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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.
The Chamber (1996)

The Chamber (1996)

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Released 8-Jun-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Thriller Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1996
Running Time 112:29 (Case: 108)
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By James Foley
Studio
Distributor

Universal Pictures Home Video
Starring Chris O'Donnell
Gene Hackman
Faye Dunaway
Robert Prosky
Raymond J. Barry
Bo Jackson
Lela Rochon
David Marshall Grant
Nicholas Pryor
Harve Presnell
Richard Bradford
Greg Goossen
Seth Isler
Case ?
RPI $19.95 Music Carter Burwell


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/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 for the Hearing Impaired Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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

Plot Synopsis

    I used to be a fairly avid reader of the novels written by John Grisham, before I came to the realisation that they were rather...err, samey. His stories inevitably seemed to revolve around lawyers in the Deep South and after half a dozen or so, they began to feel very repetitious. Many of his works have made their way to the silver screen - possibly most notably The Firm starring Tom Cruise. They have not always been able to make the transition from page to screen in an entirely satisfactory way, with some of the detail and skill of Grisham's writing seeming to get lost in translation. In the 1996 big screen outing The Chamber, the mildly talented Chris O'Donnell (Batman & Robin, School Ties and Vertical Limit) is teamed with the immensely talented Gene Hackman (The French Connection, Unforgiven and The Royal Tenenbaums).

    Adam Hall (O'Donnell) is a young lawyer who is about to tackle his first case involving the death penalty. Sam Cayhall (Hackman) is a sour, angry bigot who has been serving time on Death Row following the killing of two young Jewish children after he planted a bomb in their (civil rights lawyer) father's offices. His appeals have been going nowhere and he is scheduled to pay a visit to the gas chamber in twenty-eight days. With no signs of any remorse for his actions, why would anyone want to try and save this card carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan? In Adam's case, it is because Sam Cayhall just happens to be his grandfather...

    Cayhall doesn't give a d*** about Adam's familial connection and seemingly has no interest in saving himself from The Chamber, which makes Adam's job almost impossibly difficult. Despite the passive aggression from Sam, Adam determines to find another avenue to help him escape death at the Mississippi State Penitentiary. His investigations into the facts around Sam's conviction lead Adam to discover more about his extended family than he might have wished. His Aunt Lee (Faye Dunaway) is an alcoholic who, as a child, witnessed Sam's shooting of a black employee. Adam's father, who was close friends with the son of the employee, also witnessed the murder and his feelings of guilt ultimately led to his own suicide.

    Adam's investigations are inevitably hampered by the political agenda of the State Governor - an attorney who was responsible for securing the death sentence in the first place. Convinced there is more to Sam's story than meets the eye, Adam finds himself trapped between the dangers of a highly political legal system and the white supremacists who populate the dangerous world of the Klan.

    There is some quite impressive cinematography in the film - the feel of the Deep South is nicely evoked. The performance of Hackman is, as always, very strong. He is highly credible as the hateful racist Cayhall and that is one of the film's failings - you simply don't care enough about the old bigot to want Adam to actually succeed in saving him. To be fair to O'Donnell, he does contribute a serviceable turn as the young attorney, but there is little scope for him to do more than look alternately anxious, confused or scared. Despite the acting performances, the film is overall rather boring and I felt that it seemed to drag on for much longer than its 112 minute run-time.

    The Chamber is a fairly run-of-the-mill pot-boiler. For fans of Hackman or Grisham it may be worth a rental if you missed it previously. Given the lack of innovation in the plot department, plus the lack of extras on this DVD presentation, I find it very hard to recommend it for purchase.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The overall video transfer of this film is reasonably good.

    The movie is presented in a measured anamorphic aspect ratio of 2.40:1 which, from what I can tell, is slightly wider than the original 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio.

    The image is not as sharp as I would have liked. Close-up shots are generally fine, but there is a softness to middle-distance shots which lend a slightly out of focus to much of the film. It's not awful by any means but it is not perfect. There is some minor grain present from time to time which further muddies some of the visuals.

    Black levels are perfectly adequate with no significant low-level noise witnessed and shadow detail is generally fine. Colours are fairly solidly rendered, with no bleeding noticed. There is little in the way of bright primary colours on offer, with prison cells and court-rooms being the primary settings but everything looks clean enough. Skin tones look natural throughout.

    I noticed no significant problems with MPEG compression artefacts during this film. Aliasing was occasionally evident - the usual suspects were to blame with Venetian blinds, the brickwork on the building at 2:47 and the silver tea service at 82:34 being notable examples. There is some quite significant edge enhancement present in this transfer too. Whilst it is not always noticeable, the presence of a visible halo around characters is at times enough to be mildly distracting (for example at 40:13 or 73:21).

    The transfer is pretty clean overall, but there are quite a few (very fleeting) white specks which crop up through the film. They are never significant enough to be a major distraction.

    The English subtitles are legible and well timed but they do tend to summarise some of the dialogue for the sake of brevity. They also provide attribution for off-screen dialogue where needed.

    The disc is in a single sided and dual layered (RSDL) format, with the fairly brief layer change occurring at 50:08.

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

Audio

    The audio transfer is technically fine without being particularly exemplary.

    The sole English audio track for the main feature is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 384 kbps. There are no defects in the way of pops and hiss or dropouts. Audio sync is fine throughout and the dialogue is always clearly audible.

    The musical score is attributed to the highly accomplished Carter Burwell (Three Kings, Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou). Whilst this score is not particularly memorable, it does add some weight to the dramatic tension of the film and provides suitably melancholy passages for the more poignant moments.

    The front soundstage is quite wide, with some nice stereo separation for the score and also some noticeable cross-soundstage panning. The dialogue is well anchored in the centre speaker and is balanced nicely with the ambient effects and musical score. The surround speakers see some reasonable activity and generate a fairly enveloping soundstage with occasional spot effects. The musical score makes full use of all speakers.

    The subwoofer gets an occasional workout in supporting the musical score and also for the occasional powerful LFE occurrences for instance when the explosions are seen in flashback, or when the helicopter arrives at 93:00.

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

Extras

    There are negligible extra features on offer.

Menu

    The main menu is a static and silent picture of the main protagonists. It offers the choices of playing the feature, selecting one of sixteen chapter stops, activating the subtitles or watching the following special feature:

Theatrical Trailer

    Running for 2:29 and presented letterboxed at 1.85:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 kbps.

R4 vs R1

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

    The Region 1 release of this movie appears to be substantially the same as our own. Buy whichever is cheaper.

Summary

    The Chamber is a by-the-numbers film based on a by-the-numbers John Grisham novel. Gene Hackman puts in a professional performance as the racist Sam Cayhall on Mississippi's Death Row. Chris O'Donnell plays his stereotypical lawyer grandson, determined to save him at the last minute. There is little of real interest in this movie and it can really only be recommended as a weekly rental.

    The 2.40:1 video transfer is quite good.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio transfer is quite good.

    Extras are limited to a theatrical trailer.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel O'Donoghue (You think my bio is funny? Funny how?)
Friday, July 09, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDMomitsu V880 upconverting DVI player, using DVI output
DisplaySanyo PLV-Z2 WXGA projector. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 720p.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials.
AmplificationOnkyo TX-SR600 with DD-EX and DTS-ES
SpeakersJensenSPX-9 fronts, Jensen SPX-13 Centre, Jensen SPX-5 surrounds, Jensen SPX-17 subwoofer

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