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Category | Drama | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
Rating | Other Trailer(s) | None | |
Year Released | 1998 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time | 110 minutes | Other Extras | Cast & Crew Biographies
Production Notes Featurette - Making Angels (30 mins) Featurette - Additional Scenes (13 mins, with and without commentary track) Interviews - Peter Gabriel (1 min), Alanis Morissette (2 mins) |
RSDL/Flipper | Flipper for extras |
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Start Up | Movie | ||
Region | 4 | Director | Brad Silberling |
Distributor |
Warner Home Video |
Starring | Nicolas Cage
Meg Ryan Dennis Franz Andre Braugher |
Case | Snapper | ||
RRP | $29.95 | Music | Gabriel Yared |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | MPEG | None |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
16x9 Enhancement | Yes | Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
French (Dolby Digital 5.1) Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1) |
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 |
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Macrovision | ? | ||
Subtitles | English
French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | Yes |
What if angels walked among us? What if one of them falls in love with one of us? This is the premise of City Of Angels. Nicolas Cage plays Seth, an angel, who meets Maggie (Meg Ryan), and is smitten by her - but will he give up his immortal existence to be with Maggie?
Nicolas Cage is absolutely magnificent in his role as Seth. He plays his role to perfection, with just the right feel to make his character and his character's motivations completely clear. Meg Ryan is also superb in her role as an atheist cardiac surgeon. There are many scenes when very few words are spoken, and the emotion of the scene is carried by a subtle look, or a subtle brushing touch. Such subtlety is rare in Hollywood these days, where needless expository dialogue ruins many movie.
This movie has a number of enormous strengths. Firstly, the story is interesting and plausible. Secondly, the main characters are strong, believable and played to perfection by Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. Thirdly, the cinematography is absolutely stunning. There are some remarkable shots in this movie - there is often little need for dialogue, as the stunning visual imagery tells the entire story. Fourthly, the musical score is superb in complementing the on-screen action.
This is a great movie, one made even more so by the fact that I was expecting it to be quite ordinary. I have not enjoyed a movie this much in a long time.
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer was razor clear and crystal sharp throughout. Shadow detail was perfect, with excellent deep and richly detailed blacks. No low level noise was present at all.
The colours were all perfectly rendered with no under or oversaturation noted.
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some very rare and trivial aliasing, none of which was of any consequence. Given that a number of Warner Home Video 2.35:1 transfers in the past have suffered quite badly with aliasing (eg Jeremiah Johnson, Fathers' Day), it is good to see that they have conquered this artefact. The very nature of the cinematography in this movie leads to there being a large number of scenes which would otherwise have had severe aliasing present given the sharpness of the transfer, but this is not at all an issue with this transfer. Film artefacts were absent except for a very annoying artefact at 40:28 which mars an otherwise flawless transfer.
Dialogue was always perfectly clear and audible, even during scenes with high ambient noise. This is critically important for a dialogue-driven movie such as this one.
There were no audio sync problems with this disc.
The musical score by Gabriel Yared was superb, and created a stunning atmosphere for this movie. This is a truly exceptional soundtrack.
The surround channels were frequently in use, but always subtly - there are no explosions, but there is plenty happening in the surrounds, creating an excellent immersive soundtrack.
The .1 channel was not heavily used except for the occasional support for the music.
The bulk of the extras on our version of this disc are on Side B of the disc, though the entire movie is on Side A of the disc. An annoying issue is the fact that we have to sit through countless copyright messages before getting to the main menu on Side B of the disc.
The video quality is reference quality.
The audio quality is superb.
The extras present are excellent, but we lack the commentary tracks of the Region 1 release of this movie.
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Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
© Michael Demtschyna
16th May 1999
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DVD | Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output |
Display | Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 16:9 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
Audio Decoder | Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
Amplification | 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer |
Speakers | Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer |