Mobile
(Acorn Media DVD/British TV Mini-Series)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: C+
Mobile starts with an interesting
premise as people are being killed of talking on cell phones, while cell phone
towers are being blown up. Is it a
psychopath or something more? Told in
four parts, the first two episodes are some of the best we have seen in the
British TV suspense genre in a while, but the last two slowly collapse into
everything we’ve seen before, yet I liked this enough for the early shows to
let you know it is worth a look.
Michael
Kitchen, Jamie Draven, Samantha Bond and Keith Allen head the decent cast of
this sometimes gritty mystery thriller that shows the cold, new, early 21st
Century industrial England at its most bitter and sometimes heartless. A far cry from British TV like it from a few
decades ago, the writing and acting make it richer than so many similar TV
productions before it bottoms out, but I give it points for intelligence and
ambition.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a little soft and color is flatter than I would like
it to be, but only a Blu-ray will reveal to what extent that is intended. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is just fine for
a new recording, but nothing special, even with the music and there are no
surrounds. The only extra is a set of text
cast filmographies.
- Nicholas Sheffo
