Well, Daniel Craig has now made a truckload of cash as James Bond in Casino Royale, firmly entrenching him as a major Hollywood action star. But how many people experienced his prior work, specifically the one film that was probably the gateway into the prime gig he currently holds. And thankfully, Layer Cake has now come to next-generation shelves as a Sony exclusive Blu-ray title.

Based on the novel by J.J. Connolly (who also adapted the book to the silver screen) and directed by Snatch producer Matthew Vaughn, Craig plays the mysterious Mr. X, a successful drug dealer who is charged by his boss Jimmy (Kenneth Cranham, A Good Year) to try and find a buyer for one of his associates. The cargo? One million tablets of ecstasy, which unbeknownst to X have been stolen from some violently psychotic Serbian nationals intent on capturing his head. He also has to find the daughter of one of Jimmy’s friends, as she’s gone missing from rehab. Complicating things is that Jimmy’s friend is a powerful businessman named Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), who tells X that Jimmy might not exactly be who he appears.

As I mentioned earlier, Vaughn worked with Guy Ritchie on Snatch and in Layer Cake, he has a revolutionary approach; he lets the story unfold organically while restraining the flash and fanfare to not overwhelm the substance. Imagine that! And it’s a good approach in this film, as it’s accented with cool imagery and great dialogue. When X’s assistant Morty (George Harris, Raiders of the Lost Ark) says that someone “is about to get a f’ing slap”, you laugh, but believe it’ll happen. All in all, Layer Cake is the British crime film that Guy Ritchie wished he made. The acting is solid, the dialogue is smart and witty, and the story is well worth investing the 105 minutes.

Video

It’s my first Blu-ray outing, so let me get the terminology right. Layer Cake is presented in 2.4:1 anamorphic widescreen, and is a 1080p MPEG-2 encoded transfer on a BD-50 dual layer disc. How’s that? Well, the image is razor sharp with nothing to complain about, and it sports a lot of color variety throughout the feature, with some dimension and depth on larger sequences (the opening helicopter shot across the golf course being the first one). This is a definite keeper.

Audio

Not being used to the uncompressed soundtracks (and playing the title on a PS3 through a Sony STR-DG800 receiver), the soundtrack provided a wider dynamic range than the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Low end fidelity can be heard and found with any noticeable action. What bugged me about the film’s sound before still stands now, and that’s the softly recorded dialogue of the film’s characters. This isn’t too showy a soundtrack, but it pays the bills.

Special Features

The extras are a straight port from the bonus features on the standard def version of the disc. First and foremost is a commentary with Vaughn and Connolly. In it, both guys are pretty low key, but they stick to their thoughts on adapting the story, how it first looked, and their thoughts on the people who inhabited the characters. I’m a little bit mixed on this commentary. One side of me likes that they were pretty knowledgeable about the film material and the original source, but if they weren’t so quiet, it would have been more effective and enjoyable to listen to. Following that is a respectable group of deleted scenes, 14 of them, and 2 alternate endings, totaling over 20 minutes in length. The only play all function comes with a director’s commentary, but most of the scenes seem to be understandable for their excision.

Next up is a Q & A screening with Vaughn and Craig on the film that was held at the National Film Theatre in London during the theatrical heyday. Vaughn discusses the transition from producer to director, and brings a lot of the usual directorial recollections to the film, and Craig discusses his thoughts on the character and story, and both discuss how the film came out. Vaughn talks about his directing style and influences, which preface an interesting (and brief) discussion about Tarantino films. After that is a quick making of look at the film that runs about 5 minutes long.

Final Thoughts

Well quite frankly, Casino Royale had already been reviewed, but if this disc is any indication of my future expectations about the medium, Layer Cake is worth checking out for those who own DVD lasers that are colored blue. For larger owners of the format unfamiliar with the film, this is a must-buy for the technical qualities, and you will easily be suckered in by the creative merits the film offers.

S.W.A.T. tells the story of a man named Jim Street (Daredevil’s Colin Farrell) and T.J. McCabe (Four Brothers Josh Charles) who are the elite of the elite on Los Angeles Special Weapons and Tactics team. Everything is going smooth until McCabe, by accident, shoots a hostage while trying to prevent a bank robbery. Due to Street and McCabe both being present at the scene, both are demoted (Street to the gun cage and McCabe simply quits). Street continues his everyday job of gun cage duty until he catches the eye of Dan “Hondo” Harrelson (Pulp Fiction’s Samuel L. Jackson), who has been brought here to put together a new S.W.A.T. team. Even though the current captain despises Street, Hondo convinces him to allow Street a chance to be on the team once again. To speed up this synopsis, Street gets on the team with a few other members.

The main plot of the film revolves around international fugitive Alex Montel (Unfaithful?s Olivier Martinez) who is pulled over after a cop notices a broken taillight. Turns out that Alex has quite the bounty on his head resulting in him declaring, in front of TV cameras, “I’ll give $100 Million Dollars to anyone who can get me out of here.” This is where the film gets interesting as every crook tries to get Alex out of custody. What they didn’t know is that Alex wasn?t been watched by normal L.A.P.D. police officers, but rather by the L.A. S.W.A.T. team.

If anyone goes into this film expecting a brain-involving film, you’ll definitely come out mighty angry. There is a sole reason why films of this nature come out during the summer months, and that is because these types of films are solely made to attract people to the theater to see cars blow up, bullets fly, and people get killed. And these types of films usually are horrendously bad. I suppose there are a few reasons why S.W.A.T., despite following these criteria, actually works. First off, the cast works off each other in a funny manner (especially the constant bickering between Street and another officer over his sister). Secondly, the film contains a lot of noisy action scenes, most of which are done well (this is probably because of the director in Clark Johnson). Lastly, for some reason I might add, I enjoyed the character of Alex Montel and his sly remarks about American culture.

No, S.W.A.T. isn’t an Oscar caliber film, but it wasn’t made for that reason. It was made for those people who like to enjoy themselves watching popcorn type flicks. If you?re willing to shut off your brain a little around two hours, then S.W.A.T. is just your calling.

Video

Presented in a 1080p MPEG-2 encoded 2:40:1 widescreen aspect ratio, S.W.A.T. looks mighty good ? helping to capture the gritty, fast-paced scenery of Los Angeles.

The film?s print, being made in 2003, is in fine condition boasting clean, bright imagery, which all but helps to capture the initial bank robbery. However, despite the image and print being pretty clean, there are a few imperfections I must mention. Grain, albeit not being overly annoying, was still present. Colors are bright and loud (loud in terms of coming off the screen at you), but seemed kind of washed out in a few sequences (I noticed this in the background water gun fight between Street and some kids). Detail is rock solid for the most part (especially in the shooting cards scene).

Some people are quick to blame Sony for using the MPEG-2 video codec compressions, which tends to be more space hungry, and I agree with them here. Sony was obviously lost on this codec and has since (as of today 10/16/06) decided to switch to the less space hunger, superior VC-1 video codec that has been used on a majority of HD DVD releases thus far. Despite this problem, S.W.A.T. still, in the world of numerous faulty, early releases from Sony, looks fine.

Audio

Ah, the perfect example of what can sound good. Boasting the standard English PCM 5.1 Surround, S.W.A.T., as per the typical action film, sounds awesome with numerous scenes that, literally, blast your socks off.

The brightest part of this audio experience, is the use of surrounds and sound effects. Little things like bullets zip by our heads, while continuous car crashes in the bank sequence, pound our ears (not in a bad way I might add). And with all these loud sequences, dynamic range never falters or sounds off key resulting in the viewer never having to raise or lower the volume once they?ve found that preferred area on their receiver. You never struggle to hear dialogue as it was well placed a film with this much robust, loud action.

I?m not quite sure if S.W.A.T. is a demo-worthy audio disc for Blu-ray owners, but it sure does pack quite the wallop for all your audio enthusiasts out there.

Special Features

Sadly, this is the area where the disc really falls to the ground lie a drunken person.

• Deleted Scenes: A majority of the provided scenes build off other scenes already in the film serving as more ?extended scenes? that ?deleted scenes?. The only ?deleted scene? worth watching is the alternate opening.

Final Thoughts

As I finished this film, I was thinking to myself that this would warrant the easy purchase recommendation as the film had great, if imperfect video, and banging audio. However, the extreme lack of real concrete features really hurts this discs presentation. For the A/V presentation solely, this disc comes recommended. If extras are important to you, this should only be a rental.