the mortuary and gets up from a chair to go into a room, he doesn't realise until it's too late that the chair is one that springs back up like a cinema seat, but because it's wooden it snaps back loudly and he looks back with slight embarrassment, which takes him briefly away from the fact that his wife's only just died. Overall, while there are some occasional slow moments, in the end it's a film that's an absolute must-see as it's a gem for the great majority of the time.
The sound is in Dolby Surround only and, while dialogue is clear enough in most cases - although Karel Roden can talk quickly so it's a little indistinguishable at times, sound FX such as trudging in the snow sound like they're in a small echo chamber - it's really quite bizarre. The extras are simply two trailers (2:05, 2:08) in letterbox 16:9, both of which give a little too much away for my liking so I'm glad I saw them after the film, although I will say that the second trailer mentions a different flavour of soup to that used in the film (the relevance of which I won't mention here). There's also two photo galleries, set to music - one each for the cast and crew. Sadly, there are no subtitles for the DVD and, surprisingly, there are no chapters! That's not right for a DVD. Personally, I'd bank on at least one every five minutes plus one each for the opening and closing credits, but to have none at all? I can't quite understand the thinking behind that. The menu features a short piece of music from the film against a looped piece of footage which, like the trailers, give too much away, so I'm glad I quickly started watching the film before the full menu sequence played out.
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2009.blog comments powered by Disqus
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:
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Shut Up And Shoot Me
brings together two characters from different backgrounds but equally left wanting in life.
The film is presented in a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen ratio, but is slightly windowboxed. This is something most people
won't notice unless they're viewing on a flatscreen TV as a CRT TV will always have some overscan that can't be got rid of.
Viewed upscaled to a 37" plasma screen via an Xbox 360, the picture is still a little on the soft side at times.
