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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.78:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: DTS 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Surround
  Subtitles
  • None
  Extras
  • 4 Deleted scenes
  • Teaser trailer
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary - Director Evan Clarry, writer Stephen Davis, producer Chris Brown, actor Craig Horner
  • Animated menus
  • Behind the scenes footage
  • Outtakes
  • Short film - Mate

Blurred

Magna/Magna . R4 . COLOR . 91 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Contrary to what seems to be popular belief, there are actually three certainties in life. Death – yeah, duh. Taxes. Ooh yeah, double duh. And the third? If you don’t avoid Queensland’s Gold Coast during schoolies week then you’re a complete and utter bloody idiot.

Why is this so? Well, for the uninitiated it is a period of seven or so days (we must allow for hangovers) whereby year 12 students from Australia-wide “celebrate” being cast asunder from their safe little routine lives of high-school servitude, into what the rest of us know as the real world. And how do they approach such a step into the shoes of adulthood? By congregating at the Gold Coast for insatiable amounts of drinkin’ and f*ckin’.

Blurred, based on a stage play of the same name (although you’d be hard pressed to know it from what transpires on screen, as it is refreshingly most un-playlike), loosely tells the tales of a number of groups headed to this annual school’s-out Mecca. Be they trekking it via foot, train, bus, Holden shitbox or limo, a number of tales are told, all coming together somewhat with the aid of a servo – how delightfully Aussie! Along the way we’re privy to anecdotes involving everything from boys wanting to break up for the week “just for fun” (I don’t think further explanation is required as to the thinking behind that one), hoons, Bevans and nerds, a chauffeur in an LBD (a shockingly bumfluff-toting Matthew Newton slumming it after Looking For Alibrandi - what must Bert and Patti have thought?), bizarre love triangles, an escapee from Deliverance, leaders and followers, condom obsession and more testosterone-fuelled dickheadery than you could shake an overly-endowed stripper at.

With a simple catchcry of “Party hard!”, Blurred is enough to have any parent downright shitting themselves – for as much as they probably got up – erm, maybe that should be down? – to similar shenanigans as those depicted here in their day, naturally enough it’s never something to admit to the offspring, is it? Although naturally enough it wasn’t like this in my particular day, oh no... I was a good widdle thing...

It’s a natural life progression for school day bubbles to burst at the end of doing studious time, and many of the things depicted in Blurred, despite their regular air of depravity, shouldn’t come as any great shock to anybody possessing a touch of realism within their noggins. More often than not it’s certainly not pretty, but despite some of the fairly ridiculous story arc-ettes foisted upon us it all bears what is basically a resigned realism to the idiocy we’re capable of when faced with having to deal with those ever so frightening things known as our futures. The cast may be fairly unknown, unless you’re a soapie junkie – pick a soap, any soap, and there’s likely a representative here - however they all do a pretty good job at delivering the threads of script they’re fed here, in what is both an often amusing and also frightening depiction of the youth of today... or, truth be told, any other day.

  Video
Contract

There’s basically only one thing wrong with this transfer – that annoying, but increasingly prevalent habit of distributors cropping things ever so slightly in order to make films of a 1.85:1 cinematic ratio perfectly fit widescreen tellies, which are in a ratio of 1.78:1. While the 37 or so overpaid people who actually own such screens may be whooping it up at the absence of anything vaguely resembling those “annoying black bars”, it’s a bad precedent which should be nipped in the bud pronto. This whinge aside, it seems a fairly pointless exercise saying much more, other than the fact that this anamorphically enhanced transfer is pristine and basically flawless bar for one example of a car grille going shimmer, shimmer, shimmer. All is otherwise superb visually, with only a slightly jarring layer change and the aforementioned slight cropping detracting from what is otherwise unable to be criticised.

  Audio
Contract

Got DTS? Then rejoice. Only got Dolby Digital 5.1? No need for complaints. Stuck in the dark ages with boring old Dolby Digital stereo? You’re catered for too. Basically nobody loses here, with decent mixes no matter what audio format you’re employing. With the risk of sounding like a stuck record, there’s little if anything to differentiate between the DTS and DD5.1 mixes (we could wax on about increased sonic definition and crystalline who’s-e-whatsits, but we’d simply be wanking on about a whole lot of nothing – the sort of things people search for desperately to justify extra expenditure). What’s important to note is that the two six-channel mixes we’re given are pretty darned fab, with good usage of the rears when called upon, plus some lovely utilisation of the subwoofwoof to both beef up the many bumps and thumps littered throughout the film, as well as giving some fabulous bass oomph to the soundtrack.

