![[box cover]](../../reviewimgs/m/made.jpg)
Made: Special Edition
In the first re-teaming of stars Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau since 1996's Swingers, the presence of that charming and shrewd indie hit's director Doug Liman is sorely missed. Although Favreau once again pens the screenplay, this time about two hapless mob misfits clumsily attempting to accomplish an ambiguous task, he also takes the helm, and while there are flashes of off-beat charisma and humor throughout, all of Made's promise feels unfocused and ultimately wasted on an aimless seaming of unrelated narratives. Favreau stars as Bobby, a terrible boxer but a stand-up guy who insists on including his incompetent motor-mouthed childhood buddy Ricky (Vaughn) when a paternal crime boss (Peter Falk) offers him some lucrative heavy work. Bobby is too nice for mob detail and Ricky too impulsive and, of course, this fishes-out-of-water scenario results in wacky hi-jinks and manic banter. However, because the whole enterprise feels like a dead end from the get-go, Vaughn's incessantly self-obsessed character quickly devolves from amusing to irritating, and the necessary ambiguities of the narrative feel like a waste of time when taken in the context of the film's irrelevant conclusion. Favreau shows a decent visual sense and an ease with actors in his first feature film as a director, but perhaps he needed another point-of-view on shaping and executing this script. Co-starring Sean "P. Diddy/Puff Daddy" Combs, Famke Janssen, and Sopranos cast members Vincent Pastore and Drea DiMatteo. Artisan has slapped together an extensive Special Edition of Made, with a solid 1.77:1 anamorphic transfer, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 Surround audio, and a wealth of extra features. First off is a chatty audio commentary with Favreau and Vaughn, which includes the optional added feature of a telestrater-like "action commentary" drawing attention to on-screen details. The disc includes three featurettes: "Getting it MADE" (8 min.), "The Creative Process" (14 min.) and "Making the Music of MADE" (15 min.). An extra footage section includes five deleted scenes with commentary by Favreau, outtakes from nine scenes, and nine alternate scenes, also with Favreau commentary. A music section features used and unused selections from John O'Brien's score, and the disc also includes a somewhat clunky "Scene Edit Workshop" that allows the user to assemble alternate takes of a scene. Trailers, keep-case.
—Gregory P. Dorr
