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.
Mr. Jones (1993)

Mr. Jones (1993)

If you create a user account, you can add your own review of this DVD

Released 14-Mar-2000

Cover Art

This review is sponsored by
BUY IT

Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1993
Running Time 109:19
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Mike Figgis
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Richard Gere
Lena Olin
Anne Bancroft
Case Brackley-Trans-No Lip
RPI $34.95 Music Maurice Jarre


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Dutch
Czech
Danish
Finnish
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Swedish
Turkish
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, at the start

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

Plot Synopsis

    We are first introduced to Mr Jones (Richard Gere) when he turns up at a construction site and haggles himself a job. He is sent up to the roof where he meets Howard (Delroy Lindo). Mr Jones has a fascination with flying, and during a break decides he is going to try flying (sans aircraft). Howard stops him from jumping and he is taken to a medical clinic. This is where he meets psychiatrist Dr Libby Bowen (Lina Olin), who is clearly having a few problems of her own.

    The movie focusses on Mr Jones’ buoyant personality and Libby's desperately trying not to fall in love with him, which makes for a simple but interesting plot. There are many memorable moments and the high quality of acting on show here really brings this movie to life. Mr Jones also shows us the other side of the manic-depressive coin, which makes it a bit of a roller-coaster ride at times.

    Expanding on the plot any further would detract from some of the more memorable moments in this film, so I will keep it short and let you get on with reading about the quality of the transfer.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    This is a magnificent video transfer, and only just falls short of being reference quality. I was going to give it a reference quality rating but then decided not to because of two specific minor problems; one scene was a little grainy, and during the last five minutes of the movie there were a few too many film artefacts present.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture is extremely clear and sharp at all times.

    There is no low level noise present and the colour is perfect. There is no edge bleeding and no excessive edge enhancement was ever noticed.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen - can you see a pattern emerging here?

    The most astounding thing about this transfer was its lack of aliasing. Not one occurrence was seen, not one. This title is the most aliasing-free DVD I have ever seen, and it begs the question of why can't all DVDs be like this? I'm sure if you looked hard enough you would be able to find at least one or two occurrences somewhere, but really...

    Pixelization or graininess was almost non-existent on my 250 cm screen, which is extremely impressive. I often found myself marvelling at the fantastic quality of this transfer in this regard. There was, however, one sequence that suffered from a little graininess, which ran from 66:55 – 70:28, though this was far from being bad. I have seen entire movies suffer from much worse grain problems than this one sequence - Frantic is one such title that falls into this category.

    There was some noticeable image shake towards the end of the movie, during a distant shot of a jumbo jet coming in to land, but this is not a transfer problem, as I distinctly remember seeing this same effect at the cinema.

    Film artefacts were very rare and were almost always small and unobtrusive. Unfortunately, the last five minutes of film suffered from quite a few film artefacts, which distracted me enough to stop this transfer from receiving a reference quality rating.

    This movie is on a single layer disc, which is rather impressive considering its quality and the movie's running time.

    One minor annoyance about this disc is that the subtitles defaulted to on with my DVD player.

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

Audio

    The original movie was recorded in Dolby Stereo SR (surround) format, which explains why we only get a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround soundtrack. Overall the sound mix is very good but the dialogue clarity is definitely lacking on many occasions.

    There are five audio tracks on this DVD; English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded 192 Kb/second soundtrack.

    The dialogue was mainly clear and easy to understand but there were many times when it was very hard to understand.

    There were no audio sync problems noticed.

    The musical score is by Maurice Jarre, and it suits the movie nicely.

    The surround channel was used frequently, creating a nice, enveloping sound. Of course, being only a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround recording, it lacked the localised and directional effects that are so superb in a good Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. By the way, this point should be taken more as an observation rather than as a criticism of this soundtrack.

    The subwoofer was continually used to subtly add bass to most scenes, and was highly active during dramatic sequences that required extra bass.

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

Extras

   Extras are limited to Cast & Crew filmographies.

Menu

    The main menu is not 16x9 enhanced and has images from the movie with the following selections; Languages & Audio, Subtitles, Scene Selections (28), Talent Profiles and Play Movie.

Talent Profiles (Cast & Crew Filmographies)

    This section contains filmographies for Richard Gere, Lena Olin, Ann Bancroft and Director Mike Figgis.

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;     If extras are what you want, then the R1 version is for you. If you want the best picture quality then the R4 version is best
due to PAL's innate resolution superiority over NTSC.

Summary

    I enjoyed reviewing this disc purely for its superb video quality.

    Even though the video just misses out on being reference quality, it is an exemplary transfer, especially in the area of film-to-video artefacts.

    Overall the sound mix is very good but the dialogue clarity is definitely lacking on many occasions.

    Extras are limited to Cast & Crew Filmographies.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Paul Williams (read Paul's biography)
Sunday, February 27, 2000
Review Equipment
DVDSony DVP-725, using Component output
DisplaySony Projector VPH-G70 (No Line Doubler), Technics Da-Lite matt screen with gain of 1.0 (229cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationOnkyo TX-SV919THX
SpeakersFronts: Energy RVS-1 (3), Rears: Energy RVSS-1 (2), Subwoofer: Energy EPS-150 (1)

Other Reviews
The DVD Bits - Vincent C
DVDownUnder - Cassandra N
DVD Plaza - Plaza