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| Category | Thriller | Theatrical Trailer(s) | Yes, 1 |
| Rating |
| Other Trailer(s) | None |
| Year Released | 1998 | Commentary Tracks | Yes, 1 - Gregory Hoblit (Director), Charles Roven (Producer) & Nicholas Kazan (Writer/Executive Producer) |
| Running Time | 119 minutes | Other Extras | Cast & Crew Biographies
Production Notes |
| RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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| Start Up | Movie | ||
| Region | 4 | Director | Gregory Hoblit |
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Distributor |
Warner Brothers |
Starring | Denzel Washington
John Goodman Donald Sutherland Embeth Davidtz James Gandolfini Elias Koteas |
| RRP | $29.95 | Music | Tan Dun |
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| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | No | MPEG | None |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
| 16x9 Enhancement | Yes | Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0  ) |
| Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
| Macrovision | ? | ||
| Subtitles | English
Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired |
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Where the movie diverges is in the fundamental premise, which is that demons are amongst us and are transferred from person to person by touch. Whilst they are in possession of a person, that person is no longer able to think for themselves and merely acts as a puppet for the demon. The particular demon involved in this movie is Azazel, and he is particularly annoyed at John Hobbes (Denzel Washington) because Hobbes has had his host killed in a gas chamber, necessitating a change of host. Azazel decides to have some fun at John's expense, basically putting him in the frame for some brutal murders and messing with his head.
John is not prepared to give up lying down, and this is what the rest of the movie is all about. Denzel Washington is ably supported by John Goodman as his police partner Jonesey, Donald Sutherland as his police chief Lieutenant Stanton, and Embeth Davidtz as the daughter of a policeman who had exactly the same thing happen to him some twenty years ago.
Once the movie began to diverge from its uncanny resemblance to Seven, it started to pick up, and overall became quite an enjoyable thriller, with some genuine scares and with excellent characterizations of the main players.
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer was very sharp and clear. Black level and shadow detail were excellent, though I would highly recommend watching this movie in the dark since a great deal of it is shot with very little lighting. No low level noise was noted. The overall look of this DVD is quite "hard". Listening to the commentary track, this is how the director intended the movie to look.
The colours were nicely rendered and consistent throughout the movie, never tending to oversaturation in the lower lit sequences.
No MPEG artefacts were noted. Aliasing was present in a number of scenes, more so than in other current Warner Brothers releases. All the usual culprits are responsible for this aliasing, as well as a number of indoor scenes at the police station being quite marred by this artefact. It is just this side of acceptable - any worse and I would have considered the video transfer to be unacceptable.
Film weave was an irritation in one particular scene, but otherwise the image was rock steady.
Film artefacts were very rarely noted, commensurate with the recent vintage of this transfer.
Dialogue was mostly clear, though early on in the movie it was a little hard to hear.
There were no audio sync problems with this disc.
The music by newcomer Tan Dun is highly percussive and strident, showing very distinct Asian influences. It is excellent at providing a tense atmosphere for this movie.
The surround channels were used reasonably frequently, with ambience and effects going to the rears. Overall, it was a moderately enveloping soundtrack, though I have certainly experienced better.
The .1 channel was used for the special effects and for some of the music, but wasn't worked all that hard.
The discussion is led by Charles Roven, appropriately mixed into the Centre channel. Gregory Hoblit is mixed to the Left channel and Nicholas Kazan is mixed to the Right channel. The commentary is presented as a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack with the movie mixed in at a low level behind the commentary track. At times, the movie slightly drowned out the commentary, but it was normally quite easy to hear. The extreme L & R pans for the commentary track was a little bit much on the ears, but otherwise I have no complaint about this commentary track.
The video quality is acceptable. A significant amount of aliasing mars what would otherwise be an even better disc.
The audio quality is average for a 1998 movie. Perhaps more could have been done with the surrounds, or perhaps not.
The extras present are good.
| Video |   |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
© Michael Demtschyna
10th February 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 |