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Glory Daze
Columbia/Tri-Star // R // February 11, 2003
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
This indie college comedy is being released on DVD now, likely due to the popularity of so many of its cast members. While not technically stellar - the film loks like it was made on the ultra-cheap - its cast and decent screenplay (surprising, coming from the writer of ``Jerky Boys,'' ``Billy Madison'' and ``Airheads,'' - Okay, "Billy Madison" was great, but the other two weren't) make up for the film's lack of polish.
The film stars Ben Affleck as Jack, the head of a small frat-house whose inhabitants also include Rob (Sam Rockwell, currently in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"), Mickey (Vinnie DeRamus), Josh (Vien Hong) and long-time student Dennis (French Stewart of "Third Rock from the Sun").
As for story, well, there really isn't much of one. The five frat-house members are about to complete art-school education and spend most of the film's 100 minutes deciding whether or not they want to go on with their lives or continue partying for another semester. Given the fact that there's not a great deal of story involved, 100 minutes starts to seem rambling and aimless.
Although writer/director Rich Wilkes offers the occasional funny one-liner, there's nothing much to the characters or story. Thanks to the stars (French Stewart's usual genius is present), the material rises a few degrees beyond what it likely was on the page. Some fun cameos (Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Spalding Grey, John Rhyes-Davies, Leah Remini, Alyssa Milano and others) pull the film along a bit, as does the soundtrack, filled with some terrific punk from NoFX and others.
The film's dirt-cheap appearance works for and against it: it looks like something fun all these people did over the course of a few weekends, while it also really doesn't look that professional. Overall, this should be regarded as an interesting early look at some great talents, but nothing too much more than that.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Glory Daze" is presented by Columbia/Tristar in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Although sources would suggest that the film was shot in 35mm, the image on this DVD would suggest either 16mm or really cheap film stock, as the image is soft and often shows lackluster detail and clarity.
Unfortunately, the faults don't end there, as some fairly mild edge enhancement is present throughout several scenes in the film. No pixelation or other artifacts are spotted, but the print occasionally shows some wear and noticable grain.
The film's basic color palette is presented in decent fashion here, as colors either seem somewhat washed out or slightly smeary. Flesh tones often look a off, appearing pale. This is a fair transfer of low-budget material.
SOUND: The back of the box is mis-labled, stating that the DVD contains a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, when the film's actual soundtrack is 2.0 only. A dialogue/music-driven picture, the soundtrack is bare-bones and only of decent quality, with dialogue sounding a bit rough and the songs sounding only okay.
EXTRAS: Trailers for "Adaptation" (a great trailer for a great movie), "Punch-Drunk Love" (same) and "Stealing Harvard".
Final Thoughts: Okay college comedy done on-the-cheap, "Glory Daze" may be a rental for fans of any of the stars involved. There's a good movie about the fear of taking that leap from college into the real world here, but it's never really developed. Columbia/Tristar's DVD edition doesn't offer anything in the way of supplements and audio/video quality is very average.
This indie college comedy is being released on DVD now, likely due to the popularity of so many of its cast members. While not technically stellar - the film loks like it was made on the ultra-cheap - its cast and decent screenplay (surprising, coming from the writer of ``Jerky Boys,'' ``Billy Madison'' and ``Airheads,'' - Okay, "Billy Madison" was great, but the other two weren't) make up for the film's lack of polish.
The film stars Ben Affleck as Jack, the head of a small frat-house whose inhabitants also include Rob (Sam Rockwell, currently in "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"), Mickey (Vinnie DeRamus), Josh (Vien Hong) and long-time student Dennis (French Stewart of "Third Rock from the Sun").
As for story, well, there really isn't much of one. The five frat-house members are about to complete art-school education and spend most of the film's 100 minutes deciding whether or not they want to go on with their lives or continue partying for another semester. Given the fact that there's not a great deal of story involved, 100 minutes starts to seem rambling and aimless.
Although writer/director Rich Wilkes offers the occasional funny one-liner, there's nothing much to the characters or story. Thanks to the stars (French Stewart's usual genius is present), the material rises a few degrees beyond what it likely was on the page. Some fun cameos (Brendan Fraser, Matt Damon, Spalding Grey, John Rhyes-Davies, Leah Remini, Alyssa Milano and others) pull the film along a bit, as does the soundtrack, filled with some terrific punk from NoFX and others.
The film's dirt-cheap appearance works for and against it: it looks like something fun all these people did over the course of a few weekends, while it also really doesn't look that professional. Overall, this should be regarded as an interesting early look at some great talents, but nothing too much more than that.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Glory Daze" is presented by Columbia/Tristar in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Although sources would suggest that the film was shot in 35mm, the image on this DVD would suggest either 16mm or really cheap film stock, as the image is soft and often shows lackluster detail and clarity.
Unfortunately, the faults don't end there, as some fairly mild edge enhancement is present throughout several scenes in the film. No pixelation or other artifacts are spotted, but the print occasionally shows some wear and noticable grain.
The film's basic color palette is presented in decent fashion here, as colors either seem somewhat washed out or slightly smeary. Flesh tones often look a off, appearing pale. This is a fair transfer of low-budget material.
SOUND: The back of the box is mis-labled, stating that the DVD contains a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, when the film's actual soundtrack is 2.0 only. A dialogue/music-driven picture, the soundtrack is bare-bones and only of decent quality, with dialogue sounding a bit rough and the songs sounding only okay.
EXTRAS: Trailers for "Adaptation" (a great trailer for a great movie), "Punch-Drunk Love" (same) and "Stealing Harvard".
Final Thoughts: Okay college comedy done on-the-cheap, "Glory Daze" may be a rental for fans of any of the stars involved. There's a good movie about the fear of taking that leap from college into the real world here, but it's never really developed. Columbia/Tristar's DVD edition doesn't offer anything in the way of supplements and audio/video quality is very average.
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