Boomerang (1992)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	Audio Commentary-Reginald Hudlin (Director) Deleted Scenes-5 +/- commentary
Rating
Year Of Production	1992
Running Time	111:45
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (56:22)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Reginald Hudlin
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Eddie Murphy Robin Givens Halle Berry David Alan Grier Martin Lawrence Grace Jones Geoffrey Holder Eartha Kitt Chris Rock Frank Rivers Angela Logan
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Marcus Miller Johnny Gill

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Danish German English Spanish French Italian Dutch Norwegian Swedish Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired German Audio Commentary English Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary French Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Boomerang was the second movie from director Reginald Hudlin. His first attempt was the film House Party, a $2.5 million production that he wrote and directed which went on to make $27 million, a staggering return on investment in anyone’s books. The success of his first production gave him the ability to arrange the $40 million in backing for the feature we are presented with here.

    Marcus (Eddie Murphy), a successful marketing executive, is a single guy that has lots of luck with the ladies. His ambition in life is to bed any women he wants, and he knows how to go about it. His two buddies Gerard (David Alan Grier) and Tyler (Martin Lawrence) are always astonished to hear about the latest “conquest” of Marcus. The three together are an extremely funny bunch and their natural talents are clearly visible as they have you in stitches throughout the movie.

    Everything runs smoothly until Lady Eloise Cosmetics purchases the firm Marcus works for and they appoint Jacqueline (Robin Givens) as the new head-marketing executive. Marcus is in effect dropped down a peg on the corporate ladder, but to make matters worse - he now works for a woman! Not one to go down without a fight, he intends to regain the top job by the only means he knows how - to sleep with the boss, but she ignores all his advances.

    Lady Eloise is played by the painful Eartha Kitt, the only sour point in the movie for me. There are also some other well-knowns who have sizable parts, including Chris Rock, Grace Jones and Halle Berry.

Video

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

    The transfer has a soft appearance overall in the backgrounds but clean strong detail in the foreground. Shadow detail is palatable with good definition available in the darker sections of the film. See 59:54 for some examples of deep black shown by the night sky over the city lights.

    The colours were truly rendered and appealing to the eyes - just don’t expect any strong vibrant examples of colour, as there aren’t any.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing is rare and mild like the example at 95:25 when it does occur. Film artefacts are unfortunately very common but not overly distracting. It may pose a problem for those viewing on a projector, though.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed between Chapters 7 and 8, at 56:22. It is well placed and not overly distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    I found the music from Marcus Miller and Johnny Gill to be appealing and well-suited to the feature. The sound was well mixed across the 5.1 channels and suited the scenes well. The volume levels did not drown out the dialogue at any point during the movie.

    The surround channels were used for ambience, music and for occasional special effects. This is not a feature that calls on the speakers a great deal but when required it is done tastefully and does add to the movie's impact. At 26:14 there is a nice sound of a helicopter moving overhead and at 8:06, 24:53 and 86:05 there are examples where the sound just leaps out of the speakers.

    The subwoofer was used when required to put a bottom end on the sound. The time points are essentially the same as for the surround use (see above).

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Director's Commentary - Reginald Hudlin (Director)

Extended Deleted Scenes

    There are a total of 5 scenes available to choose from here;

• Thanksgiving At Marcus' Place (1:09)
• Strange's Arrival At The Dinner (0:17)
• Bony T Asks Marcus About Sex With Jackie (0:23) - (Very bad film artefacts)
• First Dinner Between Jackie & Marcus (0:49)
• Dinner Between Gerald & Angela (1:45) - (actually 2 scenes joined together)

    All are available with or without commentary.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• German Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack
• Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack
• French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack
• Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack

    The Region 4 version contains more soundtracks than the Region 1 version. Content-wise they are the same but the extra tracks would be appealing to some.

    Overall, Boomerang was an enjoyable movie featuring some very talented people early in their careers.

    The video transfer contains a fair number of film artefacts but it is still viewable.

    The audio is mostly dialogue-heavy, leaving no need for constant use of your surrounds or subwoofer. It was easy to listen to and included music fitting for the story.

    The extras are satisfactory and it is plain to see why most of the deleted scenes were left out. The commentary track contains too much Eddie Murphy worshiping which is a shame since it was made specifically for this version. Weren't Eddie, Martin or Halle available to have a chat, too?

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall