New Jack City


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Details At A Glance

General
Extras
Category Drama Theatrical Trailer(s) None
Rating Other Trailer(s) None
Year Released 1991 Commentary Tracks None
Running Time 96:23 minutes Other Extras None
RSDL/Flipper No/No
Cast & Crew
Start Up Movie
Region 2,4 Director Mario Van Peebles
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Wesley Snipes
Ice T
Chris Rock
Mario Van Peebles
Judd Nelson
Case Snapper
RRP $29.95 Music Michael Colombier

 
Video
Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None MPEG None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Dolby Digital 5.1
16x9 Enhancement Yes Soundtrack Languages English (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s)
French (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s)
Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1, 384 Kb/s)
Theatrical Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
Miscellaneous
Macrovision ? Smoking Yes (not cigarettes!)
Subtitles English
French
Italian
Dutch
Arabic
Spanish
Portuguese
German
English for the Hearing Impaired
Italian for the Hearing Impaired
Annoying Product Placement Yes, one spot
Action In or After Credits None

Plot Synopsis

    Are you sitting down? Agree, disagree, like, or dislike, one thing that New Jack City will do is leave you with a lasting impression. This ain't Kansas, Dorothy. This movie pulls no punches. Wesley Snipes is a crack cocaine dealer who sets up a very professional and very ruthless operation in a city development. Ice T and Judd Nelson are the cops who are intent on bringing him down. To paraphrase a well-known slogan - Just watch it. I'm still reeling from this film's impact.

Transfer Quality

Video

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

    The transfer was sharp and clear at all times, with only a very few shots marred slightly by some film grain, particularly early on. Shadow detail was very good and there was no low level noise.

    The colours were quite harshly presented, with a strong bluish tone to the movie, though I am sure that this is a deliberate cinematic choice because not all the scenes are presented so. Some scenes are presented with vibrant colours. A few of the scenes with strong reds in them bleed ever so slightly, but this is a very minor complaint indeed.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. There were no film-to-video artefacts seen. A few scratches in the print were noticed, but nothing of any significance.

Audio

    There are three audio tracks on this DVD - English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, and Italian Dolby Digital 5.1. The default soundtrack is the English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, which is the one that I listened to.

    Dialogue was always clear and reasonably easy to understand, to the point of sounding unnatural and processed at times. There is a lot of jargon used, which is quite hard to get used to.

    Chapter 17 was a little out of sync, but the rest of the movie was fine.

    The score by Michael Colombier in combination with a number of rap artists was appropriately affronting, aggressive and in-your-face. Even though I didn't particularly like the music, it was certainly appropriate to the on-screen action.

    The surround channels were used at times for special effects, but only had moderate use, and never for split surround effects that I could detect.

    The .1 channel was also used only moderately, to support special effects and music.

Extras

    This disc has no extras.

Menu - 16:9

R4 vs R1

    The Region 1 version of this disc has;     There is no compelling reason to prefer one version over the other.

Summary

    New Jack City is not a movie to show your children or your grandmother. It is, however, a movie that will leave a lasting impression on you, and I highly recommend it.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is reasonably good.

    The extras are non-existent.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras nil
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
9th September 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