One Take Only (Tartan/DTS)
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C Film: C+
How many
male/female pairing (or their variations) are we going to have of the addicted
and/or drug dealing guy and hooker gal suddenly finding each other and having
to find their way in the cold world they know so well? Too many, so even when Oxide Pang’s One Take Only (2001) shows us the same
story in Thailand, the only thing that keeps one watching is the different
location and not much else. Bank is the
drug dealer and Sum the hooker. The
twist is they have a big drug deal to pull off that will set them for life.
Of
course, the odds will be highly against them and that is supposed to be where
the story is, but Pang is too confused and energies to scattered and choppy to
make this even a fraction as interesting as better entries like Leaving Las Vegas. As for the “hooker with a heart of gold”
cliché, does that mean the rest have dark hearts and deserve all the ills and
abuse they get? In 99% of the cases, it
is men writing and directing such stories as Pang does here and showing the
idea has imploded, the film is all over the place.
Some of
it is interesting for the wrong reasons, while others make no sense, like the
thousandth credits sequence trying to look like David Fincher’s Se7en.
Some of the sex moments are different, but 99% of them just look like
filler in all such films by now, so who cares.
Ultimately, this is an interesting failure that is more interesting for
its location than content.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 x 1 image is mixed, with some good color, some
nice shots, but softness and detail issues throughout. The sound is here in Dolby Digital and DTS
5.1 mixes, but the DTS is barely better since the sound mix is only so
good. It sounds like the film was not
originally conceived as such and Tartan tried to upgrade the sound as best as
possible. Extras include a trailer to
this and four other Tartan titles, including Ab-Normal Reality, another Pang film the making of featurette of is
included here.
- Nicholas Sheffo
