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Category | Action/Comedy | Trailers (2)
Web Link |
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Rating | |||
Year Released | 1999 | ||
Running Time | 87:15 minutes | ||
RSDL/Flipper | RSDL (53:08) |
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Start Up | Language Selection, then Menu | ||
Region | 2,4 | Director | Charles T Kanganis |
Distributor |
Universal Pictures Video |
Starring | James Belushi
Christine Tucci James Handy Wade Andrew Williams J J Johnston Scotch Ellis Loring Vincent Castellanos Mac |
Case | Transparent Amaray | ||
RPI | $36.95 | Music | Steve Edwards |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | No | English (Dolby Digital 5.0, 384
Kb/s)
French (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) German (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 |
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Macrovision | Yes | Smoking | No |
Subtitles | English for the Hearing Impaired
French German Dutch Spanish Italian Swedish Norwegian Danish |
Annoying Product Placement | No |
Action In or After Credits | No |
You know that things are only going to get worse when you review the DVD and cannot remember what the original film was about. Either my memory is really disappearing or K-9 was as unmemorable as I don't recall it, which of course does beg the question as to why, if the original film was that unmemorable, a studio decided to go ahead with a sequel. But they did and here it is. Now I am pretty much guessing that this may be another straight to video effort, and that is without bothering to check any resources to confirm the fact. The whole film simply has that feel about it.
The story pretty much goes along the lines of: weary cop (James Belushi) and his wearier police dog (Mac) are finding things tough and after losing yet another suspect are on the outer with exasperated boss (James Handy). Said cop is also the target for a somewhat deranged criminal novelist (Wade Andrew Williams) who has not taken kindly to said cop's judgement of his work. Cue the female interest in an attractive police woman (Christine Tucci) and her gung-ho police dog (Lucan), new partners for weary cop and wearier dog. Mission? To track down and incarcerate said criminal novelist before anything disastrous happens. Throw in banal romantic sub-plot between attractive police woman and weary cop. I think that pretty much covers this dull effort.
Okay it may not be Police Academy 6 - nothing could be that bad - but this sure does not have an awful lot going for it. The acting is of a uniformly mediocre standard at best, with occasional descents into utter tripe, with a decidedly lacklustre directorial effort to boot. Can you say B-grade film? This is pretty much the definitive B-grade film. The sort of film that you forget even as you are watching it.
There is nothing too much to get excited about here and about the only thing that makes this even remotely bearable to watch is... come to think of it, there is nothing that really makes this bearable to watch.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.
This is really a quite average-looking transfer, apart from a couple of minor sections of quite decent sharpness. There just seemed to be a general lack of depth to the vision here that really detracts from the overall presentation. There are a few notable examples of very soft focus, and the overall effect is of a transfer that really does not provide too much in the way of detail. Shadow detail is reasonably good overall, but certainly not as good as it could have been. It is a clear enough transfer that thankfully is not prone to any grain. There is no low level noise in the transfer.
The colours come up reasonably well here but are anything but vibrant in the main: the few instances where there is a degree of vividness in the colours tend to stand out all the more because of it. There are no problems with oversaturation nor with colour bleed. The overall look and feel of the film is quite natural and it is a pity that some better-looking locations were not used to take advantage of the quality of the transfer.
Apart from some rather inconsequential aliasing at a couple of points, there really is nothing much to mention here. The standard of the film may be quibbled over but the standard of the mastering is such that suggests any problems in the transfer are source-related. No MPEG artefacts, no real film-to-video artefacts and hardly a film artefact are in sight.
K-911 is yet another moderate length film
that is blessed by being presented on an RSDL
formatted DVD, with the layer change coming at 53:08.
It is a decent layer change, quite well placed and not really disruptive
to the flow of the film.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain | |
Film-to-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
The dialogue comes up clear and easy to understand in the transfer. There is no problem with audio sync in the transfer.
The music score comes from Steve Edwards, and in keeping with the film-by-numbers approach of the film, is unlikely to indelibly leave its mark in your memory for the right reasons.
It seems a little unusual to go with an English 5.0
soundtrack when the German gets a 5.1 offering. Still, there are not really
too many opportunities for a bass channel to really kick in so it is not
really missed overall. Of more concern is the opportunity wasted as far
as some gorgeous directional sound effects is concerned. This provided
ample opportunity for bullets to whiz across the soundstage - and the fact
that they don't in general is quite noticeable. In general, the surround
channel use is very reasonable but simply lacking the ultimate in ambient
support. Obviously the bass channel went missing-in-action for this effort.
A generally effective soundtrack that simply is not as good as we would
perhaps have liked.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
© Ian Morris (have
a laugh, check out the bio)
27th November 2000
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DVD | Pioneer DV-515; S-video output |
Display | Sony Trinitron Wega 80cm. 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 C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL |