The Film:
And Now For Something Completely Different. The Monty Python films. TV series Fawlty Towers. A Fish Called Wanda. Yellowbeard. These are are just a very small handful of films that ex-pythons Graham Chapman and John Cleese have been credited with writing. Thanks to this amazing back record of comedy writing genius, I was thrilled to find out they they both had a part in writing the script for Rentadick, albeit uncredited. I don't know exactly why they were uncredited and it could be for a number of reasons. Maybe they just didn't want to be credited, or maybe they had a very minimal involvement in the writing, or maybe (and more likely in my mind) they were brought in to do some rewriting on the original script by John Fortune and John Wells who have both had far better careers in TV acting than they have for writing. Either way, it's good to see another film with ex-Python involvement.
Rentadick isn't the type of film the more perverted of you think it is from looking at the film's name. Instead it is about a bungling private investigation company who are hired by chemical company Armitage to protect their new nerve gas production methods, but unbeknownst to investigation company owner Major Upton (Ronald Fraser - Tangiers, Trail of the Pink Panther), the Japanese have also hired a couple of his staff members to steal the formula for the nerve gas from Armitage. As the film progresses, double deception and botching up the operation becomes a regular occurence as employees from the same company try to both protect and steal the nerve gas methods.
One of the first things I noticed about Rentadick was that it was a breathe of fresh air from todays films due to the amount of politically INcorrect dialogue and stereotypes, with the funniest for me being the Japanese leader Madam Greenfly's (Tsai Chin - Casino Royale, TV's Grey's Anatomy) mispronunciation of every word with a L in it to sound like an R. The acting is very campy giving it a feel of an upmarket Carry On film and some of the dialogue is hilarious. I also really like some of the cameos including the late Spike Milligan as a customs officer. All in all, if you are a fan of British comedy then the bungling antics in Rentadick make for an essential purchase. It's certainy no masterpiece, but it is everything it sets out to be.
Picture:
Unfortunately, the picture quality is where Network have let the DVD down, providing us with a fullscreen transfer taken from a print that has certainly seen better days. Grain and scratches are noticeable throughout, some scenes worse than others, and a small section of the film suffers from two/three very thick blue lines running across it, taking up to 50% of the screen space. Colours are sometimes a little washed out also.
Audio:
Network have provided the show with it's original English Dolby Digital Mono track which has been dual encoded. Dialogue is clear throughout and volume levels were consistent. There was a small amount of background hiss throughout and a little crackle sound every now and again, but the sound was altogether adequate. No subtitles have been provided.
Extras:
We only have an image gallery and a trailer unfortunately.
