"I want you dead. I think you owe me that."
The Film
What happens when you take murderous badasses in the form of Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Stephen Dillane, Tom Wilkinson and Ian McShane and lock them in a room together? Sadly, very little.
While I wouldn't quite call it false advertising, 44 Inch Chest is a far cry from what it makes itself out to be. What would appear to be a revenge-fueled thriller is actually a surprisingly uneventful analysis of infidelity, forgiveness and just how many times that filthiest of 4-letter "c-words" can be crammed into one screenplay.
To be fair, 44 Inch Chest is not without its merits. In addition to some grin-inducing scenery chewing by John Hurt and Ian McShane, the film's opening sequence is all by itself worth the price of admission. (Well, a matinee ticket at least.) However, once the film delivers its intriguing setup and deposits all of its characters in a rundown, one-room safe house, things get decidedly less interesting. Tensions rise (sometimes quite effectively) and fall but the problem with 44 Inch Chest is that it gives us no one to identify with, no one to side with, and concludes rather anti-climatically precisely where you think it will.
The Picture 
With its ramshackle, poorly-lit one room set, 44 Inch Chest is not going to impress anyone with its dull and somewhat lifeless color palette. However, Image Entertainment's Blu-ray Disc does boast impressively deep blacks and an occasionally superb degree of fine picture detail. Director Malcolm Venville's frequest close-ups of Ray Winstone's weathered and distraught face benefit from this the most, revealing every gradation in the actor's salt and pepper facial hair.
The Sound
Like the video, this DTS-HD Master Audio mix isn't going to win any technical awards, but it's perfectly adequate and well-suited to the film's dialogue-driven soundtrack. Dialogue is firmly anchored front and center, but I'd be lying if I said the dialogue was actually intelligible. British tough guy speak is a language all its own and you may need to rewind a few bits to catch the full meaning of whichever profanity-riddled exchange it was you missed. Thankfully English subtitles are only a menu setting away.
The Extras
First time Director Malcolm Venville features heavily in the film's limited assortment of bonus material. Over the course of his interview and commentary track, he explains his approach to the film and talks about his influences which include Hitchcock's Rear Window. Everything here is well assembled though not particularly noteworthy. However, one extra definitely worth watching is called "Epilogues." Here, the majority of the film's principal cast members appear in character one at a time, to share a bit of their character's stories following the events of the film. As with the film itself, McShane and Hurt steal the show once again.
Final Thoughts
I was very much looking forward to 44 Inch Chest, as was my good friend Tom. We're both big fans of the revenge genre. Tom's reaction when the film was over does a fine job of summing things up here: "I'm not sure whether or not I liked that." The film definitely has some high-powered acting on display and the characters are vividly drawn. However, good luck finding common ground with any of said characters in this revengeless talk fest. This one's a rental, but do keep your expectations in check.
Product Details
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