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  Directed by
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  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Surround
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary
  • TV spot
  • Alternate ending

Take Away

Roadshow Entertainment/Roadshow Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 85 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

As a proud Aussie kid you can bet your life I was brought up on a certain delectable culinary staple, fish and chips. Friday night was always something to look forward to and, diet be damned, it still is.

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Bzzt. Wrong!

Over many years of partaking in this deep-fried fetish, I have had a chance to formulate a checklist of what makes a good fish and chip shop, and what generally makes a shit one. This information has remained close to my not so ample bosom for too long, so here’s the perfect opportunity to share it with you all. Geez, I’m such a philanthropic little dickens, ain’t I?

  • If a shop is labelled a “fish and chippery” then the place is most likely owned by a wanker, and everything will undoubtedly be overpriced, meaning a minimum chips will cost at least three bucks while consisting of one or two feeble sticks of potato. The scumbags will also only give you two potato cakes when you actually order two. Avoid.

  • If there is no sign of a cruddy old oil-stained Chiko Roll poster on the wall somewhere, featuring some scantily-clad slapper draped over a motorcycle, then avoid.

  • If there are no glaringly obvious speeling mistooks on the menu – variations we have admired over the years include assorted failed attempts at spelling the words ‘tomato’, ‘potato’, ‘schnitzel’ and even ‘Chiko’ correctly - then the food will be crap. Avoid.

  • If they pack the chips in boxes rather than good old butcher’s paper then they’re probably about to rename the place as a fish and chippery. See the first point and, naturally, avoid.

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    Ah, that's more like it. (Note Chiko Roll poster to the right...)

  • If they’ve followed what seems to be a relatively recent trend by being too slack-arsed and lazy to make their own fresh chips and instead are using yukky frozen ones then avoid – they taste like shit. After all, if we’re so desperate for a potato fix that we’d even contemplate ingesting crappy oven fries then we’d buy them ourselves. Hopefully the once good fish and chip shop in Ivanhoe reads this and takes heed, ‘cos you’ve lost a customer over this recent development.

  • If the potato cakes are perfectly round then they’re most likely prefab, originally frozen ones and will taste icky. Avoid.

  • If you’re about to partake the wares of the fish and chip shop next to the bottle shop in High Street Thomastown then don’t avoid, you’re onto a real winner. Try the flake – you’ll get half a shark in batter!

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Trev Vs. Tony

Anyway, that’s the average review length gone and I haven’t even touched upon the instigation for sharing such Yoda-like wisdom. Take Away is another recent Aussie comedy, penned by renowned fast food junkie Dave O’Neil and Mark O’Toole, that’s based around a battle of one-upmanship between a fish and chip shop owned and run by one Trev (Stephen Curry) and a fish and chippery, owned and run by one Tony (Vince Colosimo). Tony’s a rather fastidious, slick operator while Trev’s more of a flatulent, fargit-she’ll-be-right-mate kinda guy, but they’re both surviving kind of OK until the day the spectre of multinational prefabricated fast food chain Burgies looms large over their heads. Well, next door to Tony’s place at any rate. The two reluctantly join forces to take on the placcy burger-shilling behemoth, in one of those Aussie battler type thingos like The Castle that everybody’s tried to emulate the success of ever since.

Sadly, however, it doesn’t exactly come off.

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Hmm, interesting eyebrows...

There are some fun cacks to be had in Take Away, although most everything from the little jokes to the main plot points can be seen coming from a few years ago. It’s just that the gags are more the comfy old, well-acquainted flanny jammies type rather than those of the I-didn’t-see-that-coming, how embarrassing I’ve soiled myself variety.

While Stephen Curry is his usual great fun, rough-as-Hessian-undies self, Vince Colosimo proves he’s better at the serious stuff than comedy, while the likes of Rose Byrne and Nathan Phillips are likeable but just kinda hanging around in 2D. As law seems to dictate with these things cameo spots are filled by the odd known Aussie comedian, and John Howard (no, not the wretched little snivelling toady one) gets a chance to be a right prick, which is always fun to experience.

  Video
Contract

No time to mess around, what we want is fast service! So, what we’re delivered here via a cinema-same ratio of 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced) transfer is rather fabulous, being a print that’s cleaner than a fresh-cut chip. Colour is all natural with suitable vibrancy when needed, detail is as good as could be wanted, and things happening in the shadows don’t degenerate into goopy piles of murk.

  Audio
Contract

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It's good to see these multinationals are hiring the oldies nowadays...
For a reasonably little film in the big wide world of cinema kind of thing, Take Away boasts a fun little soundtrack. Available in Dolby Digital 5.1, and DD stereo (kind of the equivalent of a low-fat dim sim - stick or no stick), the former provides some great surround usage at times, a certain freaked-out dream sequence instantly coming to mind. So too the subwoofwoof gets the odd nice juicy steak sanga to hunker down upon, with enough assorted thuds, groans and bumps to get the downstairs neighbours bashing seven shades of shite out of their ceiling with the old mop handle. Synch never poses any problems, and the soundtrack, courtesy Yuri Worontschak (who’s been involved with just about every local comedy TV show you could name), does appropriately soundtracky stuff, ably assisted by catchy little pop ditties from the likes of Lash, Happyland (doing an uncanny impersonation of The Primitives), Pat Wilson and Ballarat’s finest ever export, the unspeakably brilliant The Mavis’s.

  Extras
Contract

So how do we fare in the bonus scallop department? Well, it’s hardly a bountiful white-paper wrapped package, but the commentary proves a fun, if not brain-frying, diversion. Director Marc Gracie and writers O’Neil and O’Toole front up to gas about their creation, and if you’re patient there’s much to learn about the flick within the regular cacophony of one speaking over the other. From locations to effects, dodgy close-ups to inciting us to hurl things through store windows and even noting that one of the lighting guys was the original drummer for Pseudo Echo, this one’s certainly not a dull ‘un.

Other than that there’s little to munch on, save for a Burgies commercial as featured in the film, a full frame trailer that runs just over two minutes and has a vaguely cute David vs Goliath vibe about it and alternate credits which feature many of the show’s inhabitants recommending their favourite Victorian take away places.

  Overall  
Contract

While hardly the beefiest Aussie comedy nugget we’ve been served up in recent times, Take Away does have its larrikin charm, and DVD-wise is quite superb in the video and audio departments. However, in the end it’s kind of like a fish and chippery with the odd spelling boo-boo on the board and a Chiko Roll poster on the wall (but one’s that framed); it tries to do the right thing, but somehow just doesn’t quite nail it.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=3527
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      And I quote...
    "Hardly the beefiest Aussie comedy nugget we’ve been served up in recent times…"
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-466-K
    • 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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