Air Force One DVD ****

Starring: Harrison Ford & Gary Oldman

Directed by: Wolfgang Peterson

Movie review ****

This is a beautiful transfer, completely free of undesireable artifacts beyond the inherant NTSC horizonatal pan jitter (not the fault of DVD). The movie is divided into around 30 chapters. The sound mix is cracking, although the MPEG stereo mix is suspiciously light on the rear effects - switch to the Dolby Digital version.

The director's commentary reveals our Wolfgang to be an enthusiastic soul, full of luvviedom praise for his cast, crew and, it has to be said, himself. It would have been nice to hear him be honest about the atrotious effects sequence at the end - the effects house are rumoured to have simply run out of time to complete it - but hey, what did you expect. But in amongst the fawning and eulogising, quite a lot of interesting stuff for us anoraks manages to seep through.

In all, a top notch DVD, with only the lack of "making of" doccos and too little self-criticism spoiling the fun. This is just the sort of thing that makes VHS look like the old dog that it is.

 

Apollo 13: Collector's Edition *****

Starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Kathleen Quinlan & Ed Harris

Directed by Ron Howard

Movie review *****

This disc is worth the money alone for the running commenatry by the real life Jim Lovell (astronaut at the centre of the story) and his wife. Fortunately it is quite candid, being unafraid to critisise the movie in more than a few places, but it is clear that overall they both love it. Getting an accurate perspective on the extraordinary events is the kind of thing that DVD was made for.

Both audio and video are good transfers, but perhaps the vision lacks the absolute perfection of the best discs - more I suspect to do with the source print that the transfer as such. But the blemishes are few and far between - this is a beautiful copy.

The documentary - also available on some UK VHS' - is well worth having too. This is one movie where both "making of" and story itself are fascinating, and this disc does a great job in enthusing you about both. A must have.

 

As Good As It Gets DVD ****

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt & Greg Kinnear

Directed by: James L Brooks

Movie review ****

This is the way to do it. Coming complete with a nice eight page booklet featuring pages of script, this is THE way to get the double acting oscar winning movie. Pay your money and make your choice between the beautiful artifact-less widescreen transfer or the nasty cramped Pan and Scan affair (the film was shot closed matte, meaning that the widescreen shape is definitely the one to go for). The boys and girls at Columbia DVD have done a wonderful job in coding the 2hr 20m film on one side of a disc.

As to the commentary, this is an unusual affair. There have clearly been many different interviews with different people at different times, which are here edited together. That being said, it works quite well, with a refreshing realism about some stuff that didn't work out as they wanted and some very interesting points about screenplay and structure for those like myself that way inclined. On the less positive side, Nicholson does come over as a rambling old drunk at times, and there are constant references to tons on extra scenes that were shot - I would have happily foregone the fullscreen version on this disc for a peek at the extra scenes on side two.

If nothing else, As Good As It Gets is a fine showcase for the wonders of DVD in a movie with a body count of zero and one where the weirdest creature is a dog. All in then, just like the movie itself, this is very good indeed - but not quite as good as it gets.

 

Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery DVD ****

Starring: Mike Myers & Eliozabeth Hurley

Directed by: Jay Roach

Movie Review ** - but I'll give it *** after a second viewing!

Now I'll be the first to admit that enthusing about extras on DVD turns you into a dweeb. So thank goodness for Austin Powers, whose presentation (like Mars Attacks! only even more so) is such fun I'm not embarrassed to admit it. Even if it is a pretty average film. Oh alright, Dr Evil is very funny in places...

There's a fairly interesting commentary by Myers and director Roach (let down by long periods of total silence - let's have some film sound mixed in there!). There are seven scenes of varying technical and comedic quality, the best of which actually appeared in the UK theatrical release. Then there's two awful original endings (good final choice), a spy retrospective, a wonderful scene selection menu of film clips, a Swedish Love Pump....

And to top it all, a choice of excellent widescreen (16:9) or pan & scan transfers. As for the sound, I found myself laughing at George Clinton's astoundingly accurate John Barry musical impersonations a lot more than Austin Powers himself, whom I still can't figure out. So almost top marks for New Line - I didn't like this much first time round, but here they just about win me over. No mean feat.

 

Con Air DVD **

Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich & John Cusack

Directed by: Simon West

Movie review *****

UK DVD Review * 1/2

This may not be the perfect showcase for the wonder that is DVD, but it remains the best way to see this, one of the best "Things Exploding" type pictures in recent years.

In keeping with all other Disney / Buena Vista titles, this almost seems a grudging excuse for a disc, with almost no goodies and - horror of horrors - no anamorphic sqeezing. Given this, the picture looks good, and is clearly better than VHS. But it is not in the same league as, say, Contact, on a widescreen telly. The sound is suitably unsubtle and enormous, with evey cut to an ariel shot puctuated by a huge surround sound effect.

Maybe those who have dubbed Disney "Di$ney" (or even "Mauschwitz") are right, with the disc far from the cheapest on the market. It seems inevitable that an even more expensive special edition will appear one day - probably when more people have 16:9 TVs and they can use the quality angle and a few behind the scenes extras as a selling point. Booo.

When all is said and done, this is still definitely worth getting if you love the movie. But only if.

 

Contact DVD *****

Starring Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, Angela Basset & John Hurt

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Movie Review *****

Now this really is the business. If ever there was an advert for DVD, plain and simple, Contact is it.

The movie would be enough on its own - the picture transfer is impeccable with no artifacts, and the sound extraordinary with a dynamic range off the scale. The whole movie plays uninterrupted, with a well placed and almost instant layer change halfway through.

Then there are stacks of freebies to wade through - if you're a movie obsessive, you'll be in hog heaven. Top of the list are the (count-'em) THREE commentaries, featuring just about everyone bar the key grip. Nice to switch to the Jodie Foster commentary - she freely admits to not caring very much about the effects, a refreshing and frankly more important perspective. But the 4 effects sequences are very interesting for the technically minded, with the 20 minute breakdown of the opening shot fascinating from an astronomical perspective as well as a movie-making one. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. But I still don't quite understand how Robert Zemeckis did that Steadicam shot up the stairs and into the medicine cupboard...

I know this will sound like griping, but I have one silly complaint. The reson I loved this movie first time round is I hadn't a clue what was going to happen, having seen no trailers, reviews or clips. Yet the menu screen features a picture of Jodie Foster late on in the movie, rather giving away 80% of the plot. Okay if you've seen it, but...

This is pretty much an essential purchase, and at around $19, bargain of the year. Contact your supplier now (a ha, ha...)

 

Dante's Peak DVD: Collector's Edition *****

Starring: Pierce Brosnan & Linda Hamilton

Directed by: Roger Donaldson

Movie Review ***

From the moment the film opens with a volcano simultaneously blowing both its top and your hi-fi, you know your in for a DVD spectacular. The sound is suitably thunderous, and the pictures are absolutely cracking - perfection, near as dammit. This really could be a D1 video master of a pristine print you're watching.

Then there's the extras, and as you can see it is stuffed to the nines with them. Having said that, many are buried away in sub-sub menus so deep you have to look quite hard to find them. But you have an hour long, fully chaptered "making of" Dante's Peak (a bit cheap and cheerful, but tells you more than anyone other than the production's accountant really needs to know), various effects breakdowns, the director's commentary, storyboards and even the entire shooting script, though goodness knows who would read it off the TV.

In my copy, a minor glitch - like an RSDL layer change - occurs around 78 minutes into the movie. This is a known problem, and Universal have now rectified it with a new pressing. Try and get a copy with the quality control sticker on the box. That having been said, the effect is so minor, I can't be bothered to get mine swapped anyway.

This is a great example of how to turn a truly average movie into a fabulous home cinema experience. If only all DVDs were made this way...

 

Das Boot: The Director's Cut DVD ***

Starring Jurgen Prochnov

Directed by: Wolfgang Peterson

Movie review ****

From the menu page - with options tastefully presented as ships and the selector as a fire crosshairs - you have a feeling that things aren't quite right here. Being a relatively early pressing, the movie requies flipping and, just like the News At Ten, seems to have contrived to be in a terrible place. Well, at not far off 4 hours, at least the compulsory break is otherwise welcome.

On the plus side, the commentary from star and director is very good (time having made them quite candid about the whole affair) and the typically over-American little behind the scenes programme is a pleasnat enough freebie. But it is the sound which takes centre stage here - the newly re-mixed Dolby Digital version is possibly the greatest soundtrack ever. Exemplorary use of surround positioning, atmospheres and dynamics provides a palm-sweatingly real experience, with both subtle and in-your-face effects perfect. Don't be tempted to switch to the nasty dubbed version, however, with all the beautifully recorded sync dialogue and effects trashed.

The big, big bugbear of the disc however is the picture quality. Video CD style jerkiness is noticeable throughout, with some scenes really quite bad, while others are seemingly unnafected. The virtuoso hand-held camera moves suffer particularly badly. It is hard to know what causes this, as it is not a typical MPEG 2 compression fault - it could be NTSC judder combined with the unusual hand held moves, but I haven't seen it on other discs.

This is a real shame, and genuinely distracting during some parts, spoling a film which is otherwise incredibly involving. Still worth getting for that sound though - it really doesn't get any better than this.

 

Dirty Dancing DVD ***

Starring: Jennifer Grey & Patrick Swayze

Directed by: Emille Ardolino

Movie Review ****

Ah... remember the magic?

No?

You miserable old duffer. Yes, it's corny... yes it's cliched... yes they didn't have drum machines and synthesizers in the 50s, but who cares. A teenage girl's wish fulfilment movie has never been so entertaining. And don't forget - it contains the line "I carried a watermelon".

This is a new spruced up version, with a 5 channel digital soundtrack and a spanking new print (compare the quality of the old and new trailers!). Sadly, some of that, er, spank has been lost in this inexplicably non-anamorphic transfer (16:9), but other than that, the picture looks wondeful. Much of the original sound seems untouched by way of contrast, clearly with mono location sync-sound evident in some group scenes. Doesn't matter much though.

Any film with dancing in is always a joy to see in widescreen - the choreography tends to be worked around the frame. I wouldn't mind guessing more than a few copies of this will be given as appeasement pressies to wives and girlfriends by new DVD-owning male technoheads. And I wouldn't mind guessing that, for 105 minutes, the guilt offering works.

 

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All reviews / articles copyright Guy Rowland (1998).