The Game

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1997	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	122 minutes	Other Extras	Cast & Crew Biographies
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Selection then Menu
Region	0	Director	David Fincher
Distributor	Polygram	Starring	Michael Douglas Sean Penn James Rebhorn Deborah Kara Unger Peter Donat Carroll Baker Armin Mueller-Stahl
RRP	$34.95	Music	Howard Shore

    This is a great movie, which kept me intrigued until the very end, guessing what was real and what wasn't, and who was real and who wasn't. There is a lot of very intense imagery and action and the director, David Fincher, keeps the pace up throughout the entire two hours without ever letting up. David Fincher is also responsible for the superb Seven, so it doesn't surprise me that this is another superb effort. Michael Douglas is marvellous in his role as the first confused and then angry "game" participant, and he gets good support from the rest of the cast.

    The only specific recommendation that I would make is that you watch this movie in the dark, since a great deal of it is shot with very low level lighting, and details will be lost otherwise.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced. I note that the Region 1 version of this disc is not 16x9 enhanced. Also present on the other side of the disc is the Pan & Scan version of this movie. I applaud Polygram for releasing discs in this dual format, even though I think the Pan & Scan side would be very hard to watch given the amount of missing information on this side.

    The transfer was generally sharp and clear, but not as sharp as some other transfers that I have seen. The sharpness tended to disappear a little in low lit scenes, and shadow detail tended to be lacking in these scenes, with most dark shadows simply being black.

    The colours were quite subdued as a rule, though some of the higher-lit scenes were more colourful. Overall, the colours had quite a hard look to them, with lots of bluish hues, even though they were not all that highly saturated. However, there were a number of scenes with extreme colour saturation verging on the psychedelic, and these all came across quite well, with just the smallest hint of colour bleeding and chroma noise. Occasionally, some of the backgrounds were a little bit grainy with some chroma noise, but this was a minor complaint.

    As just mentioned, some of the backgrounds, especially the lower-lit backgrounds, appeared a little grainy and blocky, but there were no major MPEG artefacts seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of small amounts of aliasing in a few scenes. Film artefacts were acceptably few and far between.

    I took the opportunity to compare the non-anamorphic R1 version of this disc with the R4 version, and noted that the R4 version was far higher in resolution, but otherwise essentially the same as the R1 version with the same image characteristics.

Audio

    Dialogue was always clear and very easily understood, and was essentially in sync throughout the entire movie. Small amounts of the ADR dialogue were marginally out of sync, but this was the same between the R4 and the R1 disc.

    The music added a marvellously tense atmosphere to this movie, and was aggressively mixed throughout the soundfield.

     The surround channels were aggressively used for music, special effects, and ambience. This was a highly enveloping soundtrack which was excellent in drawing you into the movie, and was almost reference quality in this regard.

    The .1 channel was used to support the music and the special effects. It received a moderate workout.

Menu

Cast & Crew Biographies

    The video quality is acceptable, but I have seen better.

    The audio quality is of excellent quality and is highly enveloping.

    The extras are very limited.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
24th January 1999