HOME   News   Reviews   Adv Search   Features   My DVD   About   Apps   Stats     Search:
  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Pan&Scan
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Photo gallery

Gridlock'd

Universal/Universal . R4 . COLOR . 127 mins . R . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Kicking a drug habit is one of the hardest things in life to do. Trust me, I know. When I decided to give up KFC, I broke out into sweats, suffered drastic mood swings and alienated a lot of my friends. And that was just from eating my final drumstick. You should have seen me when I had to actually leave the store! Man, that was tough. But I’m fine now, I eat 30 cheeseburgers a day instead.

In Gridlock’d, the same thoughts of kicking their habit hit Tupac Shakur and Tim Roth after their friend Cookie (Thandie Newton) overdoses and winds up in hospital. While she lays unconscious in a hospital bed, Spoon (Shakur) decides that enough is enough and that he’s learnt his lesson. With the reluctant support of fellow friend and junkie Stretch (Roth), they set out to get cleaned up with the help of the city health services. That’s when they learn that it might just be easier to stay on drugs than to deal with the bureaucracy that’s there to help them.

Slow to start, and perhaps not settled about what kind of film it wants to be, it’s when Roth and Shakur start down their road to wellbeing with the best of intentions that most of the laughs come. Roth starts to fire off with his trademark quicktalk whining, the misdirection from department to department makes them criss-cross the city and the frustration they face tempts them into one last high before they go nuts.

Director Vondie Curtis-Hall (yes, you read that right, Vondie, and it’s a guys name) trots out all the clichés you’d expect. Smarmy shortfused government workers sick of taking crap from crackheads? Check. Witty foulmouthed explanations of what’s wrong with the world? Check. Obligatory chase scene with bad guys? Check. Freaked out Vietnam vet? Check. Rabid dog? Check. Lucy Lui? Check. Dead drug dealer? Check. Okay, some of those aren’t what you’d call clichés, but now you have a good idea of what’s in the film.

Give it a go and you may just enjoy it.

Okay, and now for the anti-drug message for the kiddies:

Okay kids, just because someone in a film takes drugs, it doesn’t mean that you should. One day you’ll learn that the only thing drugs do is open your mind to freaky colours and bad hallucinations. Okay, they might help expand your potential in many fields such as art and music, but the side effects are increased popularity with people who can’t get drugs, more invitations to A-list events, wild and crazy sex with strangers and a sudden urge to dance like a clown. SO DON’T TAKE THEM, OKAY? If someone offers you cocaine or any other drug, just tell them your Uncle Vincent said to say “NO!”, and make sure you get their phone number so I can, er, get in contact with them myself.

  Video
Contract

In this day and with the maturity of the DVD format, it’s a shame to see a film released in anything other than its original aspect ratio. Gridlock’d should be 1.85:1, but this release sees fit to shovel a pan and scan transfer on the disc. Needless to say, this means it isn’t 16:9 enhanced, but let’s waste valuable 0’s and 1’s and state the bleeding obvious anyway, shall we? Assessing what we do have, and making comparisons with my trusty VHS copy of the film, we can see that at least this DVD isn’t bloody horrible to look at or anything. We start with the colours and put a tick in the ‘good’ checkbox. Skin tones look suitably natural and the city dull and grey. Detail and clarity get a tick in ‘good’ as well, with the enlarged image showing up a bit of grittiness and infrequent and non-intrusive aliasing. It’s all good then, not great. Just good, with a point or two deducted because of the wrong aspect ratio. Sorry.

  Audio
Contract

“Lacklustre” is an exciting word. It dives right in with some tension and drama by telling you that whatever it’s describing, it ‘lacks’ something. What is that something, you start to wonder? As you begin to read the second part of the word, your mind races. ‘Lacks’ what? Quality? Definition? Cheese? Does it lack cheese? Is that it? Cheese? Then you read ‘lustre’, and you think, ‘lacklustre’? What the hell is ‘lustre’. So you get out your dictionary and look it up, and you discover that it means it's “...lacking brilliance or vitality”.

See? It really is an exciting word isn’t it? It makes you guess, it makes you sweat, it makes you wonder if anyone you know has ever used the word to describe you.

Used here, it sums up the overall feeling the audio leaves you with. It’s a little bit flat, a little bit lifeless, a little bit dull. Kind of like real life, I guess. That’s probably the sound they were aiming for with this film, so who am I to judge artistic intent?

  Extras
Contract

Just two items to select from here. A Stills Gallery with ten images taken from within the film and the production, and a single pan and scan Trailer.

  Overall  
Contract

If you’ve never heard of this film, or you’ve heard of it but never seen it, or perhaps you’ve seen it but forgotten it because you were high at the time, then I think you’ll find it entertaining. It won’t set your world on fire, or even steam up your underpants, but it might give you a laugh or three.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=1762
  • Send to a friend.

    Cast your vote here: You must enable cookies to vote.
  •   
      And I quote...
    "It won’t set your world on fire, or even steam up your underpants, but it might give you a laugh or three."
    - Vince Carrozza
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DVP-525
    • Receiver:
          Sony STR-DB1070
    • Speakers:
          Wharfedale s500
    • Centre Speaker:
          Polk Audio CS245
    • Surrounds:
          Wharfedale s500
    • Subwoofer:
          DB Dynamics TITAN
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
      Recent Reviews:
    by Vince Carrozza

    20 Million Miles to Earth
    "THRILLS! CHILLS! PLASTICINE!"

    Earth Vs The Flying Saucers
    "The people of Earth face their ultimate threat – not from the DEVIOUS COMMUNISTS! Not from the WILEY CHINESE! Not even from the sinister ROTARIANS!"

    City Under the Sea
    "What, indeed, was the point of this film, and why did they write a part for a bloody rooster?"

    Santana - Down Under Live at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion
    "Fans can look beyond the flaws though and just revel in the Gold FM hits without the annoying ads."

    Phantom of the Opera (1925)
    "It’s your typical ‘lovesick masked psycho meets girl, girl unmasks psycho, psycho goes on rampage” story."

      Related Links
      None listed

     

    Search for Title/Actor/Director:
    Google Web dvd.net.au
       Copyright DVDnet. All rights reserved. Site Design by RED 5   
    rss