The Hollywood Sign (Rental)

The Hollywood Sign begins on a movie set, where two aging Hollywood actors are at work on a film, driving the director berserk with their inability to get the job done. Tom Greener (Tom Berenger), and Kage Mulligan (Burt Reynolds), are unlikely to work again, and this is confirmed pretty quickly when the film jumps ahead seven years. The two are no longer acting, and are chasing work of almost any kind. Their paths cross, and Greener reveals to Mulligan that he has a ‘friend’ currently talking to studio bosses about a film script. It concerns the theft of millions of dollars from a Las Vegas casino and was written years earlier by his then girlfriend, Paula Carver (Jacqueline Kim). Titled "The Hollywood Sign", Tom Greener has rewritten a happier ending for the script (as that's what audiences want), presumably without her knowledge or consent, and it is upon this that he has pinned his hopes.

After the 'friend' is killed, and the script appears dead in the water, the pair meet another Hollywood wash-up, Floyd Benson (Rod Steiger), at the funeral and begin one of those long drinking and reminiscing bouts that all has-beens seem to enjoy. Ironically, this one is conducted at the foot of the huge Hollywood sign that is synonymous with Los Angeles, and the same one we've all seen a thousand times. Here they find the body of a dead gangster, and Benson recognises him (in a city the size of LA? Not likely!) as a small time crook. The three wash-ups also see a way to get their hands on almost $9 million after they piece together the clues as to how the body got there. However, it seems that Tom Greener is not the only one impressed with the script of "The Hollywood Sign" and it dawns on him that they have stumbled into a real life version of the robbery - or have they? Thinking that there is a great deal of cash to be had, they devise a way of scamming the scammers, but it involves the three 'actors' pulling off one hell of a convincing acting job, something they haven't managed for years.

The DVD release of The Hollywood Sign as rental only (at this stage) should signal that this is not essential viewing. It is difficult to know what the intent of the film is; humour, suspense, a vehicle for the three lead actors? These three leads do have a lot in common with their characters. There are a few genuinely amusing moments, particularly from Rod Steiger, and the final scenes when they are masquerading as detectives from the LAPD. There is not a great deal in the way of suspense, or car chases, but there are gangsters involved (though not very scary ones), and I think they are there to be menacing, but they are also a bit too “Scooby Doo� to be truly worrisome. OK. I've decided - it is a comedy. It also has a bit of a surprise ending, and it is always nice to be surprised in a movie these days, isn't it?

For a film that is only two years old, this is somewhat lacking in quality. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16:9 enhanced. The most obvious problem is shadow detail. Many scenes are in dimly lit areas, or with very bright backlighting, and faces are a little hard to see sometimes, which doesn’t help the mood. Fortunately, there is no evidence of edge enhancement or low-level noise. Colours are fair, but the overall image is a little on the soft side (maybe at the request of the lead actors?). There are no other problems with colour such as bleeding, cross-colouration or noise.

There is little in the way of artefacts apart from some very minor marks, but these are not numerous or distracting. There is no aliasing, which is surprising, as there are numerous times when this could have been a problem. Lastly, there is no layer change.

The audio is limited to a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround mix which is adequate. A full 5.1 transfer would been nice, but not essential as there are no explosions and the like. There are some nice ambient sounds such as birds and crickets, but the surround mix is adequate for this. There is some separation between left and right fronts, and some thought has gone into dialogue placement when the actors are off screen. There are no audio synch problems, dialogue is generally clear with some very slight 'muddiness' at times, and there are no subtitles.

I must say I really enjoyed some of the music, especially the piece that plays with the final credits for about a minute until some awful R&B noise kicked in.

Extras-wise there is just a Theatrical Trailer lasting two minutes. It shares the same specifications as the feature other than the 16:9 enhancement. Maybe it's me, but what is the point of this extra? It's a rental only release, so you can't go out and buy it. If you are a collector of theatrical trailers (if there is such a thing) then there is no point for the same reason, and there is no sense in using the trailer to encourage you to come back and rent it, because you have to rent it before you can see the trailer. If anyone has a theory, feel free to share it with me.

Overall, this is an average film. The performances are generally sound, the story has a few decent sized holes in the plot, and the baddies are not at all scary, but as discussed, this may be intentional, who knows? If you want a good belly laugh, forget it. If you want thrills and spills, then go out and clean your back shed. If you are down the local video (DVD) library and making use of one of those weekly deals and need one more title to fill the quota, well The Hollywood Sign is not a bad choice.