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Category | Thriller | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
Rating |
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Other Trailer(s) | None |
Year Released | 1992 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time |
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Other Extras | None |
RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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Start Up | Movie | ||
Region | 4 | Director | Curtis Hanson |
Distributor |
Warner Home Video |
Starring | Annabella Sciorra
Rebecca De Mornay Matt McCoy Ernie Hudson |
RRP | $34.95 | Music | Graeme Revell |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | No | MPEG | None |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Dolby Digital | 2.0 |
16x9 Enhancement | No | Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 2.0 ,
192 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 for the Hearing Impaired | Annoying Product Placement | No |
Action In or After Credits | No |
Actually, thrillers are not my cup of tea for entertainment, but this is not a bad one. Rebecca De Mornay is quite superb as the perfect nanny - from hell. The real star here though is Ernie Hudson who did a terrific job as the intellectually disadvantaged Solomon and is absolutely convincing in the role. Overall, it is difficult to fault the performances of the entire cast and this is very well directed by Curtis Hanson.
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, this is not 16x9 enhanced and at times it shows.
The transfer is not especially sharp and the lack of clear definition is not helped by the lack of enhancement; at times the picture has quite a grainy look to it. Shadow detail is not especially good, but probably suits the style of film quite well.
The colours were consistently rendered, albeit quite muted. This is not a vibrant transfer and the overall feel of the film is quite dark and drab - which may well have been the original intention of the director.
There were no MPEG artefacts noted, and video artefacts were restricted to some very minor aliasing, which was not especially distracting. Film artefacts were not very prevalent during the film and were not in the least distracting to the film.
There are three audio tracks on the DVD, all being Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtracks: the default English, French and Italian. I listened to the English default.
The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times, although the general level is quite low and most would probably need to up their normal audio levels a little for this film.
Audio sync did not appear to be a problem with the transfer at all.
The musical score by Graeme Revell was very good, and contributes well to the film. It is a fairly typical suspense type of score, thus lacks a little in individuality.
The surround channels were reasonably well balanced, although there was not too much detail out of the rear channels - but then again, this is not a film that needs an awful lot of detail.
The subwoofer was not used at all during the film.
The overall video quality is reasonably good.
The overall audio quality is reasonably good.
We even miss out on the white paper note on this one!
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | say again? |
Plot | |
Overall |
© Ian Morris
17th September 1999
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DVD | Pioneer DV-515; S-video output |
Display | Sony Trinitron Wega 84cm |
Audio Decoder | Built in |
Amplification | Yamaha RXV-795 |
Speakers | Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL |