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.
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.
Maverick (1994)

Maverick (1994)

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Released 29-Dec-1998

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Western Production Notes
Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1994
Running Time 121
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Programme
Region Coding 4 Directed By Richard Donner
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Mel Gibson
Jodie Foster
James Garner
Graham Greene
James Coburn
Alfred Molina
Case Snapper
RPI $29.95 Music Randy Newman


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
Arabic
Polish
Greek
Czech
Turkish
Hungarian
Icelandic
Croatian
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

    Maverick is a light-hearted Western based on the TV series of the same name. It stars Mel Gibson as Bret Maverick, a fast-talking poker-playing all-round good guy. Bret is trying to get to a high stakes poker game, and needs $25,000 as stake money. He meets the very feisty Mrs Annabelle Bransford (Jodie Foster) and the very straight Zane Cooper (James Garner) at the start of the adventure, and they end up making their way to the poker competition together - not by choice, mind you, but by necessity.

    Lots of adventures and misadventures accompany our heroes' travels across the country, as do many snappy one-liners, making this movie a rollicking good experience that continually moves on at a cracking pace. A number of surprising twists and excellent stunts also help the movie along on its way. See if you can guess who is conning whom by the end of the movie! I certainly got it wrong.

    All three actors do a sterling job on the comedic aspects of this movie - you cannot help but like Bret Maverick, who seems able to con his way out of any sticky situation he finds himself in, and you will be well satisfied with the end result of the movie, which is certainly not what you will expect.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video transfer of this movie is pretty much faultless, and is one of the best transfers I have seen to date, and certainly the best Warner Brothers transfer to date that I have seen.

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was sharp as a tack and crystal clear. Shadow detail was excellent, and no low level noise was seen.

    The colours were vibrantly rendered and clear with no evidence of bleeding at all.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts were not a problem with this transfer, except for some trivial aliasing on the outside of the Bank building. One very short long shot showed a small amount of wobble, but the image was otherwise rock steady. Film artefacts were few and far between, especially given the vintage of this movie.

Audio

    There is only one audio track on this DVD, English Dolby Digital 2.0, surround-encoded.

    Dialogue was always clear and easy to understand.

    There were no problems with audio sync during this movie.

    The music by Randy Newman varied between exciting and laid-back, and was aptly suited to this style of movie. I personally find Randy Newman has a very distinctive musical style which does not always suit the movie he is scoring, but in this case, the music fit the movie nicely.

     The surround channel was often active, used for music, ambience and a number of special effects. Split surround effects, of course, were non-existent, but nonetheless, an aggressive and enveloping sound presence was created by this soundtrack.

    The .1 channel was not specifically encoded, but my surround sound processor sent plenty of signal from the music and the special effects into the subwoofer, and it enhanced the effect of the movie nicely.

Extras

    There are only a few extras on this disc.

Menu

    The menu design is relatively unremarkable.

Production Notes

    Extensive production notes cover shooting locations, stunts, actors, and technical considerations. They make for good reading.

Cast & Crew Biographies

    Extensive Cast & Crew Biographies are present, and are also worth reading.

R4 vs R1

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

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;

    There is no compelling reason to prefer one version over the other.

Summary

    Maverick is a fun, light-hearted movie with good helpings of comedy and action. It is presented on a superb DVD.

    The video quality is essentially flawless.

    The audio quality is very good indeed for a matrix mix, and just falls short of the best discrete soundtracks.

    The extras are quite limited, but quite interesting.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna (read my bio)
Friday, January 22, 1999
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-505, using S-Video output
DisplayLoewe Art-95 (95cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL).
Audio DecoderDenon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital decoder. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum.
Amplification2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer
SpeakersPhilips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer

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