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Eagle vs Shark
R4 - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak/James Teitelbaum (19th February 2008). |
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The Film
 "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004) may or may not be responsible for the recent rash of movies about nerdy characters whom are alternately endearing and annoying. Whatever the case, this indie feature from New Zealand owes a debt to Dynamite, but it also takes the hopeless loser motif into an entirely different direction. Although told from the point of view of a wallflower named Lily (Loren Horsley), "Eagle vs. Shark" is really the story of one Jarrod (Jemaine Clement). Jarrod is in his late twenties and lives in the present day, but mentally and emotionally he is a fourteen year old inhabiting the year 1983. He plays video games obsessively (and works in a video game shop), makes candles, wears a "Members Only" jacket and a mullet hairdo, and thinks that he is going to be a Ninja. Lily doesn't know any of this, she just longs for him from afar, and stuck behind the counter at the fast food restaurant she works in. Lily is just as socially stunted as Jarrod is, but a list of her character traits would be just as short as Jarrod's is long. She's an empty vessel with no discernable personality, interests, or charm. Her efforts to learn to play the guitar come to nil. Neither of them are bad people, they are just losers. After landing the man of her dreams (Jarrod), Lily discovers that his goal in life is to vanquish his arch-enemy, a Samoan guy (David Fane) who was a bully back in high school. Jarrod has been nursing this grudge for more than a decade, and is finally ready to make his move against the person who 'ruined (his) life'. As Jarrod trains for his mission, Lily silently follows him around, content and happy to simply be wanted by someone. When the confrontation with the Samoan occurs, there is a reasonably predictable plot twist, but it is how Jarrod reacts to this new information that is interesting and surprising. The resulting scene will either mortify you, or make you laugh and cheer in solidarity with militant revenge seeking nerds everywhere (those of you cheering might want to get some therapy, but I confess that I was tempted, even as I cringed at Jarrod's horrific and embarrassing audacity). The first half of this movie is alternately hilarious, sweet, and clever. The laughs are played really subtly; those looking for Dynamite's more broad take on loserdom and the more obvious pop culture references might not get it. Halfway through the running time, things run out of steam a little. The story gets a little bit darker, and some of the things that make the characters funny begin to wear thin. There are two dozen classic moments in the film, but they're all in the first half. Maybe there is a really great indie comedy hiding in "Eagle vs. Shark", but in order to bring it out, the second half could use some tweaks in the editing room. That said, this is the sort of film that stays with a person for a while. Perhaps there is a little bit of Lily, Jarrod, and their hopelessly nerdy families in all of us.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 this anamorphic transfer does the job. The image is mostly sharp and clear, there aren't any noticeable flaws such as dirt or specks which is good. The colors are bit on the drab side and black levels suffer a bit as they appear a little crushed and noisy at times. The photography isn't supposed to be wham bam Hollywood stuff it's fairly naturalistic and minimal and the transfer represents that aesthetic well.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included here, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 as well as an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its 5.1 track. Being a comedy the sound mix is not the most dynamic. But it presents the dialogue clearly and without distortion. The film's music makes good use of the surround channels but otherwise the mix is fairly limited. Optional subtitles are included in English only.
Extras
Warner Brothers has included an audio commentary, a series of interviews, a featurette, a theatrical trailer and an introduction. Below is a closer look at these supplements. There is an audio commentary by writer/director Taiki Waititi. During the first part, co-writer/actress Loren Horsley calls in, and she chats on the phone with Waititi for a bit. Most of this conversation consists of Waititi telling Horsley what is happening on the screen, since she is on another continent. She has to leave to pick up her mother (seriously) so the director is alone for a bit, until he is joined in the studio by actor David Fane (Eric, the Samoan). Things are actually a bit livelier when the director is alone, and he dishes out the usual anecdotes about people and things that happened during the filming. You can choose to view the film with a video introduction by the film's writer/director Taiki Waititi, here the filmmaker welcomes you to the DVD edition and invites you to check out the extras as well. Following that is "The Mouse Wheel" a featurette that has the cast and crew trying to run in the mouse wheel at the playground location. A series of cast and crew interviews are included and play in a reel that runs for 29 minutes 52 seconds, the interviews are with writer/director Taiki Waititi, producer Ainsley Gardiner and cast members Loren Horsley and Jemaine Clement. Each participant comments on the story, the characters, on working with each other, and the nature of the film, the comedic aspects, favorite scenes and animals among other things. Each person is interviewed separately and title cards come up in-between their answers. Another interview clip is presented on the disc, this time just with the film's writer/director Taiki Waititi. Here the director comments on his comedy background, his influences, on how the project came about from Loren's character. He also talks about the casting, embracing your inner geek, making films in New Zealand and the title of the film as well as having an indie mindset and sticking to smaller films and also on the reaction to the film, the universal themes and what's in store for the filmmaker in the future. Next up are a collection of deleted scenes presented in a reel that runs for 17 minutes 34 seconds. The scenes include an alternate credit sequence, an extended dinner scene with Jarrod's family, Jarrod and Tracy spend time on the beach, Jarrod visits Tracy and have an awkward conversation, Jarrod walks Tracy home, Lily cries after Jarrod dumps her, his uncle visits her, Lily and Jarrod have a chat on the deck about her finding a motel, Jarrod practices with Ninja throwing stars and argues with Lily, Lily wakes up in the woods after a party, Jarrod tells his dad about his training, the family throw the Frisbee around, Lily attempts to leave Jarrod's home town, some jerks drive by and throw some bottles at Lily and Jarrod and finally there's an unused animated dream sequence. Finally there's also the film's original theatrical trailer included on this disc and that runs for 2 minutes 5 seconds.
Overall
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