Anatomie 2 (2003) |
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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 |
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Rating | |||
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) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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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 |
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.
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.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
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.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
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.
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.
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.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-344 Multi-Region, using Component output |
Display | Sony KV-XA34M31 80cm. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
Amplification | Denon AVR-2801 |
Speakers | Main: Mission 753; Centre: Mission m7c2; rear: Mission 77DS; Sub: JBL PB10 |