Addicted to Love DVD ****

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Meg Ryan and Kelly Preston

Directed by: Griffin Dunne

Movie Review ***

A nice package, this. The movie is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen and looks fine, and the 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is superb, with a cracking music soundtrack and some wonderful dynamic effects (that motorbike is incredible).

Then we have the trailer and lots of notes which follow the production through from early drafts of the script. Finally there is a section devoted to the ingenious camera obscura, a major plot device in the movie. It's hard to see how a film like Addicted To Love could be made into a better DVD - this is a great version of an off-kilter romantic comedy.

 

Assassins DVD ***

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Antonio Banderas & Julianne Moore

Directed by Richard Donner

Movie Review **

Well, I could have sworn that this was a cropped version of the movie. Framed at 16:9, it seemed unusual from director Donner and DOP Vilmos Zsigmond, who usually film in 2.35:1 Panavision. To cap it all, text on Stallone's computer screen reads a little strange - "'ve been sitting on another pim ontract" seems a strange corruption of English to me. But no, that's how it is - this film was made in the less extreme 1.85:1 format, and what we see is all there is.

The picture and sound here are both very good, if below the absolute best that the format can deliver. The visuals seem a tad grainy and compression funnies were noticeable on close inspection, while the sound has a higher than usual level of background noise. Neither flaw is in any way obtrusive however, and there's enough use of the surround speakers to have you ducking for cover as the bullets fly by.

We're a bit short changed on the usual Warner extras here, with only cast biogs of the director and the three leads, with a few pages of general notes thrown in. At least they contain one gem - producer Joel Silver considers Stallone's role in Assassins to be "less one dimensional" than those had been playing of late. It's good to see that these big-shot producers can retain their sense of humour.

 

Batman & Robin DVD ***

Starring: George Clooney, Chirs O'Donnel, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Uma Thurman & Alicia Silverstone

Directed by: Joel Schmacher

Movie Review *

Yes, alright, it may not be Citizen Kane, but fans of the Batman series will surely want to this to swell their collection. And, in these early DVD days, it does make for an excellent demo disc.

And why? The look of Batman & Robin can be summed up in one word - colour. Just how much of a pig's lobe ordinary VHS makes of the beautiful cartoon-like, saturated colours can only be guessed at, but here they are rendered with a finesse that makes even S-VHS look woeful. The 16:9 aspect ratio transfer is quite excellent, and the headache-inducing sound mix has non-stop effects flying all over the place. This will wow 'em in Winslow, and ship 'em in Shefield.

The menu has the main theme playing over it (a nice touch), and there's plenty of on-screen bumph regarding the various gizzmos, gadgets and effects the film showcases. The whole package would have been a four star delight, but for that annoying "subtitles-default-to-on" glitch again. Of course, Warner's surprising thoughtfulness for the hard of hearing can be easily defeated by a stab of the remote and a bit of mild swearing. But I was also unsure about the sync - it seemed occasionally to slip very slightly, although it could well have been dodgy ADR (the post-production process of replacing the location dialogue).

Of course, any analysis of the movie itself induces far harsher language. Movie making by demographics - each cast member designed to appeal to a different sector of the audience - here reaches its zenith, or nadir depending on how you look at it. A director's commentary would have been revealing... it could have been sold as a director's defence.

 

The Client ***

Starring Susan Sarandon, Brad Renfro & Tommy Lee Jones

Directed by Joel Schumacher

Movie Review ***

Another near-flawless transfer from Warner Brothers makes its way into the first wave of UK discs. The picture is here presented in the original Panavision aspect ratio of the super-wide 2.35:1, and mighty fine it looks too. Once or twice some very over-saturated blocks of colour seemed to strobe slightly, although I'd suspect this is an example of one of the only flaws in the DVD format - big blocks of solid colour can cause problems. The sound (the movie was mixed in ordinary surround) is excellent, with good use of atmospheres and acoustics.

