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DVD Review: THE CREW

Studio: Image Entertainment
Year: 2008
Cast: Scot Williams, Kenny Doughty, Rory McCann, Stephen Graham, Cordelia Bugeja, Mem Ferda, Rosie Fellner, Raza Jaffrey, Goran Kostic, Tim Dantay, John Gillon, Rachel Haslam, Philip Olivier, Ryan Orr, Alison Cain
Director: Adrian Vitoria
Release Date: October 20, 2009
Rating: R for brutal bloody violence, strong and aberrant sexual content, nudity, pervasive language and drug use
Run Time: 02h:02m:34s
Genre(s): crime

"What's the worst that can happen?" - Ratter (Kenny Doughty)

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I eagerly look forward to any film that promises "brutal bloody violence, strong and aberrant sexual content, nudity, pervasive language and drug use". And then there's Cordelia Bugeja...

Movie Grade: C+

DVD Grade: B-

Based on the novel Outlaws by Kevin Sampson, this English gangster flick thankfully moves away from the often-imitated, purposely-quirky Guy Ritchie school of filmmaking, with director Adrian Vitoria keeping things consistently grim, violent and not terribly upbeat.

While there is a genre-familiar slightly disheveled gang of second-tier criminals at its center (some with the obligatory colorful names), the story does provide an opportunity for a few of the main characters to become somewhat fully deployed as three-dimensional people. While that was a pleasant surprise for a film like this—actually having characters that carried more than a wafer-thin shell of background—it still never made me care all that much about what might happen to any of them.

When a powerful crime boss is mysteriously murdered gang leader Ged (Scot Williams) has to wrestle with the notion of whether or not it's time to expand the business, all based on a too-good-to-be-true pitch from Ged's headstrong younger brother Ratter (Kenny Doughty). Vitoria throws in just about everything but the proverbial kitchen sink, including cutthroat Serbs, brutal beatings, grungy strip clubs, a big con, a truck full of Playstations, all sorts of double crosses and even a gratuitous-yet-sexy subplot involving Cordelia Bugeja and Rosie Fellner. I suppose it all sounds all gritty-stylish and thug-worthy on paper, but over the course of two hours it starts to wear a bit thin.

This is one of the films where nearly everyone is very tightly wound and continually on the verge of a violent outburst, and when some of them finally do uncork it represents some dark yet revealing moments in The Crew. There's a scene in Ratter's apartment where Vitoria is unflinching in showing us in great detail an especially horrific beating, and for all of its ugliness it tells more about a certain character's motivations that just about any block of dialogue could. But since I could barely muster any emotional connection to hardly any of the players it diluted what I imagined was Vitoria's intended effect.

There's a lot going on here, perhaps too much, as so many little stories bounce off one another that I became mostly dulled by what was happening. There are attempts at light humor, such as the antics of sex-addicted Moby (Rory McCann), but overall there's far too much macho posturing and gun-waving. When Vitoria does finally try to tie all the ends together I was simply beyond caring.

For the curious, the film also sports a groovy and diverse soundtrack (featuring The La's, Kate Walsh, My Drug Hell, The Jam, Eddie Cochran), as well as featuring perhaps the most frequent use of the word f**k (and all its seemingly infinite variations) that I've heard in any film of recent memory. Man, those gangsters love that word.

IMAGE/AUDIO
The Crew has been issued in a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, and it's a pretty decent offering, with just a few small quibbles. On the plus side, fleshtones look very natural, and the handful of sequences that step away from the mostly drab color palette look especially vivid. The downside is a few of the dimly lit moments—particularly an early scene between Cordelia Bugeja and Scot Williams as well as a couple of strip club bits—reveal some heavy noise and sub par delineation.

Only one audio option, and it's an English language Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track—despite the fact that the back cover mentions an additional-but-nonexistent 2.0 stereo option. The accents may be thick as mud at times (subs are available in English SDH and Spanish), yet the mix has a very natural presence, with enough directional movement to paint a fairly realistic soundstage. Gunshots and punches have a deep resonance, and the snappy hipster soundtrack sounds very nice. A word to the wise: I did have to use the English sub track because some of the lingo and accents were just too tough to decipher. To be honest, when the first line of dialogue was spoken I initially thought the film was in another language, but no, it was just English thug-ese.

EXTRAS
Included as supplements is a commentary from director Adrian Vitoria and the two main actors Scot Williams (Ged Brennan) and Kenny Doughty (Ratter). The three spend a lot of time chuckling and laughing about things, with Vitoria trying to keep things on track. The vibe settles a bit as the commentary progresses, with info on locations, shooting sex scenes, character motivation, the short schedule and the like.

There's a fairly standard EPK entitled The Making of The Crew (29m:18s) that serves up the usual dose of talking head interviews amidst behind-the-scenes footage, while 25 Days in the Making (06m:06s) goes narration-free and pieces together assorted behind-the-scenes clips while an uncredited dance song plays. A set of thirteen deleted scenes (19m:52s) were likely cut to make the runtime more manageable, but here's a rare case where some of the scenes are actually pretty solid. There's a great sequence where we get another look at the violent morality of Ged, and a couple of additional moments between Cordelia Bugeja and Rosie Fellner. The film's theatrical trailer concludes the extras.

Posted by: Rich Rosell - October 18, 2009, 6:39 am - DVD Review
Keywords: gangster, crime