Pavement (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	91:09
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Darrell Roodt
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Robert Patrick Lauren Holly Barry Shabaka Henley Chris Hoffman Danny Keogh
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Anthony Marinelli

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired French Dutch Arabic Croatian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hungarian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Slovenian Swedish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The next scene shows homicide detectives arriving at an apartment to investigate the grisly murder of a middle-aged nurse, Jenny Brown (Lynita Crofford). She has been brutally tortured and murdered by a sadistic person who has taken the time to insert a large number of hypodermic needles into her body.

    We then cut to Alaska to establish the credentials of tracker Sam Brown (Robert Patrick). Whilst on the trail of a rogue wolf that has been mutilating local cattle, Sam receives word that his sister has been murdered. Taking time to complete the job at hand, Sam then heads off to San Francisco to track down his sister’s killer.

    It isn’t long before Sam crosses paths with Detective Buckley Clarke (Lauren Holly) who tries, but fails, to persuade him to leave the detective work to the police. Eventually they team up, in more ways than one, in an attempt to catch the perpetrator.

    Following the discovery of another murder victim, the FBI step in to assist the local police. It is revealed that there have been multiple murders exhibiting the same MO (Mode of Operation) and that all victims were members of the medical fraternity.

    I have to confess that I am a fan of Serial Killer movies, provided that they are well constructed and keep you guessing to the very end. The Silence of the Lambs and Seven are two of the very best, offering a disturbing glimpse into the mind of a Serial Killer.

    Unfortunately, Pavement falls well short of the mark. The plot is predictable from the outset and there are several plot holes. Sam Brown lacks any real credibility and at times his stunts look as if they would be more at home on the set of MacGyver.

Video

    Despite some grain and low level noise, the video transfer is quite acceptable.

    Pavement is presented in an aspect ratio of 1:78:1 and it is 16x9 enhanced.

    The image is generally soft and grain is present during many scenes, for example, the Golden Gate Bridge at 3:25 and the hallway at 17:51. There are numerous darker scenes where low level noise becomes a problem. The police station at 21:21 and inside the car at 50:42 are two examples.

    The forest scenes that take place in Alaska are quite vibrant, but the colours are purposely subdued once the story makes its way back to San Francisco. Skin tones look natural.

    MPEG artefacts were kept to a minimum with only a moderate amount of posterization being evident. Although aliasing is present during the closing credits, I did not observe any during the movie. There was only the occasional film artefact, in the form of a white fleck or two.

    There are at least 15 foreign language subtitles on this DVD, along with English and English for the Hearing Impaired. Both of the English subtitle steams accurately reflected the spoken word and English for the Hearing Impaired provided an appropriate degree of audio cues.

    There is no layer change during the movie.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

Audio

    The audio transfer is very good. The only problem of note was an audible pop at 44:24 and a click at 58:32. Both occurrences were quite noticeable.

    There are three audio tracks on this DVD; English Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 2.0 (Surround) and French Dolby Digital 2.0 (Surround). I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and compared it with the English Dolby Digital 2.0 (Surround) soundtrack.

    The dialogue quality was clear and easy to understand at all times on both English soundtracks. Unfortunately the audio sync was out a touch throughout the movie.

    The musical score by Anthony Marinelli was quite powerful, providing the right tempo. It was one of the stronger points of the movie.

    Both English soundtracks were very good with the main difference being the expanded spatial awareness created by the Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The surround channels are used to good effect for both music and ambiance.

    The subwoofer was utilised to good effect without ever becoming intrusive.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• French Dolby Digital 2.0 

    With the exception of the alternative language soundtracks, both the Region 1 and Region 4 versions of this DVD appear to be identical.

    Pavement comes with a reasonable video and audio transfer, but there are no extras on the disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall