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Play it To The Bone
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Director Ron Shelton has made a number of successful films that work on one major element; even films that mainly revolve around simply conversations work because the dialogue has a snap to it. "Play It To The Bone" takes that one-two punch and applies it to the arguements between Caesar(Antonio Banderas) and Vince(Woody Harrelson). The two best friends and fighters have accepted a deal to fight in a prize fight, and take off for Las Vegas. The two are sparring even on the way there, snapping at each other with a few hilarious arguments.
There are some problems though. The picture is a little off balance, with too of the running time devoted to the road trip aspect of the movie, it's just a little too much time for not enough happening. The conversations between the 4 (Casear and Vince; plus the two girls who join them played by Lucy Liu and Lolita Davidovich) aren't enough to sustain, and it ends up dragging after a while until they finally arrive at Vegas. If Shelton wanted to make a road movie, he should have looked at Harrelson's "Kingpin".
It all remains watchable because of a sort of relaxed charm; if anything, the film's sort of sloppy feel actually works for it. Performances from the two leads have spark and the humor works, at least for a while. Davidovich is fine, but both her and Liu don't get that much to do. The film itself could have used some cutting; the 124 minute running time is quite a bit more than this picture needed. A little more cutting could have made the pace a little snappier, and that would have helped. I do have to compliment on one thing; the fight scenes are nicely staged.
As it is, the film isn't unwatchable, but pretty much defines the term "rental".
The DVD
VIDEO: Disney has done excellent work with their transfer for "Play it To The Bone"; and although it still has some minor flaws here and there, it's definitely some of their better work in recent memory. Sharpness is excellent and detail is good, as well. What really impresses is the scenery; during the car ride, the transfer really captures the wide-open desert country of areas of Nevada and California quite well. Colors are warm and natural, and the brown and greens of the country passing by look fine; the colors certainly liven up once the film reaches Las Vegas. Colors never show any problems such as bleeding. Flesh tones are solid, and black level is good, as well.
Problems are really not even that noticable or distracting; just a little bit of shimmering once or twice and maybe one or two tiny marks on the print used. That's about it, and this 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer from Disney is really quite pleasing. Very good work.
.
SOUND: The first thing that really struck me about the audio for "Play It To The Bone" was the music; the score, full of rock tunes, has a very pleasing, very rich, deep presence that really entertains. During the scenes where they're driving along talking, the film is mainly dialogue driven with a few subtle sounds of the environment placed in. During the fight scenes though, the audio livens up with sounds of the crowd and the two fighters punching at one another. Dialogue is also clear and easily understood. A good soundtrack that gets the job done.
MENUS:: No animation, but a very plain looking main menu that simply uses the cover art.
EXTRAS: A short featurette and the theatrical tra
Final Thoughts: Good audio and video quality from Disney, but it would have been nice to have some additional extras. The movie is so-so and may deserve a look as a rental.
Director Ron Shelton has made a number of successful films that work on one major element; even films that mainly revolve around simply conversations work because the dialogue has a snap to it. "Play It To The Bone" takes that one-two punch and applies it to the arguements between Caesar(Antonio Banderas) and Vince(Woody Harrelson). The two best friends and fighters have accepted a deal to fight in a prize fight, and take off for Las Vegas. The two are sparring even on the way there, snapping at each other with a few hilarious arguments.
There are some problems though. The picture is a little off balance, with too of the running time devoted to the road trip aspect of the movie, it's just a little too much time for not enough happening. The conversations between the 4 (Casear and Vince; plus the two girls who join them played by Lucy Liu and Lolita Davidovich) aren't enough to sustain, and it ends up dragging after a while until they finally arrive at Vegas. If Shelton wanted to make a road movie, he should have looked at Harrelson's "Kingpin".
It all remains watchable because of a sort of relaxed charm; if anything, the film's sort of sloppy feel actually works for it. Performances from the two leads have spark and the humor works, at least for a while. Davidovich is fine, but both her and Liu don't get that much to do. The film itself could have used some cutting; the 124 minute running time is quite a bit more than this picture needed. A little more cutting could have made the pace a little snappier, and that would have helped. I do have to compliment on one thing; the fight scenes are nicely staged.
As it is, the film isn't unwatchable, but pretty much defines the term "rental".
The DVD
VIDEO: Disney has done excellent work with their transfer for "Play it To The Bone"; and although it still has some minor flaws here and there, it's definitely some of their better work in recent memory. Sharpness is excellent and detail is good, as well. What really impresses is the scenery; during the car ride, the transfer really captures the wide-open desert country of areas of Nevada and California quite well. Colors are warm and natural, and the brown and greens of the country passing by look fine; the colors certainly liven up once the film reaches Las Vegas. Colors never show any problems such as bleeding. Flesh tones are solid, and black level is good, as well.
Problems are really not even that noticable or distracting; just a little bit of shimmering once or twice and maybe one or two tiny marks on the print used. That's about it, and this 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer from Disney is really quite pleasing. Very good work.
.
SOUND: The first thing that really struck me about the audio for "Play It To The Bone" was the music; the score, full of rock tunes, has a very pleasing, very rich, deep presence that really entertains. During the scenes where they're driving along talking, the film is mainly dialogue driven with a few subtle sounds of the environment placed in. During the fight scenes though, the audio livens up with sounds of the crowd and the two fighters punching at one another. Dialogue is also clear and easily understood. A good soundtrack that gets the job done.
MENUS:: No animation, but a very plain looking main menu that simply uses the cover art.
EXTRAS: A short featurette and the theatrical tra
Final Thoughts: Good audio and video quality from Disney, but it would have been nice to have some additional extras. The movie is so-so and may deserve a look as a rental.
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