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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 Long Kiss Goodnight (Remastered) (1996)

The Long Kiss Goodnight (Remastered) (1996)

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Released 23-May-2000
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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Action	Menu Audio Biographies-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Behind The Scenes Interviews-Cast & Crew Featurette-On The Set
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	116:45
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (91:27)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Renny Harlin
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Geena Davis Samuel L. Jackson Patrick Malahide Craig Bierko Brian Cox David Morse
Case	Village Roadshow New Style	Starring
RPI	$34.95	Music	Alan Silvestri

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (320Kb/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 for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, at start of credits

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

Plot Synopsis

Samantha Caine (Geena Davis) is a teacher in a sleepy American country town. Samantha has an 8 year old child, and a fiancé, but no memory of her life before the last 8 years. She used to hire expensive private detectives to try to find out about her past life, but now she is down to the cheap ones. None of them have found any clues. This all changes when Mitch Henessey (Samuel L. Jackson), one of the low rent detectives, catches a lucky break and discovers where Samantha used to live.

Unbeknownst to Samantha, her real name is Charly Baltimore and she was a US government assassin. Now that the story ground-work has been laid, the action soon starts after Samantha/Charly is seen by one of her old enemies.

I'm not going to say any more as it would spoil the movie, but be assured that there are plenty of great action sequences. Couple this with a great plot, and you have the makings of a fantastic movie. I have watched this movie several times now, and I always thoroughly enjoy it.

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Transfer Quality

Video

Technical Note

The Long Kiss Goodnight was initially released to the Australian marketplace in March 1999. It quickly became evident that there were major glitches with the DVD. Specifically, it would not play in DVD-ROMs and Toshiba DVD players. The disc has now been remastered to correct these deficiencies, as well as to change a few things around to the way Roadshow Home Entertainment author DVDs nowadays. It is worth noting that it appears as if the same video master has been used for both transfers, as both DVDs exhibit the same picture deficiencies.

Differences Between The Two Versions

The main differences between the two versions are;

The remastered version is able to be played on DVD-ROMs and on Toshiba DVD players
The theatrical trailer picture quality is much better on the remastered version
The extras on the remastered version have been presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. This has been done by cropping the top and bottom of the image, so it is not necessarily a good thing
The menus on the remastered version are 16x9 enhanced with background music
The remastered version has menus that look much better
The secondary MPEG soundtrack on the original version has been replaced on the remastered version with a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack

How To Tell Which Version You Have

The remastered version comes with a new cover slick, with the words "Deluxe Widescreen Edition" splashed across the top of the slick. The product number on the packaging is the same, 100998, however the number on the inner rim of the DVD is different. The old version is labelled KX 1009989V4.B. The new version is labelled * 100998-9 * L0 #03. (IPFI 4611).

You can also try playing the DVD on either a Toshiba DVD player or on a DVD-ROM player. If the disc severely pixelates and skips, then you have the old version rather than the remastered version.

The video transfer of this movie is very good, with only a couple of instances of minor but distracting faults.

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

The transfer was clear and sharp at all times. Shadow detail was very good. Low lighting conditions are the norm in this movie, and I found the picture to be a tad on the dark side. To get the most out of the picture you will need to watch it at night, or in a room where ambient light can be blocked out. No low-level noise or excessive edge enhancement was noticed.

There are two scenes where some minor background grain can be seen, at 84:51 and 95:58.

The colours are well-saturated and natural-looking throughout, except for three scenes. The first two are short in duration and appear incorrectly balanced which washes them out. These are at 88:26 and 95:58. The third occurrence is the final sequence which includes some of the end credits. This appears to be slightly overexposed, as the colours are not deeply saturated and the credits are slightly blurry. Watch what happens to the credits when the background fades to black.

No MPEG artefacts were seen. Due to the subject material and the sharpness inherent in this transfer, quite a few scenes suffered from minor aliasing. There is one sequence at 37:43 – 37:46 that contains severe aliasing. This is of a snow-covered car park. Thankfully, this scene does not last very long. Overall, aliasing is well-controlled. There is also some aliasing in the credits but this doesn't really matter.

I counted a total of four noticeable film artefacts for the entire movie - a superb effort.

This is an RSDL disc, with the layer change occurring at 91:27, between Chapters 21 and 22. Even though the layer change is easily spotted, I felt that it was very well placed and not disruptive to the flow of the movie.

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

Audio

The audio of this transfer is of excellent quality, but some minor but clearly audible distortion occurs during a couple of the louder sections which tarnishes an otherwise perfect soundtrack.

There are two audio tracks on this DVD; an English Dolby Digital 5.1 448Kb/s soundtrack and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 320Kb/s surround-encoded soundtrack. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is the default, and is the one that I listened to.

Dialogue was clear and easily understood at all times.

There were no audio sync problems with the movie.

Some minor but clearly audible distortion occurs during a couple of the louder sections of the movie, which is a shame as it tarnishes an otherwise perfect soundtrack. This distortion may be in the original theatrical soundtrack.

Alan Silvestri's musical score is excellent, always adding to or enhancing the on-screen action.

The surround channels were heavily used for ambience and music. Special effects are frequently heard coming from the surround channels, creating an enveloping and effective soundfield.

The .1 channel was heavily and effectively used.

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

Extras

There is a very good selection of extras present on this disc, all of which are of excellent picture quality, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced with 320Kb/s Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtracks.

Theatrical Trailer (2:25 minutes)

The theatrical trailer is of excellent quality with the brightness and colour being only slightly off. This is a huge improvement over the Theatrical Trailer that came with the original release.

Featurette – Untitled (5:50 minutes)

The featurette is made up of sections from the theatrical trailer, interviews, and behind the scenes footage.

Cast & Crew Interviews

Short question answer interviews with Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Craig Bierko and Renny Harlin (Director).

On the Set (8:00 minutes)

An uncommented, behind-the-camera look at several scenes being filmed.

Biographies

This section contains extensive Biographies and Filmographies for Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson and Renny Harlin (Director). It is one of the best that I have read.

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 disc misses out on;

Additional Pan & Scan version

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

Featurettes and Interviews

There is no contest on this one. The Region 4 version is an easy winner due to it being PAL, single sided, and having more extras.

Summary

The Long Kiss Goodnight is a great action movie presented on a very good DVD, with some nice enhancements over the original release, specifically in the areas of extras and the menu.