Review of Peter`s Friends

Introduction

Peter`s Friends was a classic British Film Industry movie and one of the earlier products of Channel 4 Films in the early 90`s. The film follows the reunion of a group of university friends after nearly a decade of not meeting, when one of them invites the others to a New Year party. There is a certain nostalgia for the 80`s which is very entertaining to watch. The cast is excellent, not least because a number of the actors were close friends, and indeed were at university together. Stephen Fry could not be cast better as a bi-sexual fop who tries to manage his various friends and their partners, be they depressive, alcoholic or sex mad. Kenneth Brannagh play possibly his best film role as a self-loathing Hollywood husband.

If you`re looking for action then you`re in the wrong place, but if you are looking for a sympathetic British comedy-drama with a tinge of blackness then you`ll probably lap it up. The whole thing is set to a superb soundtrack of popular 80`s songs which will probably bring back many memories of their own. As a script it is notable because this film could just as easily be produced for the stage without losing any of its appeal.

The main concern regarding this disc is that it is distributed by Entertainment In Video, and marketed as a budget brand (with a RRP of approx. £12). So is this disc a good bargain basement buy, or have things been skimped ?

Video

The video quality of this disc is shocking, appalling and overall one of the least inspiring DVD transfers I`ve had the misfortune of laying my eyes upon. Don`t get me wrong, the picture doesn`t appear to suffer any compression or digital artefacts, so things could probably be worse. The picture is, however, completely lifeless, dull and entirely two-dimensional. The is no depth, no colour, and very little detail. Most shots appear to be slightly out of focus, and the palette rarely emerges from a sea of greys and browns.

The aspect ratio of the disc is also a puzzler. EiV don`t even see fit to give the disc it`s own title - when loaded onto a PC the volume name is simply "EiV 4-3 template". However, upon viewing it would appear that this disc is not even a true 4:3 transfer, but some form of full frame-but-then-cropped 1.75:1 aspect attempt. Zooming into this on a widescreen set simply accentuates how dire the picture is.

Audio

It is a close competition if the sound on this disc is as bad or worse than the image. Eventually the audio is rescued by the fact that the music is so excellent, and relatively acceptable presented. The vocals and sound effects are miserable, and often it can be difficult to make out what the characters are saying.

Digital audio should never sound this bad, and either the original sound man (which I think is unlikely because TV broadcasts of the film have been fine) or the EiV DVD team should be roasted over hot coals.

Features

You may think you`ve seen discs with no features on before, but you haven`t until you`ve seen Peter`s Friends. Put simply, you don`t even get scene selection ! A title scene gives you the simple option to play the movie - no soundtracks, no subtitles, no nothing. You could only have less on a disc if it booted straight into the movie automatically, and that`s probably contrary to the DVD Forum specifications.

Conclusion

Great movie - awful disc. I`ve never been more ashamed to watch a film on a DVD as I was when I saw Peter`s Friends. I had to buy the disc because it`s my wife`s favourite film and she would have it on any format, but even she was disappointed. The image quality is terrible, the sound is loathsome, and there are no extras whatsoever. What terribly shoddy treatment of the film by EiV, and it demonstrates the absolute minimum effort on their part. The fact that this is a budget disc is no justification, as a price of £6 would be more suitable. There is no excuse for this kind of shameless profit-taking from back-catalogue titles without any sort of added value whatsoever.

Avoid like the plague unless you worship this film, and even then prepare for disappointment.