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Dead Simple
Artisan // R // August 21, 2001
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Frank Jacobs (Daniel Sterne) is a sorry sight. The owner of a motel whose claim to fame is its position in the geographical center of the United States, as well as a very shabby "exotic petting zoo," Frank is trapped by his lack of funds, since customers are hard to come by in the middle of nowhere, and his unhappy marriage to the waspish Helen (Patricia Richardson). What he really wants to do is make the big time with his country-western songs, which he writes and practices in the cramped bathroom of his trailer, and ever-hopefully performs at the local bar's amateur night. But all of this seems just a pipe dream... until one day he crosses paths with the golden-voiced Julie (Lacey Kohl) and her sleazy manager (James Caan). Suddenly, fame and fortune seem within reach... except that some rather gruesome accidents start complicating matters.
Dead Simple plays like a wannabe Fargo, down to the tagline "Strange things happen in the middle of nowhere," which seems to play on Fargo's "A lot can happen in the middle of nowhere." Like Fargo, Dead Simple is a black comedy, playing on the absurdities of life and death in Nowhereville, USA. Director Jason Bloom takes the comedy toward the slapstick end of the scale, which results in some funny scenes, though not quite laugh-out-loud funny.
Bloom also tries to work in a more "serious" angle with Frank's love interest, which seems like a misjudgment to me. The result is an inconsistent tone, since the "sentimental" parts don't mesh particularly well with the humorous parts.
The film's setting in the tacky, tourist-trap motel and "exotic petting zoo" shows that Bloom does have a good eye for setting. The environment where the story unfolds is, appropriately enough, as sad and pathetic as the characters themselves. The characters are generally both pathetic and pretty awful, except possibly for the character of Frank, who is basically well-meaning; it's his naïveté that gets him into the situation in the first place, and what keeps getting him in deeper. The general acting style is slightly over-the-top; James Caan handles it well (and appears to be having a good time), though the other actors' performances seem a little strained at times.
Picture
Consider yourself warned: the Dead Simple transfer is not anamorphic, despite the presence of a "Enhanced for 16x9 TVs" label on the case. Obviously, the resulting image quality is not as good as I'd hoped. Apart from the lack of anamorphic enhancement, the contrast is fine, but the image is fairly noisy.
Sound
If you enjoy country-western music, you'll probably enjoy the soundtrack more than I did; there's quite a bit of singing and guitar-playing as part of the movie itself, not just in the theme music. The Dolby 5.1 sound is adequate for the most part, though I did find myself missing a few lines of dialogue here and there.
Extras
A 13-minute documentary takes a mildly interesting look behind the scenes, featuring interviews with director Jason Bloom and actors James Caan, Daniel Sterne, Lacy Kohl, and Patricia Richardson. The other main special feature is an audio commentary with Jason Bloom, composer Andrew Gross, production designer Alexander Hammond, and editor Luis Colina. Apart from that, there's the usual trailer and filmographies.
Final thoughts
Dead Simple falls into my category of "fluffy fun." At 98 minutes, it wasn't too long, the story was mildly amusing, and there were even a few fun and unexpected twists in the story. I'd say that it's worth watching, but not re-watching: a perfect rental, in other words.
Dead Simple plays like a wannabe Fargo, down to the tagline "Strange things happen in the middle of nowhere," which seems to play on Fargo's "A lot can happen in the middle of nowhere." Like Fargo, Dead Simple is a black comedy, playing on the absurdities of life and death in Nowhereville, USA. Director Jason Bloom takes the comedy toward the slapstick end of the scale, which results in some funny scenes, though not quite laugh-out-loud funny.
Bloom also tries to work in a more "serious" angle with Frank's love interest, which seems like a misjudgment to me. The result is an inconsistent tone, since the "sentimental" parts don't mesh particularly well with the humorous parts.
The film's setting in the tacky, tourist-trap motel and "exotic petting zoo" shows that Bloom does have a good eye for setting. The environment where the story unfolds is, appropriately enough, as sad and pathetic as the characters themselves. The characters are generally both pathetic and pretty awful, except possibly for the character of Frank, who is basically well-meaning; it's his naïveté that gets him into the situation in the first place, and what keeps getting him in deeper. The general acting style is slightly over-the-top; James Caan handles it well (and appears to be having a good time), though the other actors' performances seem a little strained at times.
Picture
Consider yourself warned: the Dead Simple transfer is not anamorphic, despite the presence of a "Enhanced for 16x9 TVs" label on the case. Obviously, the resulting image quality is not as good as I'd hoped. Apart from the lack of anamorphic enhancement, the contrast is fine, but the image is fairly noisy.
Sound
If you enjoy country-western music, you'll probably enjoy the soundtrack more than I did; there's quite a bit of singing and guitar-playing as part of the movie itself, not just in the theme music. The Dolby 5.1 sound is adequate for the most part, though I did find myself missing a few lines of dialogue here and there.
Extras
A 13-minute documentary takes a mildly interesting look behind the scenes, featuring interviews with director Jason Bloom and actors James Caan, Daniel Sterne, Lacy Kohl, and Patricia Richardson. The other main special feature is an audio commentary with Jason Bloom, composer Andrew Gross, production designer Alexander Hammond, and editor Luis Colina. Apart from that, there's the usual trailer and filmographies.
Final thoughts
Dead Simple falls into my category of "fluffy fun." At 98 minutes, it wasn't too long, the story was mildly amusing, and there were even a few fun and unexpected twists in the story. I'd say that it's worth watching, but not re-watching: a perfect rental, in other words.
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