Company Business (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	94:22
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (56:08)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Nicholas Meyer
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Gene Hackman Mikhail Baryshnikov Kurtwood Smith Terry O'Quinn Daniel von Bargen Oleg Rudnik Géraldine Danon Nadim Sawalha Michael Tomlinson Howard McGillin Louis Eppolito Toby Eckholt Elsa O'Toole
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Michael Kamen

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Portuguese Polish Greek	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    "You can't judge a man by the company that keeps him!"

    This particular movie was set when the Cold War was still cold, the agents within the CIA and KGB were still ruthless, and both sides had a score to settle on a daily basis. Now since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the carving up of a major Communism power, things are different in the secret agent business.

    Sam Boyd (Gene Hackman) is an ex-CIA agent and is called out of retirement to do another job for the "Company" under the military control of Colonel Pierce Grissom (Terry O'Quinn). Boyd has been told to escort the Soviet spy Pyiotr Ivanovich Grushenko (Mikhail Baryshnikov) and $2 million to Germany where the trade is due to take place. Everything proceeds nicely and Boyd is looking forward to going back to inactive duty when a few peculiarities make it obvious that they are being double crossed.

    The trick is for them to find out if one or both agencies are at fault or it is simply the job of a single mole in one of the organisations. They must set aside their political and personal differences so they can stay alive long enough to uncover the plot. Aided by their many friends and old allies on both sides, including Natasha Grimaud (Géraldine Danon) and a Saudi arms dealer called Faisal (Nadim Sawalha), they tend to do just that.

    This was an interesting movie which was held together by the acting talents of Gene Hackman. Terry O'Quinn also played a small but rock solid performance as the Colonel who despises anything that is beyond his direct control.

(SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read)     The excitement is further fired by the fact that a Columbian drug dealer by the name of Paco Gonzalez (Louis Eppolito) has put up the $2 million to be used for the trade. When the deal goes sour he and his band of thugs are very interested in getting their cash back.

Video

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

    The picture is quite good with a nice level of delineation between objects and edges. There is some minor film grain that appears throughout the film with the worst instance being visible early on at 3:10. Shadow detail is rarely a problem which is good because there are a lot of places where the secret agents move around in the shadows or hold gatherings in dimly lit spaces. There is some low level noise.

    Colour is well saturated with no specific issues whit this particular aspect of the transfer.

    There were no MPEG artefacts and aliasing is also one particular artefact that I was unable to find any trace of. Film artefacts are the biggest problem with instances appearing regularly. As a mild plus they are always small but come in both white and black varieties. It's the white artefacts that are the most noticeable and which were irritating at 17:20 when they can be seen in most areas of the image. The only mercy is that the black variety is more common and tends to blend in once you maintain your focus on the plot and not the pixels.

    There is a moderate selection of subtitles available, which are; English for the Hearing Impaired, German for the Hearing Impaired, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, Polish and Greek.

    This disc is a dual-layered disc with the layer change placed between Chapters 9 and 10 at 56:08. It is well placed and not disruptive to the flow of the movie as it occurs during a quiet spot so there are no visual or audible queues to give it away.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are five audio tracks on this DVD. There is no default language. Instead, you are presented with a language selection menu before the Main Menu appears. There are also German Dolby Digital 1.0, French Dolby Digital 1.0, Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded tracks. I listened to the English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded version in its entirety.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.

    There is a slight problem with audio sync at 56:00, but this was an isolated incident.

    The musical score by Michael Kamen was typical of a spy movie with its mildly eerie nature. During the action scenes the audio increased in level and power making it well mixed and a fitting choice for this style of movie. The volume levels did not drown out the dialogue at any point during the movie.

    Although this was only a 2.0 soundtrack there is surround encoding so the rears get a small opportunity to take part during this movie. They are well used for music and ambience but there are no directional sounds heading to or from the rears. The video did provide a few places where some form of flyover could have been done, within the limitations of a surround-encoded track.

    The subwoofer was not used by this track and while there was some good bass levels provided in the main channels, low bass was definitely missing at 42:32 - 42:48.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

    I found Company Business to be a good, light, enjoyable movie. While it cannot be classed as a great spy thriller, it does have a way of maintaining your attention to the end. Another few days spent working on the storyline would have made a considerable difference to the final production.

    The video is spoilt by the film artefacts.

    The audio is flat at times with not enough directional sound being provided. The centre channel receives way too much attention.

    The only extra is a trailer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall