Review of Full Monty, The

Introduction

The Full Monty was something of a sleeper hit coming from nowhere to make a reasonable success in the box-office. The film was also one of an increasingly rare breed - a truly good British film. The very nature of the film plays on its British roots, beginning with a kitsch intro comprising a promotional video of Sheffield - the "City of Steel". The themes of the film are true Brit-cinema, touching on the search for meaning of men who have been left out of work as the city`s heavy industry collapses. There are also respectable nods to the subjects of suicide, self-belief and self-image, homosexuality, marital breakdown and other issues, all of which are handled in a light-hearted but reasonable way.

I am aware that this description makes the film sound pretty depressing, but it still succeeds as a comedy, and there are some classic comedy moments. Robert Carlyle and Tom Wilkinson are well cast, and put in great turns as the lead characters. The supporting cast is also excellent, and suitably mismatched as the group of aspiring strippers.

Video

I was disappointed with Fox`s treatment of the video on this disc. It would seem that very little effort or investment has been put into transferring the image to DVD. At least the image is anamorphically enhanced. I was looking forward to an enhanced, screen-filling 16:9 presentation, but to be honest the image is rather soft and there is quite a lot of grain, scratches and general noise.

The filmic quality of the picture is also rather dull, but I cannot say for certain if this is intentional, as it does rather match the intentional grey lifelessness of the depiction of Sheffield.

Don`t get me wrong, the disc is watchable in a bland sort of way. It simply does nothing to exploit the true capabilities of the DVD format.

Audio

In much the same way as the video quality, the sound on this disc again looks shoddily treated. The Full Monty plays most on it`s soundtrack by greats such as Gary Glitter (?!), Sister Sledge and Tom Jones, as well as relying great on the vocal sound stage for dialogue scenes. It is a surprise and a disappointment then, to find that the soundtrack is limited to a Dolby Surround stereo matrixed mix. Although a relatively good example of it`s kind, the centre and rear channel lack the weight and detail they could have had with a 5.1 track. It`s a real shame because the 5.1 rendition of "You Can Leave Your Hat On" would have been a real treat to behold.

Features

A trailer, scene selection and a host of subtitles simply does not cut it. Given the subject matter and the numerous dancing scenes, this has got to have been a movie with masses of bloopers. The final print also runs quite short (although it is often perceived as shorter than it actually is), so perhaps deleted scenes are also available. This release amounts to a bare disc, and quite frankly in this day and age that`s not really acceptable.

Conclusion

If I was involved with the Full Monty, either as an actor, or involved with the production process, I would be very disappointed with the way Fox have produced this disc. There is nothing inherently bad about it, but it just feels like the absolute minimum effort has been put into bringing it to market. It has a soft, dirty picture, uninspiring sound and nothing else to recommend it.

Recently, Fox handed out free discs as a promotional exercise in exchange for signing up to their email lists, and Full Monty was one of the discs given away. Quite frankly, this is probably an acknowledgement by Fox that it is a cheap title that they have knocked out. With modern releases of films brining discs of true quality and content to the market, The Full Monty is never really going to be able to compete. To be honest, Fox probably had it right that this disc is only really fit for budget sales, or to be given away.

Get the disc and enjoy the excellent film then, but don`t expect it to impress you on technical quality, or provide any other material of interest.