The Opposite Of Sex

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - DVD Teaser #2
Year Released	1998	Commentary Tracks	Yes, 1 - Don Roos (Writer/Director), David Codron (Editor), Michael Besman (Producer)
Running Time	96:58 minutes	Other Extras	Cast Filmographies Deleted Scenes, 5
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region	2,4	Director	Don Roos
Studio Distributor	Columbia Tristar	Starring	Christina Ricci Martin Donovan Lisa Kudrow Lyle Lovett Johnny Galecki Ivan Sergei
Case	Transparent Amaray	Starring
RRP	$34.95	Music	Mason Daring

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Dolby Digital	2.0
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 ) French (Dolby Digital 2.0 ) English Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Macrovision	Yes	Smoking	Yes
Subtitles	English French Arabic	Annoying Product Placement	Yes

Plot Synopsis

Warning: if you like this movie, skip over to Transfer Quality now.

The Opposite of Sex stars Christina Ricci as the totally unpleasant, selfish, heartless and foul-mouthed Dedee Truitt. It tells the story of her use and abuse of all those around her, from her gay brother Bill (Martin Donovan) to his lover Matt Matteo (Ivan Sergei) to Bill's ex-lover's sister Lucia Dalury (Lisa Kudrow).

Dedee is deliberately written as an extremely unpleasant individual, and just when there may be a glimmer of redemption coming through, her voice-over instantly plunges her back down into the abyss.

In short, I hated this movie and found it to be totally without any redeeming features at all.

Transfer Quality

Video

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

The transfer was generally sharp and clear, though some scenes were a little out of focus and some lacked clarity because of unusual lighting choices. Shadow detail was passable but not great. There was no low level noise apparent.

There is a lot of short and choppy editing in this movie, and frequently there is a brief vertical skip in the video stream at the cuts. This became very distracting after a while.

The colours were generally well-rendered, though some scenes had a very harsh quality about them.

No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some minor aliasing. Film artefacts were few and far between.

Audio

There are three audio tracks on this DVD - English Dolby Digital 2.0, surround-encoded, French Dolby Digital 2.0, surround-encoded, and the English Audio Commentary track, in Dolby Digital 2.0, surround-encoded sound. The default soundtrack is the English Dolby Digital 2.0, surround-encoded soundtrack. I listened to both the English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack and the English Audio Commentary soundtrack.

Dialogue was usually clear and easy to understand, though some of it was hard to make out and occasional dialogue was distorted.

There were no audio sync problems.

The score by Mason Daring was suitably jaunty (to use their own word for it).

The surround channel did little. This soundtrack was basically a front soundstage mix, with the dialogue in the centre channel and the music in the left and right channels.

The .1 channel received a small amount of signal from the processor.

Extras

This disc has a good selection of extras. The Columbia Tristar DVD Teaser trailer is on this disc.

What's Missing / What's Extra

We miss out on;

Pan & Scan version

Theatrical Trailer

This is presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Filmographies - Cast

A basic listing of who has been in what.

Deleted Scenes

Five deleted scenes are present - all apparently deleted for time reasons rather than because they didn't work. These are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, non-16x9 enhanced and with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound - dialogue only.

Audio Commentary - Don Roos (Writer/Director), David Codron (Editor), Michael Besman (Producer)

This is one of the less interesting commentaries I have listened to. All the voices are mixed into the centre channel. Don Roos dominates, with occasional comments from Michael Besman, and David Codron saying more-or-less nothing. There are frequent lengthy pauses. In short, I found this commentary hardly worth the time invested in listening to it.

Summary

I didn't like The Opposite of Sex. Your opinion may differ.

The video quality is good but not great.

The audio quality is acceptable.

The extras are comprehensive.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

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