Swingers
Studio: Miramax
Distributor: Lionsgate
Rated: R
1080P, AVC MPEG4 AWBR @ 18.5Mbps
Audio is in DTS-MA 2.0, DTS-HD 5.1
The Story: 4 / 5
It’s been years since I first watched “Swingers”. A friend had called me, telling me I “MUST” watch one of the funniest comedies he had seen that year, and he’d be right over. As he described it, and before I watched, I thought: this is far too much inside baseball. A group of friends hoping to break into show business in Hollywood.. and it ends up an independent film. But as we sat down and watched, I admit I laughed far more than I expected.
The trick with independent films is that they are often shot on a low budget so you can’t rely on effects, incredible camera work or slick stagecraft. So, the only special effect you have is at the tip of the pen being held by a writer. Flashy dialog, memorable performances and a good story have to be the selling point.
Vince Vaughn’s character Trent, however is the breakout performance that helped sell this film – his dialogue which rotates between gratingly annoying and outrageously funny helps flesh out a character too obsessed with himself. “You’re money and you don’t even know it!”. “That’s really money”. “They’ll see how money you are.” Trent boils everything down to money as a proof of value or goodness.
Mike, played by Jon Favreau, is our protagonist an aspiring stand up comedian who seems to have no prospects. He finds himself moping about his girlfriend left back east, Michelle, and to help break through all of this, Trent promises him better things ahead (Lots of “honey babies”) to console his troubled mind.
Swingers, set in a series of locations – and a lot of coffee shops, isn’t the most original piece of work ever thrown out there. But what it lacks in originality it makes up for in outright fun. Watching it years later, it’s not as fresh or fun as it was when I originally viewed it. It can come across as dated, and sometimes the dialog just doesn’t hold up.
When I first saw Swingers it was a film people would quote dialog out of and laugh. Today, when I watch Swingers it’s not the film that makes me laugh as much as all the memories of the events I was at and friends I was with when we’d trade Swingers dialog back and forth “You’re SOOO Money!”
That puts a film like Swingers in a different category, part of what makes it good isn’t the film itself, it’s that it represents a sort of cultural memory that reminds you of where you were when it was “IT”. And if you’ve EVER found yourself referencing Wingmen, “Vegas Baby” or “Money!” welcome to the film that started it all.
Video Quality: 3.5 / 5
The video here is presented in AVC-MPEG4 at an AWBR of 18.5 Mbps. This film takes one of the widest swing paths in AWBR I’ve ever seen on a disc; with a net weighted average of 18.5, but a encode ceiling of 40Mbps. A big part of what causes this is the source material. As an independent film, the original source material is not a reference quality, highly slick vehicle. The video presents the film as I originally remember. For many, this will seem very substandard. The presentation is grainy, color and brightness don’t always stay true and lighting isn’t the best. But this is a film that was shot on a $250,000 budget. Because of that, the Bluray may be as good as it gets with the source material present.
That’s a hard thing to factor in. While the film may be as good as it will get, it still isn’t high enough quality that it shapes up to be something you can commend the video on. It’s unlikely anyone buying a copy of Swingers is buying it because of the high video quality, but for those that have never seen the film, it may come as a surprise for what they expect from a Bluray.
Audio: 3.5 / 5
Swingers is presented in DTS-MA 2.0 and DTS-MA 5.1. This is the original presentation of the film as it was originally shown in theaters.
For those that don't notice, or who have set their Bluray player to default to the primary track, you'll get DTS-MA 2.0. The 5.1 track, made secondary is done so with reason. I admit, I found the DTS-MA 5.1 track to be very lacking. Dialog wasn't nearly as good as I expected and in a film like this it largely went to waste. Sometimes, more is less. The DTS-MA 5.1 mix isn't really necessary in a film that wasn't designed for it and there isn't a grand purpose to it. The rear channels remain largely silent, there is minimal use of LFE and I found that the dialog with the DTS-MA 5.1 mix did not fill my room as effectively as the DTS-MA 2.0 track. Having listened to both, I find that the film is just better viewed as it was originally intended, in the uncompressed primary stereo track.
Extras: 4 / 5
The set of extras that comes with Swingers is a really nice assortment of what the film meant.
Art Imitates Life - Writing Swingers - 11:01, MPG2, 480P. Jon Favreau details what went into writing the film, how he met the actors in the film, and how they agreed on the staging and production.
Life Creates Art - Getting Swingers Made, MPG2, 480P, 17:22. This is a pretty good documentary about the original pitch process of selling the script, which turned into filming the movie on their own.
Life Imitates Art - Swingers Culture MPG2, 480P, 11:28 "You're So Money, and you don't even know it.." A short documentary on how the phrases “Money”, “Wingman” “Vegas, Baby, Vegas!” became catch phrases for agents, friends and others after the film was released.
Art Creates Life - Life After Swingers - 9:28, MPG2, 480P. How for those involved, especially Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau this became the launching pad for their career.
Alternate & Deleted Scenes:
The Hockey Game - 2:59, MPG2, 480I
The Kiss - 3:11, MPG2, 480I
Vegas Girl's Trailer - 4:29, MPG2, 480I
Drunk in the Diner - 2:17, MPG2, 480I
Fake Trailer: Swing Blade, 3:27
Conclusion: 4 / 5
It’s really hard to rate a film like Swingers. For some, this is a must own because of the way they remember it. Nothing about the audio or video can change the way the way the film sits with them even years later. Like a lot of independent films, that’s the attraction of a film like Swingers, the fond memories you have of it and your enjoyment of the story.
I find that years later, I still enjoyed Swingers. Maybe not the same way I did ten plus years ago, but I found myself thinking of friends I had seen the film with, a few fun trips to Vegas, and how the phrases really cemented themselves into our culture.
If you’ve NEVER seen Swingers, you might at least give it a rent. If you’ve seen it and remember it, you might find that this is the right time to grab a copy. This version while not perfect is still better than the DVD release and sometimes that’s all you can ask for.
This review was done on:
ArcSoft TMT5, Oppo BD83
Samsung 52" LED
Denon 4810CI
