Cousins (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	None
Rating	?
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	108:28
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (54:31)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Joel Schumacher
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Ted Danson Isabella Rossellini Sean Young William Peterson Lloyd Bridges Keith Coogan George Coe Gina De Angelis Norma Aleandro
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Angelo Badalamenti

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish 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	English English for the Hearing Impaired French German Swedish Danish Norwegian Finnish Dutch Italian Spanish Portuguese Greek Turkish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Cousins is a gentle, almost languid, romantic comedy that's heavier on the romance and lighter on the comedy. I've heard it called a "chic flick" (the first word has a silent "k"), but I don't agree (I happen to like romantic comedies).

    This film opens with two families, both suffering a little tension. Tom (William Peterson) and Maria (Isabella Rossellini) Hardy, and their daughter Chloe, are late to a wedding because Chloe has trouble with her security blanket. Larry (Ted Danson) and Tish (Sean Young) Kozinski, and his son Mitch (Keith Coogan), are late because Tish takes forever getting ready. Both families do get to the wedding, albeit late. It's the marriage between Phil (George Coe) and Edie (Norma Aleandro), neither of them terribly youthful. Phil is Larry's uncle, while Edie is Maria's mother. A little later, we get to meet Larry's father, Vince (Lloyd Bridges).

    It's a fairly cheerful wedding, but when everyone's departed, Larry and Maria are left behind, because Tish and Tom have vanished together. They get along quite nicely.

    A little later, Maria seeks Larry out at his work (he's a dance teacher), because she wants to talk to him about Tish and Tom, who are clearly having an affair. Funnily enough, Maria and Larry find they like each other. They see each other again. It's rather a giggle: they are just being friends, but their spouses think they are having an affair — such a delicious revenge.

    Of course, we can all tell that they're made for each other, far more than their existing spouses. But where's a romance without some kind of conflict?

    This is about the only film I've seen Ted Danson in where he isn't annoying. I was really quite impressed with his performance here. I think it's because he likes a brash, overconfident part, but this one is one is a little more reserved, and better suited to his abilities. Isabella Rossellini is stuck with a deceptively simple role, but she shows her skill in making the role look easy. Sean Young does a good job of playing a woman who can't compete with Isabella Rossellini (not that that is hard...). William Peterson plays his part as a thoroughly dislikeable character really well — he's quite believable. Perhaps my favourite of the minor characters is Aunt Sofia (Gina de Angelis).

    Put simply, this film is a nicely made gentle romance with a pleasing sprinkle of comedy. If you're willing to admit that you enjoy a romantic comedy, then you may well enjoy this film.

Video

    This movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. The theatrical aspect ratio was 1.85:1, but this is very close.

    The image is a bit soft, but pleasant enough to look at. Shadow detail is variable, but generally not too good. The picture looks like it has quite a bit of film grain, but that might be the softness in the image. There's no low-level noise.

    Colour is adequately rendered, but seems a little bit dull a lot of the time. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are quite a few tiny film artefacts, but I only noticed one worth mentioning: a round spot at 95:59 that might be a small coffee spot.

    There's some aliasing every so often, especially on the usual suspects (car grilles, for example). There's no moire and no MPEG artefacts.

    There are subtitles in 13 languages, including English, plus English for the Hearing Impaired. I'd normally check the Hearing Impaired subtitles, but I didn't realise they existed, so I watched the plain English subtitles. They are well-timed, easy to read, and feature few abbreviations.

    The disc is single-sided and dual layered, formatted RSDL. The layer change is at 54:31. It's not too bad, but it's fairly obvious.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    This disc has five audio tracks, in five languages, including English. The English soundtrack, which is the only one I watched, is provided in Dolby Digital 5.1.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand. There are no audio sync issues.

    Angelo Badalamenti's score is completely forgettable but there's nothing especially wrong with it.

    I didn't notice anything significant from the surrounds, and the subwoofer shut itself down from boredom. This is a totally frontal soundtrack, which is understandable given that it was a stereo soundtrack theatrically..

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Extras? Extras? Where'd they hide the extras? I certainly can't find them.

Menu

    The menu is static and silent, and only appears after the movie is over. Understandable, when you know there's no extras.

    The Region 1 disc, released in early 2002, is reportedly equally bereft of extras, so there's no difference there. It, too, is widescreen, and 16x9 enhanced. Sounds like a draw to me.

    Cousins is a pleasant, gentle, romance with comedy streaks on a bare-bones DVD.

    The video quality is adequate, but not particularly good.

    The audio quality is good enough, but utterly frontal.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall