Starring Michael J Fox
Directed by Peter Jackson
Movie Review ****
Universal Region 1
Anamorphic
widescreen single sided, single layer
Well, this should be quick. Cracking picture and sound thoughout, and that's it. 'Course, that's all some poeple want from a disc, but this is the kind of movie that cries out for a commentary from the ever-interesting Peter Jackson, or a few bits of filmmaking tidbits. Shame on you, Universal.
That said, what we get is superb - the surround sound is eerily effective in a number of places, and the images are rarely less than stunning.
Starring: John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd & Joan Cusack
Directed by: George Armitage
Movie review ****
Buena Vista
(Hollywood Pictures) Region 1 (does not play on pin-snipped region 2)
Ho hum - why oh why (oh why) are Disney so mean with their discs? Like Con Air (another Cusack classic), this is a poor excuse for a DVD.
Actually, this is even less elegant than Con Air, with a menu screen and options which looked like it took the authorer all of five minutes to put together. There are also precious few chapters, and the greatest Disney sin of all, no anamorphic squeezing. The film is shot in the open matte format, so the letterboxing actually gives you less picture for your money, although the framing will be the same as you saw in the cinema.
The transfer seems slightly amiss too - the reds seem a tad oversaturated and the whole disc looks a bit contrasty. The sound - although not the fault of the disc - is also less than perfect, with most of the dialogue sounding a bit hissy and compressed, and one scene actually distorting!
But the thing is, even with all these faults, it is STILL better than the VHS. But, of course, this says more about DVD than it does about Disney...
All reviews / articles copyright Guy Rowland (1998).