Media

Home Theater Movie Renter's Guide - December, 2010

"Frenemy" (DVD) - Reviewed by Tyler Stripko

Synopsis

Mr. Jack (Matthew Modine) and his cohort Sweet Stephan (Callum Blue), are two friends with a very interesting take on life.  After witnessing the murder of a friend, the two begin to question how they survived.

Commentary

You have no idea how hard it was to write the two sentence plot synopsis above.  The reason:  there really is no plot.  “Frenemy” is nothing more than a bunch of boring, long winded, drawn out scenes that attempt to connect a very vague story together.  Judging by the cover, you’d think that Zach Galifinakis has a major role in this movie.  He does not.  He has about a 15-minute part as a drug dealer/porn shop owner which is about the only entertaining scene in this movie.  Matthew Modine is simply annoying in his role as Mr. Jack with what can only be described as one of the worst British (or is it Australian, New Zealand, or South African?) accents in film history.  Having the character “act” English adds absolutely nothing to the storyline, so I don’t know why the director didn’t have Modine speak naturally when it was blatantly obvious that the accent just wasn’t working.   Callum Blue turns in a decent acting performance as Sweet Stephan, but with the rest of the movie being such a train wreck, it just doesn’t matter.  Don’t waste your time with this one.

Technical

The picture quality on this DVD runs from poor to very good.  Certain scenes are crisp and sharp, while others are poorly focused and blurry.  The color palette ranges as well, from dull and washed out to nicely saturated and accurate.  This was obviously someone’s intent, but I have no idea what they were trying to convey with the choices.   The 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack is adequate, with clear dialogue (not that you want to hear it) and the occasional use of the surround channels.

Extras

There are a few trailers included on the disc.

Class A

Interviews

Triode

Tubes