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Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
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.
The Bone Collector: Collector's Edition (1999)

The Bone Collector: Collector's Edition (1999)

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Released 11-Jul-2000
Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer-2 Featurette-Behind The Scenes Audio Commentary-Phillip Noyce (Director) Biographies-Cast & Crew Isolated Musical Score Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	113:04
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (72:57)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Phillip Noyce
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Denzel Washington Angelina Jolie Queen Latifah Michael Rooker Mike McGlone Luis Guzman Leland Orser Ed O'Neill
Case	Brackley-Trans-No Lip	Starring
RPI	$39.95	Music	Craig Armstrong

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Isolated Music Score Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English German Dutch Arabic Croatian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Swedish Turkish German Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

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

Plot Synopsis

In 1991, Silence Of The Lambs made a massive return on investment, and it was inevitable that other studios would dip their toes into the lucrative waters of the crime thriller. Four years separated the explosive (and hugely successful) Seven and The Bone Collector, and it is obvious that plausible plots have become very thin on the ground. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but omniscient criminals and investigators with flawless powers of deduction are another.

Denzel Washington is excellent as always as Lincoln Rhyme, a brilliant forensics detective crippled in the line of duty four years ago. Now a quadriplegic suffering from increasingly life-threatening seizures, he has lost the will to fight (but still looks remarkably healthy and handsome for a guy who's spent four years lying in a bed). His mood changes when rookie street cop Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie, looking truly stunning throughout) discovers evidence pointing to the work of a cunning serial killer. Now, predictably, the race is on to decipher the clues the killer has carefully placed at each murder scene, using the knowledge of obscure 19th century literature that everybody in Hollywood apparently possesses, and to stop him before he can complete his plan.

Now, putting aside the issues of why a killer would leave clues in order to be caught, or why the Rhyme/Donaghy team never make a mistake in their detective work, or why the entire NYPD police force seems to be able to assist in what is in the grand scheme of things a fairly low-impact crime, otherwise the film is very well put together. The acting is generally excellent, bar Michael Rooker's excruciatingly broad police chief. Surely that stereotype should have died with the Lethal Weapon series?

While I found it agreeable-enough 'brain-off' entertainment, I'd have to direct you to Roger Ebert's superb review, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

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

Transfer Quality

Video

The video quality is superb, and is almost of reference quality.

The transfer is presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

The picture is crisp and detailed, with excellent shadow detail and contrast. As many scenes are extremely dark, you'll need to adjust your display device accurately so as to not lose information or wash out shadows. Very minor film grain is apparent, a testament to the ability of this transfer to pull the information from the Super 35 film source, which tends to look grainier than true anamorphically shot films. Australian cinematographer Dean Semler's work is reproduced as perfectly as this medium is capable of.

The colour is naturalistic and fully-saturated, lending to the filmic appearance of the video. I can only imagine how good it would look on a high end projector.

I noticed no obvious MPEG artefacting (an achievement in itself, given the average bitrate of 6.1Mbps), no film-to-video artefacts and virtually no film artefacts. This is an impressive video transfer indeed.

The disc is RSDL formatted, and the layer change at 72:57 is reasonably unobtrusive.

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

Audio

This soundtrack is one of the most stunning achievements I have yet heard, and is of reference quality. This ranks as one of the most awe-inspiring Dolby Digital mixes I have heard in my five years of experience with the format.

The disc contains three audio tracks; English and German Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks, and a 5.1 Isolated Musical Score. I listened exclusively to the English track.

The dialogue is consistently naturalistic with no edginess, brightness, hiss or distortion. The voices also had excellent spatial integration and there were no obviously looped lines. I noticed no problems with audio sync.

The score is by Craig Armstrong, and whilst unspectacular, fits the genre well. I noticed less of the electronic orchestration that made his Plunkett & Macleane soundtrack so original. What was immediately apparent, however, was the quality of the recording, and the often very aggressive use the soundtrack mixers made with the surround channels, often panning instrumental 'pads' around the room. Listening to the discrete score should leave you in no doubt as to the quality of the recording and mixing.

The surround work is exemplary. I had to rewind the disc in several places to convince myself that a storm wasn't brewing, or that a plane hadn't flown by outside my window. At all times, the soundtrack perfectly created a plausible aural reality to match the onscreen action. Side wall imaging is also faultless. Apparently, the R1 disc is encoded in Dolby Digital EX, so I would have to assume that our disc also shares this feature, although no mention is made of it on the packaging of the R1 or R4 editions.

The LFE channel is used effectively, with several key scenes reinforced with deep, well-integrated bass.

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

Extras

Menu Audio & Animation

Should this really count as an extra? I usually find this kind of stuff annoying. Sure, menu animation is fun, but do I need to see it every time I put the disc in, and should I have to sit through it before I can watch the film?

Theatrical Trailer

Don't watch this before watching the film, as it gives many of the major plot points away. I hate that.

Trailer - Devil in a Blue Dress

I don't really approve of trailers for other films on a DVD - I'm essentially paying for an ad, and the space used here could have been used for the R1 DVD-ROM features that we miss out on.

Audio Commentary - Phillip Noyce (Director)

It's nice to hear an Australian accent on a commentary for once, although I'd be happier if Noyce wasn't obviously reading from prepared notes. His commentary is focussed more on the technical aspects of the film, and it's interesting to see where CGI was used to lower the cost of the film without screaming COMPUTER EFFECTS!

Behind-The-Scenes Featurette (21:49)

Otherwise known as the studio ad, in which various people pat themselves on the back and talk about how clever they all are. Fairly pointless.

Talent Profiles

I may be alone here, but I loathe these things. Anybody with a 'net connection can get far more information from the Internet Movie Database. Go check it out if you've never visited it.

R4 vs R1

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

A difficult choice - the R1 disc contains a 768kbps DTS soundtrack, but the R4 disc has an Isolated Music Score. As the R4 disc already sounds fantastic and has PAL's inherently better image, I have no hesitation in recommending it to those who have yet to be convinced of DTS's merits, but those with DTS will have to decide what's more important - marginally better sound or a gorgeously recorded isolated score and a better picture.

Summary

The Bone Collector is a well-crafted film that suffers from a nonsensical plot, but should satisfy the less demanding viewer.

The video quality is excellent.

The audio quality is superlative.

The extras are reasonable, but far from exhaustive.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Pioneer 103S DVD-ROM with Hollywood Plus decoder card, using S-Video output
Display	Mitsubishi DiVA (78cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Audio Decoder	Built in to amplifier/receiver.
Amplification	Yamaha DSP-A1
Speakers	Front L/R: Richter Excalibur SE, Centre: Richter Unicorn Mk 2, Surrounds: Richter Hydras

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