Crazy In Alabama

Collector's Edition

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - 2.35:1 (16x9 Enhanced), Dolby Digital 2.0
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	Yes, 2 1 - Dolby Digital City 2 - *The Mask Of Zorro* Theatrical Trailer
Year Released	1999	Commentary Tracks	Yes, 2 1 - Antonio Banderas (Director), Linda Goldstein Knowlton (Producer) 2 - Melanie Griffith (Actor)
Running Time	107:56 Minutes	Other Extras	Menu Audio Featurette - *Deleted Scenes* (with commentary) Featurette - *Photo Montage* (with commentary) Featurette - *Blooper Reel* Cast & Crew Biographies
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (55:48)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	2,4	Director	Antonio Banderas
Studio Distributor	Columbia TriStar	Starring	Melanie Griffith David Morse Lucas Black Cathy Moriarty Meat Loaf Aday Rod Steiger
Case	Transparent Amaray	Starring
RRP	$39.95	Music	Mark Snow

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement		Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s) German (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448Kb/s) Audio Commentary 1 (Dolby Digital 2.0, 256Kb/s) Audio Commentary 2 (Dolby Digital 2.0, 256Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	English German Dutch Arabic Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindu Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Swedish Turkish Audio Commentary 1 (German) Audio Commentary 1 (Dutch) Audio Commentary 2 (German) Audio Commentary 2 (Dutch)	Annoying Product Placement	No
Subtitles		Action In or After Credits	No

Plot Synopsis

The first thought that entered into my head when I realized that Crazy In Alabama was the first directorial work of much-loved Spanish actor Antonio Banderas was about what I had let myself in for. When I saw the cover artwork and learned that Melanie Griffith had the lead acting assignment, I thought that I had truly made a big mistake, and the fact that
Meat Loaf Aday appears as one of the primary acting talents in the role of someone other than a one-scene biker, well, I knew then that I was in for a painful ride. Oh, the things I go through for you web-surfing DVD enthusiasts. This film is sort of like what you would get if you took all the worst performances in the world and spliced them together, with some of the least appealing actors I know of all present and accounted for. The film is set in a small American town during the year 1965, a time when slavery was still legal, and the film sounds like it was dubbed in post-production by an army of Slim Pickens clones. The film is seen through the eyes of, and narrated by, a pre-pubescent boy named Peejoe (Lucas Black), who seems to be remarkably well-adjusted for a boy with the worst name in recorded history. His uncle Dove (David Morse) acts as his guardian and is a prominent figure in the neighbourhood. His aunt, a rather emotional woman by the name of Lucille (Melanie Griffith) has just murdered her reportedly abusive husband and fled the state in pursuit of her life and freedom. Pursued by the law, and her husband's disembodied voice, Lucille goes from one crazy situation to another, making more and more trouble for herself as she goes. Parallel to this, a struggle over civil rights ensues, and local Sheriff John Doggett (Meat Loaf Aday) "accidentally" kills one of the protesting black children right in front of the eyes of Peejoe.

Maybe I am just the wrong person to review this sort of film, but the combination of the shallow portrayals, annoyingly-rendered dialogue, and the success in making one of the least interesting films set around the Civil Rights Movement era just sent me over the edge. Every minute of the film was painful to look at, and by the time the story begins to move in any direction resembling forward, I began to feel that tell-tale difficulty in holding my head up that signifies the fact that not only am I watching a film I find extremely disagreeable, but one that I am sure people who like this sort of thing will find pretty disagreeable, too. Before the end of the first reel, the sound of people's voices in this movie will make you want to cut your eardrums out with a blunt plastic spoon.

Transfer Quality

Video

The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, complete with 16x9 enhancement, and lends more credibility to the theory that the worst films get the best transfers. The transfer is impeccably sharp from start to finish, reflecting the youth of the film and giving the picture a life-like quality that only our beloved shiny discs can deliver. The shadow detail is perfect, striking the right balance between darkness and detail in the few night-time scenes present in the film. There did not appear to be any low-level noise present at any point in the main feature.

Colour saturation was spot-on, reflecting the drab, painful look of Redneck USA during the 1960s.

MPEG artefacts were non-existent, even though the bitrate of the transfer was all over the place in order to accommodate the extras, and a significant portion of the film involves actors swimming in a pool or standing about in fog. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some aliasing on car chrome and wire fencing, but otherwise went unnoticed. Film artefacts were mostly non-existent, although some white marks appeared on the picture that may have been caused by the camera or the negative.

This disc is presented in the RSDL format, with the layer change coming in at 55:48, at the end of Chapter 17, when Uncle Dove's wife slams a door. This change is impeccably hidden, and takes less than a nanosecond on the Toshiba player, which is known to magnify layer changes for some reason.

