Olsen Twins-Getting There (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Alternate Ending Featurette-Behind The Scenes Quiz Notes-Party Planning Tips for Your 16th Birthday
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	85:52
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Steve Purcell
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Mary-Kate Olsen Ashley Olsen Heather Lindell Holly Towne Jeff D'Agostino Tallon Ellithorpe Billy Aaron Brown
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	Steve Porcaro

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Getting There is another vehicle (pun intended) for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. These billionaire fraternal twin American teens are accomplished young actors, who at the age of seventeen, have already been successful beyond their wildest dreams. With a portfolio extending from the 1987 Full House television show, to music albums, to movies, to make-up and teen clothing these girls, to my mind, have earned their success. The mega-rich twins of twee have almost grown up, and are evolving into a couple of very attractive, quite talented actors.

    Kylie and Taylor (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen....you choose which is which...oh alright, Mary-Kate plays Kylie) have just turned sweet sixteen. Along with their oh-so-cool girlfriends, they are heading to Deer Valley Resort to watch the Winter Olympics in Utah. The lucky young things just happen to be heading there in their pillar-box red Ford Mustang convertible. Along for the ride, although in a different car are three "hot" guys Danny, Sam and the offensively stupid and food-obsessed Toast. Soon however, misfortune befalls both groups and they have to continue their journey by bus and then by plane. This movie is like a dumbed-down version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles for 12 year olds.

    Along the way the young 'uns learn about the importance of good cell-phone coverage and experience the joys of having to spend their parents' money at short notice. Like many of the Olsen twins' recent movies, this serves as somewhat of a travelogue - although rather than being London, Sydney or Rome, this time we get to see much of California, Arizona and Nevada. As such, the locations provide plenty of opportunity for romantic dreaming of faraway places for a young Australian audience.

    The Olsens are joined by several young(ish) actors who are generally professional although the performance from Jeff D'Agostino as Toast is excruciatingly caricatured (yes way dude!). The production values are quite high but the plot is fairly formulaic. The overwhelming yuppie wealth (matching Chanel ski-suits?) and vacant Californian hedonism can be a bit nauseating, but overall this is a watchable movie for adults (once) and (I'm sure) great fun for your average pre-teen girl.

Video

    The overall video transfer of this disc is fairly good.

    The feature is presented full screen in a ratio of 1.33:1 and is therefore not 16x9 enhanced. As it was a made-for-video release, this is the correct aspect ratio. The movie actually switches in and out of a non 16x9 enhanced ratio of 1.64:1 between 68:00 and 69:40. This was obviously an artistic choice, to lend a pop-music video feel to the relevant scene.

    The transfer is generally slightly soft, with some grain evident. This is clearly added for that pop-music artistic effect on most occasions.

     Shadow detail is adequate, but rarely needed. Colours are sometimes a touch over-saturated, and verge on the edge of colour bleeding, particularly some of the reds. Skin tones are generally OK but tend towards an orange hue.

    The transfer has no major MPEG artefacts, but there is often a mild shimmer evident. It is particularly noticeable against bright backgrounds, where pixelisation is often but a whisker away. The transfer suffers from frequent minor aliasing which can be slightly distracting on the usual suspects of car chrome, Venetian blinds, brickwork and white road lines. Edge enhancement is not an issue.

    The transfer is free from significant film artefacts, but there are a few scratches which pop up very briefly.

    There are three subtitle tracks available, namely English, French and English for the Hearing Impaired track. I watched the last and they are clear, well timed and accurate. They do use American spelling, so they are sometimes "incorrect" (for example "color" rather than colour).

    This is a single sided, single layer (DVD 5) disc so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality of this disc is adequate. There are no major audio defects.

    There is a solitary English audio track available which is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo encoded at a lightweight 192 kbps. The surround flag is enabled.

    Dialogue was very clear throughout. Audio synch is fine.

    The soundtrack contains numerous ditties which add to the teen-freedom ambience of the movie rather well. The overly-cool soundtrack includes such eclectic artists as Joan Jett, Joey Ramone, Jars of Clay and The Stone Roses. One cannot help feeling that the team are cynically trying to borrow a little "street cred" from the chosen artistes. The original music score is credited to Steve Porcaro and adds nothing at all to the movie.

    The soundstage is very frontal. The surrounds see minimal use but they do contribute to the musical tracks and (rarely) carry some minor ambient sound.

    The subwoofer, unsurprisingly, is not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are several extras on the disc.

Menu

    The menu is a colourful cartoon affair featuring windowed clips from the series and the catchy theme song. It allows the selection of playing the feature, selecting of one of twelve chapter stops, activating the subtitles or the minimal extras.

Amazing Alternate Ending!

    Running for a brief 0:45 this is really a spoof, but is mildly amusing.

Behind the Scenes

    Running for 6:12, this featurette allows the twins to tell us about how much fun making a movie is...and how hard it can be having to film scenes repeatedly in the cold. Not much to see really. Presented in varying non 16x9 enhanced aspect ratios, with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 kbps with the surround flag enabled.

Interactive Trivia Quiz

    Twenty fun, text-based questions which can prove quite tricky to all but the most observant of fans.

Party Planning Tips for your Sixteenth Birthday

    Several text-based screens providing fairly fatuous tips for a road-movie based birthday party.

    This disc appears to be identical in Region 1. Buy whichever is cheapest.

    Getting There will provide some enjoyable mindless fun for the pre-teen girl in your family. For anyone else, the slight plot, shallow characterisations and overwhelming "yuppiness" may prove a little too much. There is little to be learned from this movie, but c'mon, did you really expect there to be? This is superficial, vacuous and completely unrealistic film-making. My ten year old daughter greatly enjoyed the movie and while for me, it doesn't rate up there with Reservoir Dogs, I say "to each their own". Whatever!

    The video quality is fairly good.

    The audio quality is fairly good.

    The extras are fun but short.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall