Blankman (1994) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Trailer-Blankman, So I Married An Axe Murderer, The Pest
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	95:50
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,3,4	Directed By	Mike Binder
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Damon Wayans David Alan Grier Robin Givens Christopher Lawford Lynne Thigpen Jon Polito Nick Corello Jason Alexander Harris Peet Joe Vassallo Michael Wayans Damon Wayans Jr. John Moschitta Jr.
Case	?
RPI	$14.95	Music	Miles Goodman Ralph E. Tresvant

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Spanish Portuguese Chinese Korean Thai	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes, McDonalds
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Inspired by watching the early Batman series with his brother Kevin, Darryl grows up believing that he can help the world with his inventions. Darryl accidentally creates a bullet-proof costume by mixing potions. After the death of their mother in a mass murder at an election campaign office, Darryl decides to go and fight crime. The problem is that a superhero name is needed and Darryl can only draw a blank. While Kevin is reluctant to join in, he must look out for his brother. After seeing potential with the costume, Kevin becomes more understanding.

    Saturday Night Live comedian Damon Wayons had a pretty dismal movie career, right up until this movie. I'm not saying this movie saved his career, but it was the last of his bad trot. After this, Major Payne and Bulletproof provided the star with his ticket to stardom. Personally, I believe the lesser known The Great White Hype is his best movie. These days, his movie career has all but disappeared for the highly successful television sitcom My Wife and Kids. I have only seen a few episodes, but it shows some of his best talent.

    Strangely, Damon was the only successful Wayons brother to not participate in the first two Scary Movie(s). His comedic talents would have saved these movies, as their attempt at spoof failed miserably in my opinion.

    David Alan Grier is Kevin, the sidekick and brother of Darryl. Whilst he looked familiar, after looking at his filmography I could not recall watching any of his movies. Seinfeld regular Jason Alexander is the only other recognisable actor. Unfortunately, he will forever be labelled George in my eyes. His acting career is a bomb outside his former sitcom.

Video

    Presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, this feature is 16x9 enhanced. Sadly, this is an NTSC transfer, not that this movie would warrant a PAL conversion.

    The transfer is generally clean, with very little in the way of film to video artefacts, as well as minimal film grain. Being filmed as recently as 1994, it should be expected that it is in good condition, despite my seeing some real shockers from that era.

    There is no edge enhancement.

    Colours are natural, with flesh tones accurate.

    The image is quite sharp.

    Subtitle options come in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean and Thai.

    The movie fits onto a single layer, therefore there is no need to worry about a layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are several choices for audio soundtrack, with choices being English and French 2.0 Dolby Digital, encoded at 192kbps, as well as the all-important 5.1 Dolby Digital encoded at 448kbps. The sad thing is that the 2.0 English track is primarily selected, so if you are not careful, you could sit through the entire movie in stereo. This is a common occurrence for many of the older Region 1 discs, with the Region 4 being an exact copy of the R1.

    There are no dropouts or pops in the soundtrack.

    Dialogue is clear, accurate and in sync with lip movements.

    The score is composed by Miles Goodman. Whilst not a well known composer, many of his movies are well known, such as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, What About Bob?, Teen Wolf and Housesitter. His death in 1996 of a heart attack is unfortunate, as he showed some real talent.

    The surrounds are used regularly, more than I expected for this movie. They are primarily used for the music soundtrack, which consists of hip hop and rap music.

    The subwoofer is used throughout, mainly supporting the soundtrack. At 47:15, Blankman drives along railway tracks with a girl, with a train following. At 104:30, a bank explodes, with some nice stunt work by the lead actors escaping the fireball. Both bring some nice LFE action.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Trailers

• Blankman - Fullscreen, 2.0 audio at 192kbps 2:27
• So I Married an Axe Murderer - 1.85:1 16x9 enhanced, 2.0 audio at 192kbps. 2:13
• The Pest - Fullscreen, 2.0 audio at 192kbps. 1:50

    This disc is coded for Regions 1, 3 and 4. Without confirming what the disc in the U.S. has in the way of region coding, the only difference that I can discern is a different cover slip with the Australian ratings on it. This is the first disc I have come across that is region coded for both Australia and the U.S., while the Europeans miss out totally.

    An average Damon Wayons movie - is there any other kind? Much better video quality than I was expecting, with some pretty good audio to match. Lacking in the extras department though, but I cannot imagine what extras could be included.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall