Raw Deal (1986)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1986
Running Time	101:02
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (44:00)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Irvin
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Kathryn Harrold Darren McGavin Sam Wanamaker Paul Shenar Steven Hill Joe Regalbuto Robert Davi Ed Lauter Mordecai Lawner Blanche Baker Louise Robey Victor Argo
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Steve Lukather

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Danish Finnish Swedish	Smoking	Yes, incessant
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Arnold Schwarzenegger has made some films I like very much, and a few I don't like at all. I have seen most of his films. When the chance came up to watch this film, which was one of the few I hadn't seen, I was quite keen. Would this be another really good one (like True Lies)? Or at least a midrange one (like, say, Running Man)? Or would this be one of those that we would rather forget? See if you can guess...

    This film plays as if they decided on the stunt set-pieces first, then tried to cobble together a story to justify the stunts. They failed. Oh, the first two thirds of the movie isn't awful — it's a bit clichéd, but moderately entertaining, although the opening has some of the most horribly stilted exposition you've ever seen. Then there's a sudden jump, and it turns into a bad rerun of The Terminator, followed by some really corny ending pieces.

    The plot (a loose use of the term) is about Mark Kaminsky (Arnold Schwarzenegger). He's the sheriff in a small town, but he was formerly an FBI agent. He left the Bureau after mistreating a suspect. He's happy enough in his role as sheriff, but his wife is an alcoholic. When he is offered a chance at redemption, going undercover for an old friend, Harry Shannon (Darren McGavin), he doesn't resist. The first step in the process of going undercover is quite silly, but it's one of those stunt set-pieces I was talking about (note the name of the location, and ask yourself if director John Irvin was having a bit of fun).

    He goes undercover as Joe Brenner to infiltrate the Patrovita organised crime family. Luigi Patrovita (Sam Wanamaker) is being pursued by Federal Prosecutor Marvin Baxter (Joe Regalbuto). Patrovita's lieutenant, Rocca (Paul Shenar) is looking for new hoods because there's something of a gang war going on with the Lamanski (Steven Hill) mob, and Joe Brenner catches his eye. Rocca's right hand man, Max Keller (Robert Davi) feels a bit threatened by Brenner...

    This film is probably one of those best watched with a bunch of friends, a slab of beer, a pizza, and an uncritical attitude.

Video

    This DVD is another example of the principle: bad films get good transfers.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, matching the original theatrical aspect ratio. The DVD is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is sharp and clear, with rather good shadow detail. Film grain is not a problem. There's no low level noise.

    Colour is good, but not great — skin tones are a bit orange on some of the indoor shots. There are no colour-related artefacts.

    There are no film artefacts. There is plenty of aliasing, but it's minor and not troubling. There is next to no background shimmer, and no other MPEG artefacts. This is a very clean transfer for a film that's coming up on 20 years old.

    There are subtitles in Danish, Swedish, and Finnish — but no English, which means that hearing-impaired viewers are spared this experience.

    The disc is single-sided, RSDL, with the layer change at 44:00. It is a good layer change, just barely visible.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack is only provided in English, in Dolby Digital 2.0, at 192kbps. The surround encoding flag is set, but the only effect this has is to collapse the dialogue into the centre channel — there doesn't seem to be any surround sound of any significance.

    The dialogue is fairly clear and generally readily understood. There are no obvious audio sync errors.

    There's a credit for "music design" to Cinemascore. Sounds like a company that specialises in cheap movie scores. And yep, it sounds like a cheap movie score — awfully clichéd.

    The subwoofer is not addressed by a 2.0 soundtrack, even with surround encoding. If you have bass management enabled, you may see some bass redirected into the subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    There are no extras on this disc.

Menu

    The menu is animated with music; there's even a lengthy introduction that contains some spoilers. It's easy to operate, which it ought to be, considering how little there is to do.

    There was a version of this movie released in Region 1 way back in 1998 by Anchor Bay. It was a bad release: possibly in the wrong aspect ratio, not 16x9 enhanced, poor quality video and sound. It has been discontinued. There's a new release, this time from Fox. It sounds a lot like this one, with the correct aspect ratio and 16x9 enhancement, but it includes a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Interestingly, reports have it that the 5.1 track has very little more directionality than the 2.0 track (the one we have, that they get, too). The R1 also includes subtitles (a notable omission from this R4 disc). The R1 disc gets just as many extras as the R4 disc — precisely zero. There is one anomaly: both the R1 discs are listed as having run-times significantly shorter than this R4. Indeed, the run-time of the film on IMDb is listed as 97 minutes, while this disc runs 101 minutes — that's difficult to explain.

    I think we have a tie here, although I am tempted to award the gold-plated rubber chicken to the Region 1, just because it has English subtitles — I don't like to see releases in Region 4 that miss out on subtitles in English.

    A disappointing film that starts OK but ends awfully on a DVD with a high quality transfer.

    The video quality is high — sharp, clear, no artefacts, except for some aliasing.

    The audio quality is not high, but it's not awful.

    The extras are completely non-existent.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall