FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: State of Play [Blu-ray] [2009]

State of Play [Blu-ray] [2009]
enlarge	Director: Kevin Macdonald Actors: Russell Crowe, Rachel McAdams, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn Studio: Universal Pictures UK Category: DVD List Price: ~~£24.99~~ Buy New: £13.00 as of 25/11/2009 19:05 GMT details You Save: £11.99 (48%) New (12) Used (3) from £10.98 Seller: clairegriffith106 Rating: 35 reviews Sales Rank: 3538 Format: PAL Languages: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), English (Unknown), Italian (Unknown), German (Unknown), Spanish (Unknown) Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over Media: Blu-ray Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 107 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 6.6 x 5.4 x 0.6 MPN: 8270231 EAN: 5050582702316 ASIN: B0027P94AS Theatrical Release Date: 2009 Release Date: September 21, 2009 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Product Description Jason Bateman, Robin Wright, Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Helen MirrenDirector: Kevin Macdonald Amazon.co.uk Review Taking the excellent BBC mini-series of the same name as its starting point, emState Of Play/em is a terrific political thriller, and one of the most intelligent blockbusters to come out of Hollywood in some time. pTransplanting the story from Britain to America, emState Of Play/em finds Russell Crowe taking on the role of Washington reporter Cal McCaffrey (played by John Simm in the original mini-series), and he starts to look into a mysterious series of murders. One such murder is that of Congressman Stephen Collinsrsquo; researcher, and with the backing of his editor (played by Helen Mirren), McCaffrey starts poking his nose into some increasingly dangerous business./p pDirected with consummate skill by Kevin McDonald (who last helmed emThe Last King Of Scotland/em), emState Of Play/em is a twisting, terrifically written thriller that benefits enormously from the strength of its cast. Both Crowe and Mirren are on excellent form here, but plaudits must also go to Ben Affleck as Collins, as well as Rachel McAdams as McCaffreyrsquo;s co-reporter./p pDoes it beat the miniseries on which itrsquo;s based? It does as fine a job as you could ever possibly expect, taking a six-episode television programme and distilling it into a compelling two-hour Hollywood thriller. emState Of Play/em, in whatever form you catch it, is some piece of work. And the movie version? Itrsquo;s one of the finest mainstream releases of the year. --emJon Foster/em/p

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 35 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next » A Worthy Addition To The Newspaper-Movie Canon April 27, 2009 Mooch (Manchester, England) 16 out of 19 found this review helpful At the time of writing there are 2 reviews of this film posted here, a 1-star and a 2-star. I must protest! I loved this movie. I found it to be that rarity: a wholly satisfying grown-up thriller. The story moves along at a fair clip, the characters are highly likeable (whilst having more in common with real people than the usual movie types), the acting is good all round and the cinematography is beautifully effective - grimy streets, austere corridors of power and lots of deep, dark blacks like it's a lost 70s Gordon Willis paranoia film. I haven't seen the original series yet, didn't like the director's last film, thought the trailer looked rubbish and don't usually like Russell Crowe but I came out of the theatre thinking this is one of the best 2 films of the year so far (okay, we're only 4 months in at this point but I'm including all those oscar films from Jan/Feb). For me, amidst all the intrigue, suspense and bursts of action, it is the surprisingly likeable, laid-back Crowe performance coupled with the seductive, romantic portrayal of classic journalism that truly makes this film. State Of Play deserves a place in the canon of great newspaperman noir thrillers - it's not quite up there with All The President's Men or Zodiac, but it comfortably holds its own alongside The Parallax View (overrated), Foreign Correspondent (ditto), Capricorn One, Call Northside 777 and The Paper (a very underrated film in my opinion). Riveting. October 20, 2009 Michael Boden (SW France) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful A great tale, well delivered at a punchy, fast moving pace. The key players all take great parts and Russell Crowe in particular is superb, totally believable. The complex plot holds surprises right to the end. State of Play October 28, 2009 Sam 1 out of 1 found this review helpful Very good film, saw it first at the cinema, knew then I would want to get it on DVD. Hadn't seen or read about the tv version of this. Great characters, especially Russel Crowe's and Ben Affleck's , well acted. Would definately recommend this sheer entertainment! June 1, 2009 Mr. R. W. Graham (Lincoln, U.K.) 1 out of 3 found this review helpful this is a real cracker of a thriller. superbly acted, yes, even ben affleck is good in this, well made and very tense. russel crowe is superb as is rachel mcadams and helen mirren. ben affleck does get a lot of unfair slagging off. it's true he has done some poor performances, but that is usually in poor films. pearl harbour, deception, to name but two. but, give him a good script, as with this film, good will hunting, which of course he wrote with matt damon, shakespeare in love, hollywoodland, and he'll usually turn in a very good performance. i've never seen the original bbc version of state of play, as i'm not normally a huge fan of current british tv, but even i could tell that two hours did feel a little bit rushed, the film's only flaw, but this is a great film overall. Naw, it isn't as good, but April 29, 2009 Anna (London) 2 out of 3 found this review helpful The BBC production was truly impeccable. We were given 6 hours of glorious tv in which to follow the twists and turns and get to know those involved - and we did. No film will ever be able to match that for character/plot exposition; and State of Play doesn't. But, nor should we expect it to. br / br /If you've seen (and therefore loved) the BBC production, it's best to see this as an entirely unrelated film. Of course, the only problem with that is, it means you already know whodunnit. And it was such a profound shock in the original, it's sort of entered tv lore. So the movie suffers dreadfully in its wake. The entire premise rests on our being stunned at who's responsible, having grown to love that person. The movie doesn't allow the time to grow emotionally involved, and most people know the culprit already, further preventing our caring. br / br /So, the film's "twist" is rendered impotent; neutered. But that doesn't mean the meat and veg of the film isn't still good. And, actually, it is. Russell Crowe is fine as the crusading reporter (although, his accent slips once or twice... not sure how they missed that in the editing room?); Rachel McAdams is suitably Lois Lane-like; Ben Affleck is a strange choice for Congressman Stephen Collins - he's probably the weakest link of the film cast-wise and, finally, Helen Mirren is the film's saving grace. br / br /She has massive Bill Nighy-shaped boots to fill and she does it with aplomb. She's everything a grouchy British female American newspaper editor should be, and she's the very best bit of the entire thing, because she's bally marvellous. br / br /Going back to the BBC production for a second: again, it gave us 6 hours to uncover what happened. Here, there's roughly 2 hours so, no, it's not nearly as involving or intricate. I suppose, when we get down to it, the film feels like a dumbed down version of the series - even though that's not actually what it is, and it's in no way an unintelligent film. In fact, by Hollywood standards, it's rather thinky. br / br /So, next to the tv production it's a lame duck, and there's no getting around that. But, in and of itself, on its own merit, and without allowing my love of the series to sway my opinion, the film is thoroughly decent, and if it encourages people to watch the masterclass original, so much the better. Showing reviews 1-5 of 35 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next »

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