Fled (1996)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1996
Running Time	93:43
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (53:12)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Kevin Hooks
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Laurence Fishburne Stephen Baldwin Will Patton Salma Hayek Robert Hooks
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Graeme Revell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired German German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Finnish Norwegian Danish Portuguese Polish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    "Come on Dodge, we gotta fled"

    No, that is not a typographical error. It is an example of the bad grammar that is contained within this movie. The word "fled" is used several times, all in the wrong tense. Perhaps the filmmakers were trying to get it to sound catchy. It fails miserably.

    This movie is a low point for several of the actors. It is not exactly a bad movie, but is definitely far from being a good one. It was released in 1996, and I do not recall it having a cinema release - if it did have a theatrical release, it must have been a small one. Laurence Fishburne had just finished Higher Learning, and was about to go on to Event Horizon, both which I consider to be excellent films. Stephen Baldwin, the least known Baldwin, had just released the acclaimed The Usual Suspects. Salma Hayek had just completed Desperado and From Dusk 'Til Dawn, and gets away with this being a lesser film for her (there is no mention of her on the front cover). Will Patton stays on par with the films he does after this; The Postman and Armageddon.

    Mark Dodge is a hacker who has stolen money and information on a disk from the Cuban mafia. The police are after Dodge because of what he has, as they need it for a court case against the mafia boss. The mafia is after Dodge, to relieve him of the information he stole, and then to kill him. Charles Piper is an ex-cop who makes a deal with the police to get the information from Dodge - in turn, he would be able to get out of jail early.

    All this comes to a head when a prison break, which is organised to get Dodge to reveal where the disk is hidden, goes haywire when another inmate starts shooting guards. Dodge and Piper are chained up, and escape the mayhem together. Piper must keep Dodge safe while running from Detective Matthew Gibson (Patton), who once caught Dodge and seeks to recapture him. Gibson notices there is something strange about this prison break, and sets out to find the reason behind the cover-up. Dodge and Piper find themselves in Atlanta, where they befriend Cora (Hayek), who helps them hide at her place. They are not safe as the mafia is closing in, and time is running out before the disk needs to be presented as evidence in court, or else all their efforts are wasted.

    The storyline is pretty basic - escape from jail, find evidence to prove innocence (or a slight variation on that), and hide from the villains seeking revenge. It is an entertaining ride, while still retaining B-Movie status.

Video

    This feature is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. It is not quite the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The difference is minor, but I do not understand the reason for this alteration.

    This is an almost flawless video transfer, with accurate colour reproduction, and a very sharp image. This film is only 8 years old, and appears to have been kept in pristine condition.

    Only a couple of film artefacts plague this otherwise perfect transfer. They are barely mentionable, but one grabbed my attention at 101:38. It is on par with almost any film of recent vintage.

    There are several subtitle streams present. They are English, English for the Hearing Impaired, German, German for the Hearing Impaired, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, and Polish. Burnt in subtitles indicating locations are displayed at various times throughout the movie. It was my understanding that this is done less often these days, especially with various languages available. It is something that is sorely missed, because the subtitle fonts cannot compare with the ones created for the original prints.

    The disc is a dual layered RSDL disc. The layer change is located at 53:12, midway through a scene just before a shoot-out. It is not the most ideal of times to place it, as there is movement on screen. Badly placed layer changes always make me paranoid for a second that there is a scratch or fingerprint on the disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are 5 audio tracks on this disc. They are English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. They are all presented in 5.1 and encoded at 448kbps. I listened to the English in its entirety, and sampled each of the other tracks. The English was flawless, while each of the dubbed tracks had a little something missing, which I put down to the dubbing overpowering the sound. This is common with many of the dubbed movies I have come across. I really do feel sorry for people viewing dubbed movies, as you never hear all you are supposed to.

    As with the video, the audio is of a very high quality. It is nothing you want to show off your system with, and not of reference quality, but it does the job nicely.

    There are no dropouts, hisses, clicks or any problems at all. The movie was originally presented in Dolby Digital theatrically, and this would appear to be the same as what we have here.

    The surrounds are used quite frequently. The various car chases, shoot-outs and even the odd explosion benefit from the surround usage. Bullets fly all around, and the explosion at 2:00 sweeps from the front to the rears in style. Most of the dialogue comes from the centre speaker, but does pan to the other fronts. The LFE also gets a workout at the same times as mentioned for the surrounds.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio

    A static page with audio playing available in each audio language. The scene selections menu has 6 pages of 4 chapter selections with an image to show each chapter, totalling 24.

Theatrical Trailer - 2:22

    A nice selling point for the movie. I do recall seeing this trailer on a video where it appealed to me. The trailer is presented at 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. It contains some scenes not in the final release of the movie. A 105 minute version is supposed to exist, but it has not been released on video or DVD, and most likely won't be any time soon.

    Our Region 4 disc has 5 languages and subtitles to match, which makes the movie just large enough to spread over 2 layers. The disc is the same as that released in Region 2. The Region 1 release has only English and Spanish audio and subtitle tracks, and fits onto a single layer. I would call it an even match between the 2 regions. Buy whichever is cheaper.

    A B grade movie with a couple of A grade stars, this is a relatively entertaining buddy flick. With virtually no extras, but a great video and audio transfer, it is worth a viewing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall