Cleopatra 2525-Volume 2 (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	83:09 (Case: 86)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Rick Jacobson John Laing T.J. Scott Greg Yaitanes
Studio Distributor	Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Gina Torres Victoria Pratt Jennifer Sky Patrick Kake
Case	Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Joseph LoDuca

    This little show just ratcheted itself up a notch or two. While it is still very much tongue-in-cheek and way over-the-top, the ratio of action to character development has slowly been improving with the last episode on this disc surprisingly deep (for this show). They have introduced a new James Bond toy in that they now have jet boots to aid them in their ascents and descents in the very deep shafts that puncture their world.

    The back cover for this disc lists the wrong episode titles. On the disc are Home, Rescue, Run Cleo Run and Choices while the back cover states: Perceptions, Trial and Error, Double and The Last Stand. These are of course the episodes that are on the third disc in the series.

    The first episode on the disc is a double episode and shows what the show can do with 39-odd minutes - much better than the squeeze to fit into 20 minutes. I believe the second series episodes are all 40 minutes in length.

1.5 and 1.6: Home and Rescue (double episode) (39:07)

    The girls are having a drink in a bar when Sarge spots someone who she remembers from her village when she was a little girl. The problem is that he doesn't appear to have aged a day since then. This can mean only one thing - he is a betrayer, one of the robot enemy that takes the form of a human to infiltrate the underground. It turns out that this seems to be a new version of a betrayer that is very hard to terminate (sorry). Voice decides that the only way that they are going to get the low down on this new betrayer is to track down the factory where they are made and have a look see.

    They head to the surface where there is a village, a village full of people that believe that the robots that have taken over the earth are friendly and come along every now and then to take one of them off to the home planet. The villagers regard this as a great honour. The idea is to tag the next person that is due for pick-up and follow their signal to the betrayer factory. Unfortunately, things get a little complicated and it is Cleo that ends up in the factory and it is up to the rest of the team to rescue her.

1.7: Run Cleo Run (22:02)

    We just knew that Cleo was not going to stay the blonde bimbo for ever. Well, she has been training hard and Voice decides that it is time for her to run a mission. Sarge is on an undercover (well covered is not quite what these girls are) mission to recover the map that outlines all the underground passages. There is only one copy of this map and whoever has it has a real advantage in the underground world. The mission involves her acting as an ... exotic dancer (couldn't you see that coming?) in a very seedy bar full of mutants. One of the mutants has the map and it is Sarge's job to grab it and get out in one piece. She manages the first part but is on the run with an explosive colour around her neck with a timer running and bad guys on her tail. She calls for help and Voice decides that this is the moment when Cleo should go into action. There is a slight twist in the story which takes it up a small notch from the usual chase and shoot episode.

1.8: Choices (22:00)

    Another of the teams that is controlled by Voice is in trouble and needs backup. Cleo and her team are sent to an underground level that is a reality simulator. Holograms are used to reproduce a small 20th century town and to make it slightly more home-like; it is winter with snow on the ground. The residents of the town have retreated into this simulation and have hidden the entrances so that they are isolated from the troubles outside - a head in the sand approach to the problems on the surface. The people are all dressed as 20th century people and act as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Unfortunately, there is a worm in the apple in the form of a betrayer. Cleo and the girls track down what is left of the first team but he refuses to leave until he deals with the betrayer despite orders to the contrary from Voice. From this point we get into what is a very nice little story with some emotions that are developed very well considering that everything happens within twenty minutes and we still manage to fit in several laser battles.

Video

    The transfer is presented at at aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness is good for stationary and slow moving objects. As the speed of movement increases, the sharpness drops until fast moving objects are little better than blurred streaks. See (2:44) for an example. Shadow detail is good and there is some low level noise present.

    Colours are bright and well saturated but affected by the encoding, causing noise in the colours.

    There are still many MPEG artefacts with some scenes still having pixelization across the entire image. This time it only occurs on the hardest part of the source to encode where there are laser battles and lots of flashes with the entire screen changing content in only a few frames. Examples of this are at 2:43 and 2:49 in the first episode. Posterization is also present such as at 1:09 in episode four. The aliasing that was a constant problem on the first disc is also much reduced to the point where it is pretty much gone. Film artefacts are almost non-existent.

    There are no subtitles on this single-layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is a single English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack on this disc.

    Dialogue quality is good with no problems understanding what is being said nor are there any problems with the audio sync.

    The music is drawn from a number of genres and is used quite cleverly to support the story. One particular borrowing from a film had me laughing for quite a while.

    The decoded surround material works as well as any surround encoded track that I have heard, but they do not go out of their way to use the rears other than to expand the soundstage.

    The subwoofer received some material but nothing spectacular.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    Cleo's quotes from the twentieth century just keep coming in these episodes and some of them work very well. If you think about it, there is a wealth of science fiction material with memorable quotes that can supply ammunition for her. The character development surprised me a little as there is more attention paid to this than in the first four episodes. Of course let's not get carried away here - they are still running around in the minimum of clothing blasting lasers everywhere and quoting Spock. What more could you want for a fun night's viewing?

    The video is better but still not great.

    The audio is also better and is now good for a surround encoded track.

    There are no extras on this disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall