Frenemy   Starring: Matthew Modine, Zach Galifianakis and Callum Blue Signature Entertainment www.signature-entertainment.co.uk RRP: £5.00 SIG06 Certificate: 18 Available 02 May 2011

Mr Jack (Matthew Modine) and Sweet Stephen (Callum Blue) wander through the many layers of L.A. life considering thoughts of life, fate, choice and consequences. Along the way they are cruel to random children and get involved in a robbery in a porn store...

Frenemy (1 hr, 19 min, 36 sec) is an independently made dark comedy, directed by Gregory Dark.

The film opens with Matthew Modine doing the worst English accent since the Van Dyke. Unfortunately he continues in the same vein, he is hanging out with Callum Blue, and actually the film consists mostly of two friends hanging out together pontificating about dime store philosophy. I’m sure the film strove to convey a message, but it was too obscure for me.

There is nothing really new here, if the film was going for ‘deep’, it missed its beat and if not then we are only interested in watching two friends shooting the sh*t, if either the script is pin sharp or the two characters are engrossing, then you have a winning film. Here the movie feels like it’s not as good as it could have been.

Of course, the most famous person in the film is Zach Galifianakis, though his fame is recent, so whilst he may take centre stage on the DVD cover you will not be surprised to discover that he actually has only a small part in the film.

You know I kept thinking: "What does this film reminded me of?" And then it hit me, it’s a less funny version of Withnail and I, with Modine playing the edgy character to Blue’s more grounded act. The whole thing tries to be cleverer than it actually it is. Not that there aren’t moments which don’t hold promise, but for the most part the edginess and/or surreal elements are done with too much self-consciousness not to be obvious.

I really tried to like this film, though I have no idea why. It skirts the edge of excellence but never goes far enough to be truly gripping. Still there is something there, even if it is buried under the films own self-consciousness.

There are no extras, the picture is filmic and clear, audio is a DD English 5.1 track.

6

Charles Packer