After Sex (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer-2:01
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	92:14
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Cameron Thor
Studio Distributor	Cutting Edge Enter Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Dan Cortese Virginia Madsen Maria Pitillo Jonathon Schaech Brooke Shields D. B. Sweeney Stephanie Venditto
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Amotz Plessner

    After Sex is pretty much a morality tale, as told by Hollywood.

    We start with Kate (Brooke Shields), a woman who is just one year divorced, and not really enjoying the fact. She wakes up with a strange guy in bed next to her; she gets rid of him by pretending to be talking in her sleep, mumbling about weddings (cute). She needs a break, so she arranges a weekend away with three friends: Janet (Stephanie Venditto), Traci (Virginia Madsen), and Vicki (Maria Pitillo). They drive from LA to Palm Springs for some golf and some fun. They have a bit more fun, and a lot more alcohol, than planned, and each pairs off with a strange man that night.

    That's naughty, because Kate's friends aren't single. Janet is married to John (Dan Cortese); Traci is married to Tony (D B Sweeney); and Vicki is about to get married to Mat (Jonathon Schaech) — he should have been called something starting with V...

    The following morning, Kate is blamed for the night before, and gets understandably cross. They go home a day early, surprising their partners. And then the suspicions start.

    There's a plot device I really didn't like: in between parts of the film we cut to two guys on a TV talk show, rabbiting on about relationships. One of them is wearing a tie, and he's called Dr Drew, possibly meant to be a professional of some kind, while the other guy isn't. These guys seem to be a device for the director to beat us over the head with the moral — I felt like yelling at the screen "I get it already, I get it!" — really irritating.

    Apart from that device, this is not a particularly bad movie. But we've seen a lot of this before in similar movies, and there's very little new here. There are a few original touches, but they tend to get a bit lost in the rest. There is a whole lot of bad language in the script. Perhaps this movie is most easily summarised as being eminently forgettable.

Video

    This transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced. As far as I can tell, this was shot for TV, so that may well be the original aspect ratio. There was nothing in the way of framing that made it look otherwise.

    The image is variably sharp, and somewhat lacking in resolution. Shadow detail is not good. Film grain is not bad. There's no low-level noise.

    Colour is mostly well-rendered, although skin tones come out a little bit orange in some of the scenes. There are no blatant colour-related artefacts.

    Some shots have a sprinkling of film artefacts, but most of them are clean. There is really nothing worth mentioning.

    There's some light aliasing on a few shots, but it's not too troubling, except for the strobing of a striped shirt around 16:38. More noticeable is the shimmer and reduced resolution on virtually all outdoor pans, and some indoor ones. There's a touch of posterization on some of the long shots, too.

    There are no subtitles.

    The disc is single-sided and single-layered. No layer change, at least.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English, and nothing else. The English soundtrack is Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224kbps, but there's not a lot in the way of stereo separation.

    The dialogue is clear enough and readily understood. There are no audio sync problems.

    The score is credited to Amotz Plessner, but there's nothing special here. There are quite a few songs used, but nothing you're likely to have heard.

    The surrounds and subwoofer get nothing to do from this soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu has simplicity going for it — it's subtly animated, with music, but there's not much to it. The irritating thing is that it is preceded by a heavy-handed anti-piracy message (did you know that video piracy finances terrorism?).

Trailer (2:01)

    A cute trailer, with a count-down: 4 women, 3 men, 2 much temptation, and so on.

    The Region 1 DVD sounds like it is essentially the same as this one. Nothing really to choose between them.

    A movie that's nothing new, on a bare-bones disc.

    The video quality is good enough.

    The audio quality is good enough.

    The extras are stripped back to just a trailer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall