Small Time is an easygoing but still well made drama-comedy with great performances all around, but in particular Christopher Meloni, in his post-“Law & Order: SVU” career and Dean Norris of “Breaking Bad” fame having a good time.
Small Time
(2014)
Genre(s): Drama, Comedy
Anchor Bay | R – 95 min. – $26.99 | June 3, 2014
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MOVIE INFO: Directed by: Joel Surnow Writer(s): Joel Surnow (written by) Cast: Christopher Meloni, Dean Norris, Bridget Moynahan, Devon BostickDISC INFO: Features: Commentary Number of Discs: 1Audio: English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1) Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.78 Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish Disc Size: 21.0 GB Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Region(s): A |
PLOT SUMMARY
Al Klein (CHRISTOPHER MELONI) and his longtime friend, Ash Martini (DEAN NORRIS) own a used car lot. The two know every trick in the book when it comes to selling cars. Martini is a good-time charley who never settled down. Klein, however, still pines for his ex-wife Barbara (BRIDGET MOYNAHAN) who left him years ago for a more successful man (XANDER BERKELEY). After their son, Freddy (DEVON BOSTICK) graduates high school, he decides to forego college in favor of selling cars with his old man. But what’s good for Klein might not be the best thing for Freddy, as Freddy quickly transforms from innocent young man to jaded car salesman… leaving Al with a tough decision to make.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.5/5
Audio Commentary – Writer/Director Joel Surnow and Actors Christopher Meloni and Dean Norris. This track is light-hearted like three friends gathering on a Friday night and spouting comments about the movie. Each one provides their own input on the film from different perspectives. Note: The track is found under the Setup à Audio Submenu; I almost missed it myself.
VIDEO – 4.0/5
Anchor Bay leaves the lot with a gently used Blu-ray presented with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. The movie I suspect was shot digitally, and some shots, especially night exteriors, so it’s fairly pristine with no artifacts, edge enhancing or jagged edges. While the picture does have good detail levels and skin tones seem to be well balanced, at times it does get that waxy texture and things like fabric and wrinkles aren’t as well defined which is more due to how it was filmed than the transfer.
AUDIO – 4.0/5
The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track is alright, getting the job done with crisp and clear dialogue coming from the center channel while the front and rears are primarily used for the music and/or score and even some minor ambient noises.
OVERALL – 3.0/5
Overall, Small Time is an easygoing but still well made drama-comedy with great performances all around, but in particular Christopher Meloni, in his post-“Law & Order: SVU” career and Dean Norris of “Breaking Bad” fame having a good time. The Blu-ray released by Anchor Bay has good video and audio transfers but with only a commentary, albeit a decent one, it’s not exactly an amazing release.
Published: 06/05/2014