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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer

Family Business

20th Century Fox/20th Century Fox Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 109 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Certainly top-heavy in the star department, once you get past the belief factor issues in that Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman and Sean Connery could be a direct line of son, father and grandfather, Family Business is one of those just kind of there dramas with occasional slightly comedic overtones that we were bombarded with back in the ‘80s.

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Ah, the marvels of genetics...

Basically Vito McMullen (Hoffman) has reformed himself from continuing his father’s line in petty larceny by becoming a comfortably middle class New Yorker, cutting up cows for a living in his meat business. His son, Adam (Broderick), has just dropped out of an almost complete Masters degree at M.I.T. and a promising career as a biologist, while his still somewhat criminally-minded father Jessie (Connery) has pretty much become estranged. Ah, but not from young Adam, who has kept in touch and comes to the rescue with bail money after a spot of bar brawling from the 60-something Scotsman.

Upon catching up, it seems that despite Vito’s attempts at keeping Adam distanced from his criminal past, there’s simply something in the genes, with the youngest McMullen onto an apparently easy-peasy scam which will net a million dollars.
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Honestly junior, do I still have to dress you?
While the eldest and youngest of the clan are keen to get involved, naturally Vito is reticent, only eventually being nimbly railroaded into lending his talents in order to keep a lookout for his son – after all, it’s just a simple robbery, right? Not surprisingly, however, things tend to go quite pear-shaped at pretty much every turn and Adam is nicked, leaving the two elder McMullens with very different ideas of how to solve the issue.

More than just a caper film, Family Business, based on a novel by Vincent Patrick (who also penned the screenplay) also takes a stab at examining the often intricate world of family politics, to varying degrees of success. With the admittedly flippant premise that there’s nothing like a good robbery to bring a family closer together, things don’t necessarily work out as such, perhaps with the kindergarten simple, time-worn adage that “crime doesn’t pay” being intended to be the order of the day, both financially and emotionally. Whatever the intention, it’s all just a bit flat, with little in the way of the onscreen vivacity you may expect when coupling the likes of Connery and Hoffman.

  Video
Contract

The biggest surprise with this 1.85:1, 16:9 enhanced presentation is how clean the print is – with nary a speckle in sight throughout. In all things are fairly impressive without ever being stunning, as fine grain is regularly present affecting sharpness, plus the occasional slight outbreak of aliasing. Shadow detail isn’t excellent, although the layer change is very well placed at the end of a scene and is scarcely noticeable.

  Audio
Contract

A fairly standard Dolby Digital 2.0 mix is all that’s on offer here, providing a workmanlike mix which gets the job done while never setting the speakers to anything nearing stun. Dialogue is clear at all times, well synched and well balanced with the generally schmaltzy score from Cy Coleman, which only really gets interesting when gathering a bit of swing at each end of the feature.

  Extras
Contract

Speaking of workmanlike, a static, incredibly messy menu holds nothing in the way of extras. So where’s the promised theatrical trailer then? Sticky-taped to the end of the movie, with no way of accessing it separately, not even from the scene selection screen. It’s like DVD never happened and we’re still slugging it out with those boring old linear VHS tapes.

  Overall  
Contract

Nowhere near the greatest work from any of its stars, Family Business is delivered to us on DVD with a surprisingly good print, sound that’s simply dutiful and nothing of note in the extras department. Connery is always fun to watch, so fans may find this budget-ish release worth picking up, however it’s doubtful there’s much at all here in the way of re-watch potential. Considering the cast, that’s kind of criminal…


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=2745
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      And I quote...
    "Considering the cast, the lack of sparks here is kind of criminal…"
    - Amy Flower
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Pioneer DV-535
    • 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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