Review of House!

Introduction

When you`re queueing for your lottery tickets at 7:25pm on a Saturday evening (if you play the lottery), do you wonder where some of the "good causes" money ends up? Well, apart from that travesty called the "Millenium Dome", some of it ended up going to the Arts Council and supporting the making of this film. So was it money well spent? Let`s find out...

"House!" is a low budget film about Bingo, set in Wales. Now don`t start running away just yet, you`ve got to give it a chance first. A film about Bingo wouldn`t usually be my first choice either, but I`d heard good things and decided to give it a go.

Video

An anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer that shows some of the big Hollywood studios how it should be done. This is even more impressive given the low budget of the film itself. There was a bit of dirt evident on the original print in places, but this is perhaps forgivable. Everything else about the transfer was top notch with colours (some nice seventies wallpaper, and some grim toilets), contrast and blacks all looking good.

Audio

A DD5.1 soundtrack. On a low budget film about bingo. Admittedly it doesn`t push your system to its limits, and channels other than the centre are used sparingly, but it`s still a very good effort and it all sounds good. My one complaint is that it was a little too quiet, and I needed to turn my amp up more than usual. Apart from that though, spot on.

Features

So the picture and sound were impressive. And it doesn`t stop there. There`s even some extras stirred into the recipe.

First up are six 30 second trailers for the film (all 1:85.1 anamorphic too, so no skimping there). Only one of them really gives a good idea of what the film`s about, but nice to see the different ways that they tried to sell it.

The next extra is a short film by director Julian Kemp, called "Suckers". This is based around the training of some hoover salesmen, and stars Neil Stuke (probably best known as the second Matthew in BBC 2 sit-com "Game On") among others. I like Neil (and this character`s not too different to some of his others), and the short film is very amusing and a welcome addition.

The final extra is a director`s commentary. Even if big shot Hollywood directors won`t lower themselves to doing commentaries, it doesn`t seem to stop these first timers. This particular commentator starts out by confessing that he owns a fair few Laserdiscs and DVDs and that he hopes that he can make his commentary interesting. He certainly does, and has plenty to say about the making of the film. If you enjoyed the film, it`s definitely worth a listen.

Conclusion

As I said in the intro, you`ve got to give it a chance. And I`m glad I did as this was a very enjoyable film. It`s hard to sum it up without making lazy comparisons to films like "The Fully Monty" and "Billy Elliott", because at times it has that kind of feel to it.

But there`s also a bit more to it, with some very well crafted flashback scenes and even some very stylised John Woo style slo-mo shots (an effect the director was trying to create).

The plot`s pretty simple, and you`ll probably easily work out what`s going to happen and how it will all end, but it`s enjoyable enough along the way so it doesn`t really bother you. There are plenty of little jokes to amuse you along the way too.

A good ninety minutes entertainment. Whilst it probably won`t find its way into many collections, it`s definitely worth a rental.