Live Free Or Die (Comedy)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C- Main Program: C-
Rarely do
directing teams work. Often, the
combination of two minds, no matter how like-minded, cause more complacency
than creativity and that is exactly what happened when Gregg Kavet and Andy
Robin made Live Free Or Die (2006),
a comedy that stars like a Scorsese film and quickly plummets into a would-be
comedy about a would-be tough guy thief (Aaron Stanford) who is more myth than
fact and gets sillier (he and the film) when he reunites with a goofy friend
(Paul Schneider) marking a shift in this mess.
From a
promising comedy to a formula one, the guys commit more crimes, then get
followed by a police detective with issues (Michael Rapaport) in what once
again is another not-so-sly attempt to do Midnight
Run, but this one has such an idiot plot that it soon dies quickly. Kevin Dunn and Zooey Deschanel also star.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks like it was shot with older HD
equipment and the tired, shaky camerawork is no help. Color, detail and depth are all limited. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is very bad,
showing how bad location audio was.
Extras include a lame alternate ending, filmmaker/cast audio commentary,
making of featurette, trailers for this and other THINKFilm releases, deleted
scenes and a blooper reel that is almost funny.
- Nicholas Sheffo
