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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Dog Soldiers (2002)

Dog Soldiers (2002)

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Released 7-Oct-2003

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Menu Animation & Audio
Theatrical Trailer-4
Featurette
Deleted Scenes- +/- Commentary
Outtakes- +/- Commentary
Short Film-Combat (by Neil Marshall)
Interviews-Cast & Crew
Storyboards-for two scenes
Gallery-Photo
Audio Commentary-Director, Cast & Crew
Audio Commentary-Producers
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2002
Running Time 101:49 (Case: 106)
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (74:47) Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Neil Marshall
Studio
Distributor

Universal Pictures Home Video
Starring Kevin McKidd
Sean Pertwee
Emma Cleasby
Liam Cunningham
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music Mark Thomas


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    An entertaining, modern British horror film that is actually scary, with competent, believable, adult performances? Impossible, right?

    The film begins relatively calmly, as we are introduced to an attractive couple enjoying a romantic camping trip in the Scottish highlands. Night falls, and just as they are about to get down to business the zip on their tent mysteriously starts to open....

    Cut to several years down the track. Many disappearances and urban myths related to the Highlands have given the area a stigma the Blair Witch would be proud of. A squad of soldiers on a routine exercise are forced to get serious when they come across the unexplained remains of a special forces group. Circumstances lead them to a deserted home miles from anywhere, where they must defend themselves or perish.

    Writer and Director Neil Marshall has crafted an intelligent and amusing genre film, combining beautiful forest scenery and chilling action, something comparable to Predator - with a subtle sense of humour. There are already rumours of a sequel, so sit back, relax, and be thankful this wasn't made in Hollywood.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    This transfer is presented in a ratio of 1.78:1, complete with 16x9 enhancement. This is close to the theatrical aspect ratio, 1.85:1.

    Considering most of the film is set in twilight or relative darkness, and the very low budget of the production, the level of sharpness does vary throughout the transfer. Some grain is clearly visible during some scenes in the film, but isn't bad to any great extent. I actually feel that the presence of some grain gives this film a bit of character. Shadow detail is exemplary, with plenty of depth evident in the image itself, particularly during the tense forest scenes. No low level noise was present.

    There were no really big splashes of colour to speak of, apart from blood of course, exhibiting some very deep red tones. I couldn't see any indications of oversaturation or bleeding in the transfer (pun intended). Again, due to the relative darkness in which the film is set there isn't a great focus on bold colouring.

    MPEG artefacts were kept to a complete minimum, with no visible signs of pixelization. Aliasing was so rare and mild that it hardly warrants mentioning. Film artefacts were present throughout the transfer to varying degrees, both negative and positive, in the form of small, generally unobtrusive specs. A small piece of vomit, or possibly vegetable soup, appears on the lens for a few brief seconds at 40:32, adding to the mood of the film nicely.

    The English subtitles are paced accurately with the dialogue, but aren't word-for-word accurate. Even some short sentences are skipped, but no meaning is lost at all.

    Our Region 4 release is an RSDL disc, containing one of the worst layer transitions I have ever seen. At 74:47 the layer change pauses and actually omits a portion of dialogue. There are numerous silent moments during the film that would lend themselves to a layer change, but they weren't used. An unforgivable oversight.

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

Audio

    This is a good audio transfer, but suffers from the same obvious budgetary constraints as the video presentation.

    There are four audio tracks available, all in English; Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (224Kb/s) and two Audio Commentary tracks (both Dolby Digital 2.0, 224Kb/s). For this review I listened to all four audio tracks in their entirety.

    Dialogue was a little low in volume compared to the surround effects in both the Dolby Digital 5.1 and surround-encoded tracks. I was forced to increase my listening level in order to understand the spoken word. There were no distracting problems with ADR or audio sync.

    This is a very effective classical music score, credited to Mark Thomas. The melodic orchestrations sway from eerie to action without respite, keeping the viewers always on their toes.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 and surround-encoded tracks make great use of enveloping effects. The surround speakers don't really make themselves known until 30:26, with some very effective gunfire panning across the rears. Apart from a guttural growl at 90:12, voices are kept to the front soundstage at all times.

    The LFE channel is given a healthy workout, accentuating the many rapid bursts of gunfire and particularly rattled the windows during the explosions at 39:28.

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

Extras

    We have received an almost identical selection of extras as the Region 2 release.

Menu

    The main menu is animated with some tense moments from the film. The audio accompaniment is Dolby Digital 2.0, which is a tad disappointing because the Region 2 disc has 5.1 menu audio. All the menus are 16x9 enhanced.

Trailers (4)

    Three very funny trailers presented in 1.33:1; Woman (1:07), Man Down (1:02) and Weapon (0:59). An additional trailer with an annoying American voiceover titled Quotes (1:03) is presented with 16x9 enhancement.

Featurette (18:35)

    An interesting, but brief making of featurette, including some great interviews with the cast and crew. We also get some insights into the special effects design and production process.

Deleted Scenes and Gag Reel (8:34)

    A handful of cut scenes, mostly dealing with character development. The Gag Reel is basically some shots of the actors hamming it up after the Director calls "cut". These are quite pixelated, presented in 1.85:1, without 16x9 enhancement. Also viewable with the original audio or with Director's commentary.

Short Film by Neil Marshall: Combat (7:32)

    Produced in 1999, this is Neil Marshall's first foray behind the camera. An impressive story set in a bar, with all dialogue and body language replaced by gunfire, explosions and other military effects.

Commentary with Director and Cast and Crew members.

    Initially I was confused as to why the transfer on this DVD had more than two minutes of black silence at the end of the film, and this is why. This commentary continues after the credits finish rolling, with a great line and a joke that you have to hear for yourself.

    Both of these commentary tracks perform very well with Pro Logic II enabled, even though they're not flagged as surround-encoded. Here we have Writer and Director Neil Marshall, Sam McCurdy (Director of Photography), Keith Bell (Actor), Sean Pertwee (Actor), Kevin McKidd (Actor) and Liam Cunningham (Actor) enjoying a beery afternoon together. The gents have a great sense of humour and seem to get along very well, sharing a lot of anecdotes and generally reminiscing about the production. Although it's not the clearest recording, it is certainly one of the best commentaries I have heard of late.

Commentary with Producers David Allen and Brian O'Toole.

    A bit bland after the previous commentary, these two men joke a little between each other, but generally discuss issues like casting, and perhaps unintentionally give some idea of the influence they have on the final product. David Allen is Chairman and C.E.O. of Kismet Productions, and has a voice like Kermit The Frog. It's hilarious for the first five minutes, then starts to get on your nerves. Altogether it's an interesting commentary, with some good insights, most of which can be heard in the other commentary anyway.

Cast and Crew Interviews

    These are interview excerpts from actors Kevin McKidd, Liam Cunningham, Sean Pertwee, Director Neil Marshall, Producer Chris Figg, and special effects supervisors Bob Keen and Dave Bonnywell. They all offer their thoughts on working with Marshall, the mood on the set while filming, and the motivations behind their characters. Director Neil Marshall comments on the long process of getting Dog Soldiers to the screen, and the special effects supervisors explain why their Werewolves are better than anything CG could come up with. A lot of the interviews are already available in the featurette.

Storyboards

    A breakdown of two scenes from the film; Fetch and Barn. There is also an option to skip directly to the relevant scene in the film.

Gallery (2:19)

    An automatically scrolling collection of production stills and promotional photos, with moody accompanying music from the film's score.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 release misses out on:

    The Region 2 release misses out on:

    The Region 4 release misses out on:

    The Region 1 disc contains both a widescreen and Pan & Scan transfer of the film. Some sources suggest that the Region 3 release has DTS ES 6.1 audio, but contains only a Pan & Scan transfer of the film.

    I found the Region 2 disc to have a slightly lower average video bitrate (8.7Mb/s) than the Region 4 (9.0Mb/s). Also, the Region 4 Commentary tracks are encoded at 224Kb/s, whereas the Region 2 tracks are 192Kb/s. These are not compelling differences, but worth considering.

    The clumsy Region 4 layer change is nothing short of criminal in my humble opinion, when compared to the Region 2 layer change which is placed at 53:09 in a relatively silent moment. If you're happy with a lower video and commentary bitrates, then I would recommend the Region 2 for purchase. Otherwise, get it where you can find it cheapest.

Summary

    Dog Soldiers is an excellent horror film, and certainly the best to come out of Britain in years. Apart from the dodgy layer change, this is a good presentation for Region 4.

    The video transfer is a little grainy, but has some great depth.

    The audio transfer contains some rewarding surround usage.

    The extras are interesting and complement the film well.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Rob Giles (readen de bio, bork, bork, bork.)
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-525, using Component output
DisplayPanasonic TX76PW10A 76cm Widescreen 100Hz. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVR-2802 Dolby EX/DTS ES Discrete
SpeakersOrpheus Aurora lll Mains (bi-wired), Rears, Centre Rear. Orpheus Centaurus .5 Front Centre. Mirage 10 inch sub.

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