The Associate (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	108:35
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (49:36)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Donald Petrie
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Whoopi Goldberg Dianne Wiest Eli Wallach Timothy Daly Bebe Neuwirth Austin Pendleton Lainie Kazan
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Christopher Tyng Diane Warren

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French German Spanish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    The Associate was released during 1996, when Whoopi Goldberg was appearing in three and sometimes four movies per year. I had seen The Associate previously on Pay TV and found it quite enjoyable. It was just as enjoyable the second time around.

    The Associate deals with the controversial subject of equal opportunity in the workplace, and handles it extremely well in an over-the-top sort of way.

    Laurel Ayres (Whoopi Goldberg) is a hard working professional in a Wall Street investment firm, but she is stuck at the bottom of the corporate ladder. Laurel does the research and sells it to the customer, only to have Frank (Timothy Daly), her intellectually inept male colleague, steal the credit. But finally Frank pushes her too far, stealing her promotion and becoming her boss. So she quits

    Laurel starts her own firm only to find that the same male prejudices exist throughout Wall Street. No one will give any of her proposals a chance, purely because she is a woman. In the depths of despair and on the spur of the moment Laurel invents a male partner, Robert Cuttey, to secure a deal with an important businessman, Fallon (Eli Wallach). Thing start to improve and suddenly the firm Cuttey Ayres is the talk of Wall Street.

    All is not as simple as it seems. A disgruntled Frank, some nosey reporters and a female executive assistant named Camille (Bebe Neuwirth) who will do ANYTHING to get ahead cause major hassles. Laurel has to deal with some very sticky situations and may just have to kill the partner that never really existed because he is getting all the credit.

    All the actors perform well. Whoopi is good, but not great as she has been in some previous roles. For me, there were two stand-out performers in this movie; Dianne Wiest as Laurel's effervescent never-say-die assistant and Bebe Neuwirth as Camille, the do-anything-to-climb-the-corporate-ladder man-eating executive assistant. Watch out for a cameo by Donald Trump.

Video

    The video transfer is acceptable, but far from reference quality.

    The transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is reasonably clear and sharp, but throughout most of the presentation there is an underlying hint of grain. Most of the time this minor grain does not distract but on occasions, particularly near the beginning of the movie, it does get worse. The shadow detail is good with most objects clearly visible. There was little chance to assess it thoroughly as there are very few dark scenes. There was no noticeable low level noise.

    The colours were clear and sharp with no obvious problems. The blacks were black and did not waver. The only gripe I had was that on a couple of occasions Whoopi Goldberg's face looked to have a tinge of red through it. This may have been because of the lighting, but I am not sure.

    There were no noticeable MPEG artefacts present. Film-to-video artefacts were also well controlled with the only example being a Moiré Effect which occurred at 42:53. Film artefacts were unfortunately plentiful, but in most cases these were small and not overly distracting. The most obvious instances occured at 14:08, 19:36 and 34:09.

    There are four subtitle options available on this disc; English, French, German and Spanish. I sampled the English subtitles and they appeared accurate and timely.

    This is an RSDL disc. The layer change is placed at 49:36 and is practically invisible.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is very good, but could have been better.

    There are four audio tracks included on this disc; English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s). There is no default track - the desired language must be selected when the disc is first inserted. I listened to the English track offered.

    The dialogue was clear and easily understood from beginning to end. At times, Dianne Wiest's high-pitched little girl voice does get a little grating, but that is also part of her charm. Audio sync was not a problem with this disc.

    The musical score was written by Christopher Tyng and Diane Warren. For the most part, the score matches the on-screen action extremely well, but on occasion the background music just doesn't seem to match the visuals. The soundtrack for the movie is a Who's Who of mid 90s music. Some of the performers featured include; The Commodores, Sophie B. Hawkins, and Salt'n'Pepa.

    The surround speakers were used to great effect. However, this is not a movie that lends itself to heavy use of the surround speakers as there are no special effects, explosions or gunfights. Wherever it was appropriate, there was at least a little surround activity.

    The subwoofer was used sporadically, mainly during some of the background music. For the most part it remained underworked or silent.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no 'real' extras on this disc.

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    The main menu has a picture of Whoopi Goldberg sitting comfortably at her desk. It the background there are scenes from the Wall Street stockmarket playing, accompanied by some very annoying music. The menu system plays through twice and then the movie starts.

Scene Selection Animation & Audio

    The scene selection menu has a picture of Dianne Wiest with more scenes from the markets in the background. It is accompanied by the same annoying music as can be found on the main menu. There are four scene selections on each page. Each scene selection has accompanying video of the relevant scene.

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Theatrical trailer
• French Dolby Digital Stereo audio track

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;

• 16x9 enhanced video transfer
• English, French, German and Spanish Subtitles
• French Dolby Digital 5.1, German Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks

    With the Region 1 missing out on the 16x9 enhanced video transfer, the version of choice would be the Region 4 disc.

    The Associate is an entertaining movie that is at times very funny. It deals with the touchy subject of equal opportunity in the workplace very well. It has been given an adequate video transfer and a good audio transfer. There are no real extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall