LAYER CAKE (Widescreen Special Edition)
DVD Review by David Blackwell
DETAILS: 106 minutes, 14 deleted scenes and two alternate endings (with optional
commentary), film audio commentary, featurette, Q&A with director and Daniel Craig, poster gallery, storyboard comparison
STUDIO: Sony Pictures Classics/ SPHE
RELEASE DATE: 8-23-2005
The British crime flick is a genre within itself. Whether you have the revenge film GET CARTER (the original starring Micahel
Caine) or SNATCH, it always had it's unique touch. LAYER CAKE has it's own flair as it is a densely plotted film that is very
wild.
Mr. X (Daniel Craig) is a drug dealer witha a plan- make a certain amount of money and get out of the biz. When he is about
to do it, several complications get in his way like find a gangster's drug addict daughter he is told to find and a million
hits of Ecstasy that a loud gangster, the Duke, has stolen from a bunch of crazy Serbs. The Serbs have sent a pyscho named
the Dragon to deliver the Ecstasy and the Duke to his boss. Also MR. X wants to get in bed with the girlfriend of the Duke's
cousin. You get the picture that LAYER CAKE has many layers to it as the drug business also has many layers. Almost every
character has a story. Then you have the London crim boss (Michael Gambon) who screws people over because it is just his way
of doing business. LAYER CAKE is expertly directed from the shots (like shooting up through a glass coffee table) to the actors
(Daniel Craig, Michael Gambon, Sienna Miller, Colm Meany (who always does better film work than his role on the STAR TREK:
DEEP SPACE NINE tv series)) to the music (a mix of popular rock music, film score, and a classical piece). LAYER CAKE
is worth multiple viewings.
VIDEO: 2.40:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)
Lovely Transfer on this movie. Image detail is good while the colors (and shadow
values) are fantastic.
AUDIO: English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French Dolby Surround
Subtitles, English, Chinese, French, Korean, Thai
Also the audio is great. Dialogue is easy to hear while the sound elements make the
most out of the 5.1 DD.
SPECIAL FEATURES: LAYER CAKE has a great group of extras. The 14 deleted
scenes are fascinating to see what gets cut when teh movie is getting molded due to editing and reshoots while the two alternate
endings don't thrill me (the theatrical ending doesn't impress me much- the only flaw of LAYER CAKE). An impressive
poster gallery for all the posters they designed while trying to nail down what they were going to use (I think some of the
posters they didn't use would have made a better cover for this DVD than what they ended up using). The six minute
MAKING OF LAYER CAKE is a good piece of promo fluff. The audio commentary for the movie (with writer J.J. Connolly
and director Matthew Vaughn) has to be admired for the comment that says tough if you don't get the movie's plot after two
viewings. Bravo!
FINAL ANALYSIS: LAYER CAKE is a wild dense movie with plenty of stuff to like.
The DVD has a nice assortment of extras. rent it. if you love the movie, buy it.
this DVD Review is (c)9-3-2005 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission (except
excerpts). Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com and look for additional content at http://wwww.livejournal.com/users/enterlinemedia
