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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.
Anatomie 2 (2003)

Anatomie 2 (2003)

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Released 9-Feb-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Horror Main Menu Introduction
Main Menu Audio
Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Dolby Digital Trailer-City
Audio Commentary-Stefan Ruzowitzky (Director) And Barnaby Metschurat (Actor)
Featurette-Making Of
Deleted Scenes
Script To Screen Comparison-Screen Test / Original Scene Comparison
Filmographies-Cast & Crew
Gallery-Photo
Gallery-Artwork
Theatrical Trailer
Trailer-Anatomie
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2003
Running Time 97:08
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (59:18) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4,5 Directed By Stefan Ruzowitzky
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Barnaby Metschurat
Herbert Knaup
Heike Makatsch
Roman Knizka
Wotan Wilke Möhring
Frank Giering
Hanno Koffler
Felix Kramer
Sebastian Nakajew
Rosie Alvarez
Joachim Bissmeier
Boris Pietsch
Franka Potente
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music Marius Ruhland


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
German Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
Dutch
Arabic
Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Finnish
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Norwegian
Polish
Slovenian
Swedish Information
Turkish
English Audio Commentary
Dutch Audio Commentary
English for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, Action over closing credits

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

Plot Synopsis

    Anatomie 2 is a recent film from Germany which aims to attract an audience that enjoys a horror/slasher type of film.

    Jo Hauser, played by Barnaby Metschurat, is a medical intern at a Berlin hospital. Jo comes from a small country town where he has left a younger brother who suffers from a debilitating muscular condition.

    At the hospital, Jo's previous research work attracts the attention of one of the Professors who then invites him to a gathering of medical experts. Here he also meets a group of fellow medical interns, led by the Professor, who are all working on an illegal project to develop artificial muscles to replace defective ones in humans. The synthetic muscles also provide greater than normal strength. One of the group members, Viktoria, played by Heike Makatsch, is attracted to Jo and later seduces him and injects him with a synthetic drug that enhances their sexual experience...

    Jo later joins this team in their research but only later realises that they have far more in mind than he wishes. He then tries to escape their grasp...

    The only real elements drawn from the first film are the fictitious Anti-Hippocratic Society, and the secret unethical medical practices. Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) who was the star in the first film, barely registers her presence in the sequel, with all of about 10 minutes of screen time.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video transfer is presented in its original theatrical ratio of 2.40:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is as sharp as a scalpel throughout the movie with good shadow detail. There is no low-level noise.

    A rich colour palette has been used in this film, and is transferred very well to DVD with no trace of colour bleed or oversaturation. Some examples of the rich colour include the red carpet at 1:10.

    There are occasional small negative film artefacts in the form of white specks. However, these are few and far between and never detract from the viewing experience.

    There is a vast range of subtitles available, all selectable on the fly.

    This is a dual layered disc, and the layer change occurs at 59:18. It is well placed at the end of a scene and causes minimal interruption to the flow of the film.

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

Audio

    There is only one film soundtrack on this disc. It is in the original German and is Dolby Digital 5.1.

    The dialogue is clear and in sync at all times.

    The music, by Marius Ruhland (Anatomie), is a strongly techno driven soundtrack aimed at the teenage viewing audience.

    For a very recent, obviously reasonably large budget film of the horror genre, the rear surround speakers are used surprisingly sparingly. Much of their use is to support music and ambient effects. In fact, I can't recall any directional effects in the rear speakers at all. Perhaps the original film was only recorded in Dolby Surround?

    The subwoofer is used to support effects and the music. It blended in well without drawing particular attention to itself.

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

Extras

    Being a Collector's Edition, there are plenty of extras included in this release.

Menu Audio and Animation

    The menus are very well done, with themed film sequences and music.

Dolby Digital Trailer - City

Audio Commentary by Director and Actor

    The Director, Stefan Ruzowitsky, and the lead actor, Barnaby Metschurat, provide a commentary track in German, but with subtitles available in English.

    This is an entertaining and informative commentary as it covers a lot about the technical aspects of making the film, as well as background information on the whole process, including good perspectives from Metschurat about the actors' preparation for the roles.

Featurette - Making of (16:49)

    This documentary is presented in 1.33:1 full screen in German, but with English subtitles.

    A reasonably interesting little extra, with interviews with the Director, Producer and other members of the crew. There is a fair deal of background footage included. Actual clips from the film are presented in 2.40:1 and 1.85:1 letterbox formats.

Deleted Scenes

    There a number of fairly lengthy deleted scenes provided on this disc. There are also a number of ways to watch these scenes. They can be watched (in 2.35:1 letterbox) with original audio (which sounds like mono) and with Director and Actor's comments in subtitles. Or you can choose to hear the actual commentary instead of the film soundtrack. Alternatively, one can choose to see and hear the Director and lead actor commenting on the various scenes, as a picture-in-picture feature. I'm not quite sure of the value of this last option, as being able to see the two of them doesn't really add much!  However, the information they provide is quite useful.

    The clips look quite good and were probably cut very late in the film's production.

Script to Screen / Original Scene Comparison

    This extra allows the viewer to compare the pre-filming rehearsals with the actual filmed result for 3 different scenes.

    It's quite amusing to see the fluffed and ad-lib lines. It also shows just how easily an actor can switch to and from their on-screen persona.

Filmographies - Cast & Crew

    About 1 screen page on each of the main cast and crew, listing all their previous films. There is no sound, and it is presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen.

Gallery - Photo

    Presented in 1.78:1 and 16x9 enhanced, with music in the background.

    I felt this extra was a little pointless as it was basically about 20 still photos of scenes from the film with just one 'behind the scenes' photo.

Gallery - Artwork

   As far as I could see there was just the one image in this 'gallery'. This was of a poster for Anatomie 2.

Theatrical Trailer

   The trailer for Anatomie 2, surprisingly presented in 1.33:1 pan & scan. The audio is German, with Dutch subtitles available.

Trailer - Anatomie

    The trailer for the first film, presented in 1.85:1 letterbox format, with audio in German. Dutch subtitles are available.

   

R4 vs R1

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

    The R1 version of this release has additional soundtracks:

    but has fewer subtitle options.

    Extras appear to be identical between both releases, so if an English soundtrack is important, then the R1 release would be the better choice.

Summary

    While the film looks pretty good, and appears to offer an interesting story, ultimately it is an unsatisfying experience which doesn't really succeed either as a thriller or as a horror/slasher film. It seemed to lack that required atmosphere, whether in the directing, acting, story or the visuals. There were too many plot holes and oversimplification of some key connective elements in the story, which just let down the film.

    The video transfer is of a very high quality. The audio transfer is reasonable, though surprisingly lacking in its use of discrete sound effects in the rear speakers.

    The extras are reasonable.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Satish Rajah (don't read my bio!)
Friday, March 26, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-344 Multi-Region, using Component output
DisplaySony KV-XA34M31 80cm. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationDenon AVR-2801
SpeakersMain: Mission 753; Centre: Mission m7c2; rear: Mission 77DS; Sub: JBL PB10

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