Audio

There are four audio tracks on this DVD: two dialogue tracks, and two audio commentaries. The dialogue tracks are both in Dolby Digital 5.1, with a choice between the original English and a dub in German. There are also two commentary tracks in Dolby Stereo, these being rendered by director Antonio Banderas and actor Melanie Griffith. Because I found this film such a painful experience to watch, I stuck with the English dialogue, even ignoring the commentaries for the most part.

The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times, within the limits set by the accented efforts of every actor to make their dialogue as hard to make out or tolerate as possible. Audio sync was not a problem at any moment, although one scene that involves Lucille's image being broadcast on television seemed to be off-sync whenever the characters on Uncle Dove's television spoke. This was probably deliberate, however, since it is the only time in the film when I noticed any real problem.

The score music is credited to X-Files score composer Mark Snow, and is instantly forgettable because it does nothing to counteract the pain factor involved in listening to almost every actor speaking through their nose. Much of the music simply sounds like music composed in the Bible belt during the middle of the twentieth century, which is certainly not much to get excited about.

The surround field was used in a limited but strangely effective manner to support the music and some ambient sounds. The best example of this was early in the film, when we first hear the disembodied voice of Lucille's late husband. The subwoofer was used occasionally to support the music and some bass-heavy sounds such as the "accidental" death of a certain black child. In this respect, the inconsistent surround presence was the best thing about the disc.

Extras

The worse the quality of the disc, the greater the quantity of extras. This disc is a shining example of that maxim.

Pathetic, truly pathetic. The menu is themed around the film, 16x9 enhanced, and accompanied by some limited (and annoying) audio. The cursor is a thin, pinkish flickering line around the borders of options, and often becomes completely indistinguishable, making for a throw-your-remote-at-the-screen experience. Literally the worst menu system I have ever witnessed on sixty-odd DVDs.

Theatrical Trailer

This clocks in at just over two minutes, and is far more entertaining to watch than the film itself. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Theatrical Trailer - The Mask Of Zorro

If you want to see this theatrical trailer, then buy The Mask Of Zorro instead. At forty dollars, it is much better value for money.

Featurette - Deleted Scenes (with commentary)

Director Antonio Banderas talks about the scenes he cut from the theatrical cut of this film, and states that the final draft had a whopping 210 Minutes of footage in it. Thankfully, he doesn't feel the need to present the entire 102 minutes that was deleted from the version we see on this disc, with only two scenes totalling around seven minutes being featured. Antonio's commentary requires subtitles to understand at many points.

Featurette - Photo Montage (with commentary)

This is also accompanied by incomprehensible narration from director Antonio Banderas, with the video aspect ratio also varying between 1.33:1 and 2.35:1, without 16x9 enhancement at any time. Make it stop, please!

Featurette - Blooper Reel

About one minute and nine seconds in length, with only a handful of flubbed lines to offer. Why bother?

Cast & Crew Biographies

Listed as "Talent Profiles" in the extras menu, biographies are provided for Melanie Griffith, Lucas Black, David Morse, Rod Steiger, Meat Loaf Aday, John Bersley, and director Antonio Banderas. Much of the print in them is unreadable.

Commentary 1 - Antonio Banderas (Director), Linda Goldstein Knowlton (Producer)/Commentary 2 - Melanie Griffith (Actor)

How can you listen to a commentary track when the film bores you so much it makes you want to rip your own eyes out? I gave Antonio Banderas and Linda Goldstein Knowlton a five minute listen. Antonio is just as easy to understand in the commentary as he is when acting, but the track is mixed well. Pity the film he and Linda speak about is so painful to look at.

R4 vs R1

Both versions of this disc are identical, right down to the extras. The only difference between the two versions of this disc, according to DVDFile, are the uses of PAL and NTSC formatting. Apparently, the distributor is having such a hard time selling the disc in Region 1 that this title has been heavily discounted from its original $24.95US price. Please desist with calling four out of five of your titles Collector's Editions when they are all at the same price, Columbia TriStar, a film is not collectible if it is so bad that even the badness is not entertaining.

Summary

I would seriously rather contemplate watching The Blair Witch Project again and listen to that cast's Nazism than see this pile of under-written drivel again. Even a particularly sensitive wife or girlfriend would be likely to agree. It is worth nothing that the film had a budget of fifteen million dollars, and only recouped two million during its theatrical run. When you are done viewing the film, I am sure you will understand why.

The video quality is very good, with only a bare minimum of problems.

The audio quality is all over the place, but good enough for the purposes set by the film.

All the extras in the world aren't going to make up for this film's story.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment

DVD	Toshiba SD-2109, using S-video output
Display	Samsung CS-823AMF (80 cm), 16:9 mode/4:3 mode, using composite and S-video inputs
Audio Decoder	Built In (Amplifier)
Amplification	Sony STR-DE835
Speakers	Panasonic S-J1500D Front Speakers, Sharp CP-303A Back Speakers, Philips FB206WC Centre Speaker, JBL Digital 10 Subwoofer