Cottage, The (DVD)

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Back to Serkis, his performance is what bumped an average film up a notch for me. Half the time he didn't need to say anything, everything he was feeling was clear as day in his eyes alone. As more things went wrong and the whole kidnapping started falling apart all around him, you could see him slowly start to simmer until he finally came to a boil with smoke coming out of his ears. Simply put, the look on his face was priceless.

One of the things that I didn't care for initially were some of the predictable jokes used in the film. I knew exactly what was coming when the camera panned to a close-up shot of a rake lying in the farmyard when Andrew was stumbling around nearby. Honestly, how much longer can people milk the gag of stepping on the business end of this garden tool to whack themselves with the handle right between the eyes? Been there, done that. But then I started thinking about how a good number of scenes had the illusion of going one way, only to completely surprise me. In a strange way, predictable scenes like this actually helped keep viewers on their toes.

The farmer's past was only touched on briefly through a scene with newspaper clippings, and personally I would have liked to see more on what happened to him and his family. Williams did leave a window open for a sequel, though.

Video:
Sony Pictures presents "The Cottage" in an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Scenes with decent lighting weren't too bad, but a few of the darker shots had some mild grain and a tinted sheath of fuzzy haze. I didn't notice this all the time, either, so it was as if one or two of the cameras weren't designed for night shooting or didn't have proper lighting.

Audio:
The disc uses Dolby Digital 5.1 as the primary audio option with English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese language options and subtitles. My only real complaint was that it seemed that the dialogue and music tracks throughout the picture could have been balanced a bit better.

Extras:
The bonus features for "The Cottage" start with nine deleted scenes that can be watched individually or altogether using the "Play All" option. They are: "Smoking Joe" (2:50), "Pursuit" (0:59), "Village Arrival" (2:45), "Scaring Andrew" (1:06), "Pheasants" (1:39), "Muk and Chun Get the Chop" (1:19), "Gammy Leg, Part 1" (0:28), "Gammy Leg, Part 2" (0:36), and "Funeral Montage" (1:24). Most are pretty self-explanatory, and the few that require some background information come with text explaining the significance of the clip.

There are also roughly five minutes of outtakes containing the usual bloopers that occur during filming. During one scene, Serkis drops his lighter and nearly catches a prop on fire, which was pretty funny.

A "Storyboard Gallery" shows two of the scenes still in their concept sketch drawing form. The first is "Peter and Tracey Meet the Farmer" and the second is "Peter and Tracey Fight the Farmer." The templates for the scenes are in the style of comic book panels, and can be flipped through using the remote.

"The Cottage" includes digital copy versions of the film for easy transfer to a PC and/or PSP devices. Just pop in the disc and it automatically brings up the instructions on how to access the files.

Lastly, as with most Sony releases, there are a ton of trailers: "Blu-ray Disc is High-Definition!" "Starship Troopers 3: Marauder," "88 Minutes," "Zombie Strippers," "Outpost," "Loch Ness Terror," "April Fools' Day," "Revolver," "Pistol Whipped," "Cleaner," "The Tattooist," and "Diamond Dogs."

The Final Cut:
Looking at the big picture for "The Cottage," it made me laugh, it made me jump, and I even cringed a few times from the explicit gore. While the film definitely isn't as witty as "Shaun of the Dead" and certainly isn't as stylish as "From Dusk Till Dawn," its still a goofy little popcorn flick that's solely meant to entertain.

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