The menu screens leave a little to be desired on this one - the colour scheme and font used induce a certain amount of squinting. On the plus side, the trailer is a welcome addition (I know this is embarrassingly trivial, but thanks to Warner for making their supplementary material 16:9 enhanced also), and the disc is entirely glitch free, trivial or otherwise. In all, one of the more tolerable Grisham adaptions holds its head high against some of the nakedly thrills and spills competition.

 

Con Air DVD * 1/2

Starring Nicolas Cage, John Malkovich, John Cusack & Steve Buscemi

Directed by Simon West

Movie Review *****

US DVD Review **

Yet another shoddy Disney release, this suffers from the same problem as From Dusk Till Dawn - wandering dialogue. Yup, as from around 43 minutes in, the audio sync drifts wildly, reducing the actors to rubber lipped goons, every last one of them.

One plus point - directly comparing this with the US Version on a widescreen telly clearly reveals the huge advantage in the anamorphic coding available here, right from Jerry Bruckheimer's credit onwards. It may not be up to Warner or Columbia standards, but it is a sight better than what the US gets (though for those with 4:3 sets, there should be little or no discernable difference). The re-evaluation prompted me to lower the US rating from three to two stars, by the way.

In all other regards, this UK disc is very poor. Apart from the lip sync, the audio is as lacking in oomph and dynamics as the other Disney titles (the centre channel needs turning way up, and even then it seems wrong), and the 2 trailers available on the US disc have been removed. Gee, thanks folks. This would be forgivable, but this sync business makes it damn near unwatchable. The solution - if you can, buy the US version. If not (and it pains me to say this) - get the widescreen VHS.

 

Conspiracy Theory DVD ***

Starring: Mel Gibson, Julia Roberts & Patrick Stewart

Directed by: Richard Donner

Movie Review **

Another in Warner's basic but brilliant series, this proudly sports another knockout anamorphic transfer. A victim of Warner's new Useless Labeling policy ("Regular - suitable for all TVs"), this is in fact the 2.35:1 letterbox business -- visual heaven. The 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is stupendous - the hallucinogenic sequences are incredibly effective with all manner of effects and voices flying around.

The usual bolt-on extras are there with extensive production notes, biographies of cast, director, producers and (YAY!) writer, completing the package. Although this remains something of a missed opportunity of a disc, with all sorts of fun possibilities that could have been had with the theme, what we do get is pretty much flawless.

 

Crimson Tide DVD * 1/2

Starring Denzel Washington & Gene Hackman

Directed by Tony Scott

Movie Review ****

Another good movie thrown away by Disney, this again features their wonderful USP (marketing jargon for Unique Selling Point) - out of sync dialogue. In this case, maybe it's some highly complex physics involving the speed of sound waves underwater, but I somehow doubt it. Early scenes suffer on my Panasonic A100 from a mild dose, the last 20 minutes suffer more acutely.

Some more on that strange Disney picture. These titles have been converted from ordinary NTSC digital video tape to anamorphic widescreen DVD. From a normal viewing distance, the results on a widescreen TV are very impressive - the perceived resolution is way above a non-anamorphic disc, and the colour rendition is pretty good.

However, at even marginally closer to the set, the whole game is given away. Some have referred to the strange moving picture effect as Wandering Eye Syndrome - people's pupils occasionally become disturbingly disconnected from their heads. This, of course, is but one symptom - on a camera track, people move at different times and in different ways, and gradations appear in areas of subtle colour change. It's amazing that it works at a distance at all - but it does.

Crimson Tide also suffers acutely from one of DVDs few inherent flaws. Huge blocks of single colour (even grey) can sometimes result in subtle banding - lines whizz their way diagonally across the picture. This film features countless Panavision vistas of murky blues and alarming reds, and we witness as bad a case of this effect as I have seen.

The sound (apart from slipping sync) is very good however, with none of the weak dialogue or dynamic-less guts that have blighted other Disney releases. Other than the multiple language and subtitles options, there are (again) no other extras.

