Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10557 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-06-01
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Synopsis
After three Edinburgh roommates (Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston, and Kerry Fox) finally choose a new roommate they can live with, they find him dead on the floor with a suitcase full of cash. While trying to remove the body and extricate themselves from the situation, they wade hip-deep into a world of drugs, greed, and madness. Danny Boyle's first feature film is a delightfully circuitous, nail-biting, and unpretentious noir, with the director--and screenwriter John Hodge--focusing on the gradual psychological disintegration of the roommates. Boyle and Hodge would gain even greater acclaim across the Atlantic with their hit follow-up, TRAINSPOTTING. Eccleston would go on to appear in films such as ELIZABETH and THE OTHERS. McGregor, of course, would become Renton in TRAINSPOTTING and eventually Obi-Wan Kenobi, among many other screen roles.

Special Features:
- Commentary with Danny Boyle
- ‘Digging Your Own Grave’ BBC documentary directed by Kevin Macdonald

Customer Reviews

Decent set
Shallow Grave is a wholly decent film- great premise, a good cast and some fresh ideas- but its clear that Boyle, Macdonald and Hodge had yet to find that perfect mix of ideas, casting and style that made Trainspotting a much better film than this one. Yet, for all Shallow Grave's shortcomings in terms of pacing and even character development, it has some great humour and wit. Ewan McGregor, here receiving third billing, is clearly the standout of the cast, and has rightfully went on to find much success. His delivery and tone throughout the film demands adoration.

The Blu Ray transfer of this film seems to me (hardly an authority on such things) to be as perfect as a 14-year old British low-budget movie can be. Certain details (the kitchen table, Kieth Allen's corpse) are particularly vivid, and those that aren't still look sumptuous and clear. There don't seem to be any major flaws that I can discern, no grain or compression, which is more than can be said of much bigger films including Transformers and 300 in HD. The sound too seems to be fine, but I'm not running it through a hi-tech system- two speakers are enough for me at the present moment.

The extras are interesting but add little insight. "Digging Your Own Grave" is a 30-minute documentary on the making of the film from Kevin "State Of Play" Macdonald, which mostly focuses on his brother Andrew, the film's producer. It was filmed in 1994 or so on handheld and as such looks positively shocking, and offers just short of no contribution from the cast, and most of the crew. The only other extras (possibly exclusive to this Blu release) are interviews with Boyle and McGregor, at 2 and 8 minutes respectively. Again, neither are particularly in depth, both part of larger sessions (firther instalments of which can be found on the recent reissue of Trainspotting). The commentary from Boyle is light-hearted, chatty and informative, nostalgic even, and worth a listen.

I wouldn't recommend an upgrade if you have the older MGM DVD- I only bought this because I hadn't owned it and the Blu Ray was the same price as the DVD. The new extras aren't as worthy as those on the Trainspotting set, and while the film looks great in high def, its not the kind that merits it. A good buy if its your first time, but that's it.