|
.. |
|
THE MASTER OF DISGUISE
Review by Gordon Justesen
Stars:
Dana Carvey, Brent Spiner, Jennifer Espositio, Harold Gould, James Brolin
Director: Perry Andelin Blake
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Surround, Spanish Dolby Surround
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Studio: Columbia Tri Star
Features: See Review
Length: 80 Minutes
Release Date: January 28, 2003
“That’s
a crazy idea…so crazy it JUST MIGHT WORK.”
Film
**
I am unfortunate to
report that we have another sad case of a family movie botched by the single
notion of being presented in standard format. More on this later…
I have long been a
fan of Dana Carvey ever since I first saw his now legendary impersonation of
George Bush. In fact, Carvey is capable of doing thousands of impersonations,
each one so flawless convincing, that one could easily label him the Rich Little
of his time. Seeing Carvey in The Master
of Disguise was like seeing an old pro who had been gone for a while return
to do what he does best like a natural pro. In the movie, you see Carvey do jaw
dropping impressions of everyone from Shrek and the donkey, Al Pacino’s Tony
Montana from Scarface, Robert Shaw
from Jaws, and even President George
W. Bush.
Unfortunately, as
funny as the movie occasionally is, the laughs unfortunately do not overshadow
the movie’s fundamental flaw, which it is way, way short, clocking in a just
slightly over an hour. The running length is an hour and twenty minutes, but the
last ten minutes of the movie are end credits mixed in with outtakes. Had the
filmmakers given the movie more room to breathe, we might have had something
here. The movie feels like it wants to end itself as quickly as it can.
Carvey plays
Pistachio Disguisey, a bumbling Italian waiter who works for his father,
Frabbrizio Disguisey (James Brolin). But Pistachio’s father hides a secret
trait, which is that he has long been a professional master of disguise. Soon,
Frabbrizio is kidnapped by his old nemesis, Devlin Bowman (Brent Spiner), who
blackmails him to use his power of disguise in order to steal rare artifacts.
Meanwhile, Pistachio, unknown of his father’s secret, gets a much needed
lesson from his grandfather (Harold Gould), who will intend to train Pistachio
to be, himself, a master of disguise.
There are numerous
funny moments in the movie. I loved where Fabbrizio, disguised as Michael
Johnson—the fastest man alive, steals, or borrows the constitution from a
couple of inept security guards. There’s also a running gag involving
Bowman’s inability to not pass gas when he laughs, which is something I never
thought I’d see Commander Data doing. Brent Spiner is actually quite good at
playing a snooty villain. And, of course, there’s Dana Carvey, doing
everything he can with the limited amount of time he and the other actors have
been given.
Kids will no doubt
go ape for this movie, since it is appropriately aimed at them. I appreciated
Dana Carvey’s return to movies, having been away for a while, and I loved
seeing him do what he does best in The
Master of Disguise, but I strongly feel that the movie would’ve been much
better had more time been added to it.
Video
**
Columbia Tri Star
has taken the sour route this time around by releasing The Master of Disguise in only a full screen format. Since the movie
does happen to include a colorful production design, there’s no reason why
this film shouldn’t had been offered in widescreen. The picture is noticeably
off-framed in various scenes, and there seems to be a jittering sense of grain
here and there as well. For Columbia Tri Star, this isn’t a good way to start
out the year, and I certainly hope this isn’t a sign of things to come.
Audio ***
No complaints here.
The 5.1 audio mix on The Master of
Disguise is darn-near perfect. It’s mostly a dialogue driven comedy,
though being a bit of a fantasy, it does offer some good audio performance in
numerous scenes, especially in scenes involving physical comedy. Words are
spoken in the utmost clarity, and I didn’t detect any noise disrupts in the
presentation. Good job.
Features
***1/2
I’m surprised
that Columbia Tri Star didn’t think to label this a Special Edition disc,
because we do have some kickin’ extras at hand here. There is an audio
commentary by Dana Carvey and director Perry Blake, which is often quite
humorous as one would expect, as the two constantly crack jokes about certain
scenes in the film. Also included are three featurettes, alternate and deleted
scenes, a music video, trailers for this and Kermit’s
Swamp Years and Little Secrets.
Summary: