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| Category | Drama | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
| Rating |  |
Other Trailer(s) | None |
| Year Released | 1995 | Commentary Tracks | None |
| Running Time | 94:46 minutes | Other Extras | None |
| RSDL/Flipper | RSDL (49:46) |
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| Start Up | Movie | ||
| Region | 2,4 | Director | John N Smith |
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Distributor |
Warner Home Video |
Starring | Michelle Pfeiffer
George Dzundza |
| Case | Amaray | ||
| RRP | $34.95 | Music | Wendy & Lisa |
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| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | MPEG | None |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s)
French (Dolby Digital 2.0  ,
192 Kb/s)
Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 ,
192 Kb/s) |
| Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 |
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| Macrovision | ? | Smoking | Yes |
| Subtitles | English
Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired |
Annoying Product Placement | No |
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
What makes this film even more unusual is that it comes from the famed Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer production partnership. Yes, those responsible for such action-a-plenty films as Top Gun, Days of Thunder and The Rock amongst others also gave us this atypical effort, which may unfortunately be the poorest film from their stable.
LouAnne Johnson (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an ex-Marine seeking employment as a teacher and unfortunately thanks to her good friend Hal Griffith (George Dzundza) ends up with the teaching job from hell at an ethnically diverse school in Los Angeles. Her class is a class of special students, although special does not have the actual connotation that LouAnne believed. These are the dregs of the education system, the difficult students that have been tossed out of other schools. Through sheer force of will, she gains the attention and respect of these special cases and gives them the hope to break the endless cycle of desperation that permeates their lives.
Sound real familiar to you? Sorry to press the point but the comparisons are just too obvious in my opinion. But, even ignoring the story, the comparisons of performance are also inevitable and whilst a teacher of the "calibre" of Michelle Pfeiffer would definitely have kept me a heck of a lot more interested in school when I was there, her performance simply lacks the degree of necessary believability. As fine looking as she is, I am afraid that an ex-Marine she simply is not, and from there the performance does not improve. There is no inspirational performance of a Sidney Poitier here I am afraid. Even the supporting cast does not have the degree of believability that the earlier British cast achieved in 1966. Sorry, but the only performance here that I have little trouble believing is that of George Dzundza as the smoking, overweight teacher - a definite example of passion being ground down by reality. There is simply nothing about this film that I find enthralling, and this hardly ranks as "compelling entertainment" despite what the cover blurb says. And, to be blunt, some of the attempts at moralizing I found a little too much to stomach - there is far too much stereotyping here, although others may well disagree. Stick with To Sir, With Love, I say.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer is not really sharp at all throughout and it suffers just a little in terms of definition as a result. Whilst the slightly diffuse image throughout may be an intentional choice, it does result in a slightly flat image. Thankfully, the transfer is reasonably clear throughout, and this prevents the image descending into something that could be quite unwatchable. There is the odd indication of grain in the transfer, but this is never a serious problem and does not detract significantly from the image at all. There are no problems with low level noise in the transfer.
The colours come up quite nicely in tone, although they are not what I would really call vibrant - but then again, the type of area being depicted is not exactly a vibrant one anyway, so a very realistic rendering is the result. Certainly the richer tones suit the film well, and there is no hint of oversaturation at all in the transfer.
The main problem with this transfer is that it seems to be cursed with a degree of what is presumably telecine wobble. In general, this is not too distracting, except for a particularly bad example between 33:32 and 33:34. I am surprised that this passed quality control in some respects, but then I remember that this is Di$ney. Apart from the wobble, there were no other apparent MPEG artefacts nor did there appear to be any other film-to-video artefacts. Film artefacts were present during the film, but were in no way distracting to the film. Overall, this is a slightly disappointing transfer for a film of its age and does nothing to boost the stocks of Buena Vista at all.
This is an RSDL formatted disc with the layer change coming at 49:46. This is possibly one of the worst layer changes that I have seen in terms of location, for the simple reason that about one second later there was a scene change that would have hidden the change almost perfectly. As it is, the layer change is not too noticeable and really does not interrupt the film too much, but it should have been better.
There are three audio tracks on the DVD: an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track, a French Dolby Digital 2.0 track and an Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 track. I listened to the English default, but briefly sampled the other two efforts. According to Michael D's trusty PowerDVD, the two 2.0 tracks are surround-encoded, although the packaging lists them as stereo only. On the basis of my sampling I would have to say that the Italian track is surround-encoded but the French track is not.
The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.
There did not appear to be any audio sync problems with the transfer.
The musical score comes from Wendy & Lisa, better known as part of The Revolution, the backing band for Prince at one time, back when he was actually worth listening to. This is naturally quite a contemporary music score and really is more of a collection of songs than anything else. Of course, the film is probably best known for the stunning title song Gangsta's Paradise. Overall, the music sets the right tone for the film and is in general pretty appropriate, but I would hardly extend to calling it a great music soundtrack.
Since the film does not demand it, we do not have a greatly dynamic soundtrack here, and what use is made of the rear surround channels in particular is quite limited. Unfortunately, I think a good opportunity for some wonderful surround ambience has been missed here, with the result that the soundtrack ends up being somewhat unmemorable. There is also little evidence of use from the bass channel. Overall, the sound picture created is reasonably believable, although a little lacking in variety, and this probably helps the dialogue somewhat. There is no distortion here at all and the clarity is good, so there is nothing really wrong with it at all, but it could have been so much better.
A good video transfer.
An unremarkable audio transfer.
Extras: more doughnut holes, get more doughnut holes
here!
| Video |  |
| Audio |  |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
© Ian Morris (have a
laugh, check out the bio)
24th April 2000
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| DVD | Pioneer DV-515; S-video output |
| Display | Sony Trinitron Wega 84cm. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in |
| Amplification | Yamaha RXV-795. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
| Speakers | Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL |