In & Out


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Comedy Theatrical Trailer(s) Yes, 1
Rating Other Trailer(s) None
Year Released 1997 Commentary Tracks None
Running Time 87 minutes Other Extras Cast & Crew Interviews
Featurette - Making Of (5 mins)
Cast Biographies
RSDL/Flipper No/No
Cast & Crew
Start Up Movie
Region 4 Director Frank Oz
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Kevin Kline
Joan Cusack
Matt Dillon
Debbie Reynolds
Wilford Brimley
Bob Newhart
Tom Selleck
RRP $34.95 Music Marc Shaiman

 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame No MPEG 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Dolby Digital 5.1
16x9 Enhancement Yes Soundtrack Languages English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
English (MPEG 5.1)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio 1.85:1    
Macrovision Yes    
Subtitles None    

Plot Synopsis

    In & Out is a comedy starring Kevin Kline as Howard Brackett, a high school English Literature teacher who is about to get married to Emily Montgomery (Joan Cusack). Howard is very artistic, he dances, he loves English literature, and most of all, he knows what Barbra Streisand's eighth album was.

    Cameron Drake (Matt Dillon) is a former pupil of Howard's. Cameron has gone on to win an Oscar for his portrayal of a gay in the army. During his acceptance speech, he makes reference to Howard, and tells the world that Howard is gay, something which even Howard wasn't aware of.

    Is he gay? Is he straight? The movie revolves around answering this question, and showing the reactions of the local townsfolk to this revealing information.

    In & Out starts off as a clumsy farcical comedy, with ridiculously overplayed stereotypical parts, and then does an abrupt about face about half-way through the movie, and becomes much more serious, whilst remaining light-hearted. All throughout the movie as the question of whether or not Howard is gay is raised, I kept wanting to say "I don't care".

    One controversial moment is when Tom Selleck, who plays a gay news reporter, gives Howard a lengthy kiss on the lips.

Transfer Quality

Video

    The video transfer of this movie is good without being excellent.

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was clear and sharp at all times. Shadow detail was acceptable, though most of the movie is shot quite brightly lit. No low level noise marred the picture.

    The colours were nicely balanced and even throughout, with well-saturated hues.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some small amounts of aliasing and some scenes which wobbled slightly. This aspect of the transfer was a little below expectations, but was nonetheless quite acceptable. Film artefacts are present more frequently than they should have been, especially during the opening credits, where they were quite distracting. The opening credits for this movie last a full 5 minutes, as do the end credits, quite remarkable for a movie with a total running time of 87 minutes (incorrectly stated on the packaging as being 90 minutes).

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this DVD. The default is English Dolby Digital 5.1. There is also an English MPEG 5.1 audio track. I listened to the English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

    Dialogue was always clear and easily understood in this movie, though the loudest bits of dialogue sounded a little distorted at times. There is a slight audio dropout at 23:25.

    There were no audio sync problems with the movie.

    The musical score was written by Marc Shaiman. It is unremarkable.

     The surround channels were moderately used to support the music and to add some ambience. They were not particularly enveloping.

    The .1 channel was lightly used only.

    Extras

    There are the usual collection of Roadshow Home Entertainment extras on this disc. The extras are all presented windowboxed at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (4:3) and 16x9 enhanced.

Menu

    The menu design is themed around the movie, but is unremarkable.

Theatrical Trailer

    The theatrical trailer is present on this disc, with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack in addition to the usual MPEG 2.0 soundtrack. It is presented at an aspect ratio of 4:3, windowboxed.

Featurette - Making Of

    A typical Roadshow Home Entertainment 5 minute featurette is present, with very little meaningful information. This has two soundtracks; MPEG 2.0 and Dolby Digital 2.0. The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is out of sync by 4 seconds, making it completely useless for this extra. I cannot imagine how shoddy work like this could have made it past quality control. This is quite unacceptable.

Cast & Crew Interviews

    These are along the usual Roadshow Home Entertainment line of questions with short snippets for answers. Menu navigation is improved. This time, after you have watched the answer to a selected question, the DVD remembers the question you asked and returns to that point, which means several less keypresses to navigate through the interviews. Now, all they have to do is highlight the next question rather than the same question. The snippets are all of reasonable length - no 6 second snippets here. They are presented at a ratio of 4:3 windowboxed (16x9 enhanced) but have only MPEG audio accompanying them. The interviews are more interesting than they usually are.

Cast Biographies

    Limited Cast Biographies round out the extras on this disc.

Summary

    I didn't particularly like In & Out. However, the transfer quality of the movie is quite acceptable, with the only issue being the appalling sync error in the Dolby Digital track in the Making Of featurette.

    The video quality is acceptable.

    The audio quality is acceptable.

    The extras are standard Roadshow Home Entertainment fare..

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
3rd March 1999

Review Equipment
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