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Attraction
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
After getting a very small theatrical release earlier this year, "Attraction" heads off to video, where it likely belonged in the first place. Although it contains a mostly decent cast, the film never really makes us care about the characters or become invested in their events. The film starts off with Matthew (Matthew Settle) meeting with ex-girlfriend Liz(Gretchen Mol), who warns him (although nicely) to stay away from her. Yet, he persists - looking in the window of where she works during the day and sitting in his car in front of her house at night. The "ironic" thing is that Matthew is actually an advice columnist, handing out tidbits to others, but with no advice for himself.
Then he finds himself meeting Liz's friend Corey(Samantha Mathis) and the two start to have a fling. Might Matthew stop being looney over Liz? Nope, he still stalks her while seeing Corey. Meanwhile, Matt's friend Garrett also likes Liz and soon everyone's stalking everyone. Director Russell Degrazer at least did get some fairly good actors for this project; Mathis, Mol and Everett Scott make something fairly decent out of their characters. Settle is bland and boring and a little too weird even for the character.
The main problem with "Attraction" is that, even at only 95 minutes, the movie feels aimless, going nowhere quickly and feeling, at times, like twice its running time - at one point I thought the movie was nearly over and I was only 40 minutes in. There's really not one character to care about, except for Corey, who seems to nice to be involved with such a weird guy. Praise for at least some of the cast to attempt to try and make their characters decently interesting, but it just doesn't happen.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Attraction" is presented by Trimark in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen. It's not without flaws, but I've also seen the studio do worse with some of their earlier titles. Sharpness and detail are generally good; there are a few scenes that have mediocre shadow detail, but not terrible. The bright, outdoor sequences generally fared best.
Some problems cropped up along the way. Some marks, grit and speckles on the print used were seen occasionally throughout the movie. Some noticable, although not major, pixelation was noticable during a couple of scenes, as well. Colors appeared natural and fairly well-saturated, not looking completely crisply rendered, but not smeared, either. Not bad - noticably not as polished as many major studio releases and still not anamorphic from Trimark, but not as bad as some of their earlier releases.
SOUND: The Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation is mono with the exception of the music, which fires up all of the speakers when it enters in. The movie then quiets down again and becomes a dialogue-driven piece, with little (or usually no) other activity. Audio quality seemed fairly good as the music sounded rich and loud, with nice presence. Dialogue also came through naturally. Nothing much to talk about in this area, unfortunately.
MENUS:: Plain menus built around film-themed art; the main menu contains slight background animation.
EXTRAS::
Commentary: This is a commentary from writer/director Russell DeGrazer, who contributes a fairly low-key discussion of the production, occasionally joined by his editor and the director of photography to discuss the look and feel of the picture. It's a moderately interesting commentary, but I was a little suprised that with three people there were still some pauses of silence throughout the track.
Interviews: There are "Character Interviews" where the actors discuss who they are in character and plain "Cast Interviews", where the four main actors talk about what it was like to work on the film.
Also: Joydrop, "Beautiful" music video. It says that there is "bonus footage" and the trailer, but neither of these things seem to have made it onto the disc.
Final Thoughts: Trimark has improved over the past couple of years in adding more supplemental features and at least doing slightly better presentations, if still not in anamorphic widescreen, unfortunately. "Attraction" does boast a decent cast, but the material simply never goes anywhere - the story rambles on and feels much longer than the 95 minute running time.
After getting a very small theatrical release earlier this year, "Attraction" heads off to video, where it likely belonged in the first place. Although it contains a mostly decent cast, the film never really makes us care about the characters or become invested in their events. The film starts off with Matthew (Matthew Settle) meeting with ex-girlfriend Liz(Gretchen Mol), who warns him (although nicely) to stay away from her. Yet, he persists - looking in the window of where she works during the day and sitting in his car in front of her house at night. The "ironic" thing is that Matthew is actually an advice columnist, handing out tidbits to others, but with no advice for himself.
Then he finds himself meeting Liz's friend Corey(Samantha Mathis) and the two start to have a fling. Might Matthew stop being looney over Liz? Nope, he still stalks her while seeing Corey. Meanwhile, Matt's friend Garrett also likes Liz and soon everyone's stalking everyone. Director Russell Degrazer at least did get some fairly good actors for this project; Mathis, Mol and Everett Scott make something fairly decent out of their characters. Settle is bland and boring and a little too weird even for the character.
The main problem with "Attraction" is that, even at only 95 minutes, the movie feels aimless, going nowhere quickly and feeling, at times, like twice its running time - at one point I thought the movie was nearly over and I was only 40 minutes in. There's really not one character to care about, except for Corey, who seems to nice to be involved with such a weird guy. Praise for at least some of the cast to attempt to try and make their characters decently interesting, but it just doesn't happen.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Attraction" is presented by Trimark in 1.85:1 non-anamorphic widescreen. It's not without flaws, but I've also seen the studio do worse with some of their earlier titles. Sharpness and detail are generally good; there are a few scenes that have mediocre shadow detail, but not terrible. The bright, outdoor sequences generally fared best.
Some problems cropped up along the way. Some marks, grit and speckles on the print used were seen occasionally throughout the movie. Some noticable, although not major, pixelation was noticable during a couple of scenes, as well. Colors appeared natural and fairly well-saturated, not looking completely crisply rendered, but not smeared, either. Not bad - noticably not as polished as many major studio releases and still not anamorphic from Trimark, but not as bad as some of their earlier releases.
SOUND: The Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation is mono with the exception of the music, which fires up all of the speakers when it enters in. The movie then quiets down again and becomes a dialogue-driven piece, with little (or usually no) other activity. Audio quality seemed fairly good as the music sounded rich and loud, with nice presence. Dialogue also came through naturally. Nothing much to talk about in this area, unfortunately.
MENUS:: Plain menus built around film-themed art; the main menu contains slight background animation.
EXTRAS::
Commentary: This is a commentary from writer/director Russell DeGrazer, who contributes a fairly low-key discussion of the production, occasionally joined by his editor and the director of photography to discuss the look and feel of the picture. It's a moderately interesting commentary, but I was a little suprised that with three people there were still some pauses of silence throughout the track.
Interviews: There are "Character Interviews" where the actors discuss who they are in character and plain "Cast Interviews", where the four main actors talk about what it was like to work on the film.
Also: Joydrop, "Beautiful" music video. It says that there is "bonus footage" and the trailer, but neither of these things seem to have made it onto the disc.
Final Thoughts: Trimark has improved over the past couple of years in adding more supplemental features and at least doing slightly better presentations, if still not in anamorphic widescreen, unfortunately. "Attraction" does boast a decent cast, but the material simply never goes anywhere - the story rambles on and feels much longer than the 95 minute running time.
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