Whilst on the subject of the soundtrack, it’s an absolute stormer. Consisting entirely of Antipodean acts (who needs those bloody imports?) it manages to incorporate the likes of the unfairly-pilloried Lash, Spiderbait, Lavaland, Grinspoon, Rocket Science, go-Russ-go’s sheila Danielle Spencer, Cartman, Machine Gun Fellatio, (pause for breath), The Daisycutters, 28 Days, Pollyanna, The Cruel Sea, The Killjoys, Snout, erstwhile Clouds goddess Jodi Phillis and many, many more all in the one film. If only more Australian productions were this keen to showcase so much of our incredible home grown talent in such a way...

  Extras
Contract

If the film on its own isn’t enough for you, the generous array of extras on offer will no doubt have you chuggin’ back the Eastern Grey in delight.

First up, the menus are very funky, complete with super-rapid cuts and generous chunks of various tunes from the soundtrack. Stop one on the extras list is a film soundtrack-free commentary, featuring director Evan Clarry, writer Stephen Davis and producer Chris Brown – with actor Craig Horner blowing in a bit later. This is possibly the most bizarre commentary I’ve ever suffered through – managing to balance some useful and interesting information about locations, casting, visual effects and in this case the story’s roots as a play, with way too much abject puerility which generally straddles the wrong side of that line marked “offensive”. These are supposedly grown men, yet they give some of the film’s less classy moments an air of Oscar-winning classic drama by comparison. This is certainly not for the faint of heart, and I dread to think what it was like before it was edited.

Moving on to better climes, we have a featurette entitled Mark and Trav’s Guide to Blurred. Delivered in full frame, this 14:40 extra basically gives us handheld footage from shoots for two of Blurred’s stunts, giving a reasonably fun, if a bit daggy, look behind the scenes. A series of deleted scenes follows, in green-tinged un-enhanced 1.78:1 and running for 5:16. Four scenes are here, generally revolving around mushy stuff between some of the film’s protagonists which was possibly cut because it wasn’t dodgy enough... Also featured, and also in green-o-vision like the deletions, is 4:58 of outtakes, a compilation of the usual flubs and giggles such things tend to offer up.

A 1997 short film from director Clarry is included, the fascinating Mate. A tale of beer buddies, crocs, dying wishes and Wayne Kerrs, it’s actually quite black but intriguing and entertaining at the same time. It’s full frame, runs for 10:25 and is quite scratchy and grainy.

Rounding out the package (no fnarrs, please) is 4:02 of promotional teasers - seven interstitials of various lengths and varying degrees of tastelessness, plus a well compiled trailer (1:37, 1.78:1 un-enhanced) which does a fabulous job of potting the film’s basics into a blipvert-styled running time.

  Overall  
Contract

Is it documentary, comedy or horror? Well, in the end it’s all in the eye of the beholder. But if that eye has 20/20 vision then there can be no complaints whatsoever about the quality of all the DVD-related things involved with the superbly presented Blurred - except perhaps for the often offensive commentary track. The film often delivers much that is by no means pretty, however what modern day teen films like this do? For although the times may change one thing is always a constant – that progression from the bosom of adolescence and school to making it in the outside world and dealing with the pressures of adulthood is rife with scary challenges we tend to forget as we head further down that icky path to old fogeydom – and as much as we may hate to admit it we all got up to various types of dodgy stuff of our own at a similar age. Yes, even us nerd girls!


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      And I quote...
    "Is it documentary, comedy or horror?"
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • TV:
          Sony 68cm
    • Receiver:
          Onkyo TX-DS494
    • Speakers:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse RBS662
    • Centre Speaker:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECC442
    • Surrounds:
          DB Dynamics Eclipse ECR042
    • Subwoofer:
          DTX Digital 4.8
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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