A feature-less disc with a standards converted picture would get 2 stars if all else was well. So far, only Ransom has come into that category. Disney's apparent ambivalent attitude has again further screwed up an otherwise lacklustre release.

 

Dangerous Liaisons DVD **

Starring Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman & Keanu Reeves

Directed by Stephen Frears

Movie Review ***

Having been garnished with adapted screenplay, acting and craft awards back on its original release in 1988, this adaption of the scandalous 18th century novel arrives on DVD not entirely in tact. Maybe something of the malevolent nature of the film, featuring the least likeable leads in movie history, has been passed on to the disc authorers.

The original 16:9 print is not in too good a shape to start with it appears, with a lot of grain and gate weave for the actual picture to wade through. But the bigger problem is the sound - on two lengthy occasions (chapters 8-11 and 20-24), it loses sync completely, giving the impression that the film was shot in Hungarian and we are listening to the English dub. This is a particular shame, since much effort was made on this film to use the actual location sound, rather than the usual replacement dialogue.

On the plus side, the menus are attractively designed, and the cast and production notes interesting and copious. But add the picture and sound faults to the usual Warner subtitle glitch (defaults to on), and incorrect labelling on the case of 5.1 surround, and this is not Warner's finest hour.

 

Dead Man Walking DVD ***

Starring: Susan Sarandon & Sean Penn

Directed by: Tim Robbins

Movie review *****

Another good movie from Polygram - of all the studios releasing early R2 discs, Polygram has the best films in my book.

The transfers here are both good quality, with some artifacts noticeable only on an inspection that's far too close to the set for comfort. From a normal viewing distance, everything becomes crystal clear and before you know it, you've long since left the world of looking for things wrong with the picture and are mesmerised by this powerful movie itself. As it should be.

Unfortunately, you are snapped out again with a jolt in the last two minutes, where someone seems to have inadvertently pressed the wrong button on the sound transfer. The centre speaker gives up, and the dialogue comes from all around you - left, right and surround! This happens on both w/s and pan and scan versions - more slapped wrists for the authoring company.

Speaking of which, the menu presentation is very sluggish, poor and illogical. Worse, the whole navigation system seems to fall over rather badly - the scene selections don't work, nor do dialing the chapters or absolute time values directly. Only the skip forward and back buttons function correctly .

Although these faults are serious, and Polygram really should look for new authorers (please?!!!), there are no distractions while watching the movie itself (bar the last scene). The pictures are fine, and the sound as good as the movie itself allows - the quality of the location sound leaves a bit to be desired, and the film was never mixed in 5.1. It's easy to critisise, but the basics are there, with a picture far outstripping VHS and a choice of anamorphic widescreen (the film was shot closed matte) and fullscreen. And most important, it's an incredible movie.

 

Disclosure DVD ***

Starring Michael Douglas, Demi Moore and Donald Sutherland

Directed by Barry Levinson

Movie Review ****

Another in Warner's functional-but-nice range, this presents the film in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1. And nicely presented it is too, with the night-time shots of Seattle looking particularly impressive. Unfortunately, the Production Designer chose to dress the office set, featured throughout, with Venetian blinds. And as you no doubt know, without these it would be curtains for them all, but it would also have stopped the maddening strobing that these bleeders induce on television sets. This ain't the fault of the disc though - only a high-definition TV system could possibly cope with these nasty little critters.

There's nothing to get excited about with the sound, but if you're after your split rear showcase (try smuggling that title into the country), you've obviously picked the wrong movie. The menus are stylishly basic, but one random gripe - I appreciate the production notes on the cast and director, but why is the screenwriter so often ignored? Poor soul.

It's easy to get blase about another stunning disc, but there it is. Although extras would undeniably have been welcome, this remains the best version of the film you'll find anywhere, short of renting the Odeon Marble Arch.

 

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All reviews / articles copyright Guy Rowland (1998).