Brick [Blu-ray]

Strangely weird setting recaptures the spirt of Chinatown on a college campus ... clever, witty but you have to concentrate.

This film is one of the best films I have ever seen; and I've seen a lot of films. I was totally captivated by the script, old fashioned yet completely on the pulse. Moving away from the realism that has been dominating the modern market, brilliantly capturing the essence of old style noir, with the lyrical dialogue superbly written and acted, by a fantastic and suprising cast and fresh director. Whilst juxtaposed with the high school setting and contemporary filming. Baz luhrmann's Shakespeare, meets Scorsese's gansters, with the shocking brilliance of Larry Clarks' 'Kids.' (less explicit though) The high school drama takes on a new life and a new intensity, rather than patronising teenagers in the ilk of ott studio money makers like American Pie. This film captures the intensity of school. Whilst keeping a balanced audience, of both young and old. It reminds me of what I love about cinema, fantastic direction, beautfully haunting score, stunning cinematography and brilliant acting. Understated and superb! So, in summary I think it's crap... don't watch it.

This high school neo noir is one of the best independent movies of recent years, with a superb script by writer/director Rian Johnson and great performances, especially from Joseph Gordon Levitt, Nora Zehetner and Noah Fleiss. It begins with Levitt's character, Brendan, trying to find out what has happened to his ex-girlfriend (Emilie de Ravin from Lost). It's quirky, as offbeat as its score, and builds up to something incredibly powerful. Anyway, if you already know the movie, you don't need me to tell you. If you don't know it, check out some of the critical reviews like Ebert's - [...] - he can give you a better critique of it than I can.What I can tell you about that Ebert can't is the blu-ray. Firstly, it's 1080i, not 1080p. Now, I know a lot of us automatically question why this is the case, and honestly who knows. It might simply be a matter of budget. To remaster a movie at full 1080p quality that blu-ray is capable of costs a lot, and it might simply be a case of budgetary limitations. Either way, the picture is still very good. However, the audio is not without problems. One BIG complaint I have, which applies to this movie more than most I see, is that there are no subtitles whatsoever. The reason it's a problem for me is that the dialogue in this movie is incredibly stylised, with a lot of colloquial words that are often hard to make out. Subtitles would help this movie a great deal, in the way Heath Ledger's mutterings as Ennis del Mar seem to sink in a lot better with subtitles supporting them. We're not required to strain to see images in films, so why are we sometimes left to struggle to hear the dialogue. So for both the occasionally mangled audio and the lack of subtitles, and the complete absence of any special features, it loses stars.That quibble aside, it's still an exceptional film and well worth checking out, but I'd probably recommend the 2-disc DVD instead, which upscales well and has some great special features.

The director, Rian Johnson, also directed "Looper" a film which I very much enjoyed.The first time I saw this film, I was on a plane, and the dense, brilliant prose that the characters spoke in meant that I felt almost as though I was watching Shakespeare.A second viewing a couple of years later and it all became much clearer. The characters, all in American high school (not quite university, much like the UK college/6th form) are all speaking in classic film noir. The disconnect between what you see and what you hear is top quality entertainment.The cast make you believe in the world, with the occasional bobbing for air on the surface to remind us that they are still living at home with their parents.Betrayal, femme fatales, noir tropes abound and it is glorious.

I was going to call this review 'style over substance' but that would be unfair, the film is not lacking in substance; the plot is actually very interesting. I think my point is that there has been so much emphasis on making the cinematography interesting and the dialogue street cool that it becomes a slight strain at times to work out what is being said and feels like a bit too much of an effort to watch.However, this is still a very good film. I really like the concept of gangster thriller set in a high school, it looks fantastic and is wonderfully acted by the young cast. Very worth watching, but don't expect to do the crossword at the same time.

The dialogue is typical noir/hard-boiled, which can be hard to keep track of at times but rewarding when you do so. Full of dry comments, acerbic wit and withering putdowns it's a lot of fun to behold.*** Be advised that this Blu-Ray does not have a subtitle track, which makes a second and third viewing a must, to fully appreciate the sometimes frantic dialogue. ***The cinematography is excellent, and the picture looks great at 1080 resolution. I use my television's built-in speakers so cannot comment on the 5.1 soundtrack mix.

It clearly states it’s in English and it’s not it’s only french

This may indeed be a neo-noir, as it was listed in a review I read, but it is aimed very much at teenagers. They might give it a better rating than I can.