Wild Wild West (1999) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Action |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Biographies-Cast & Crew Featurette-It's A Whole New West Featurette-Wardrobes Of The West Featurette-Good Guys' Gadgets Featurette-Loveless' Ladies Featurette-Evil Devices Theatrical Trailer Gallery-Photo Music Video-Wild Wild West-Will Smith/Dru Hill/Kool Moe Tee Music Video-Bailamos-Enrique Iglesias Featurette-Newswrap DVD-ROM Extras-Website mirror |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1999 | ||
Running Time | 101:34 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (90:21) | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Barry Sonnenfeld |
Studio
Distributor |
Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Will Smith Kevin Kline Kenneth Branagh Salma Hayek Ted Levine |
Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
RPI | $36.95 | Music | Elmer Bernstein |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English French Italian Spanish German Italian for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
James West (Will Smith) is a man of action, who theory is to shoot first, shoot second, shoot third, and then ask questions. He has been waiting for a week to apprehend (or should I say kill) the man responsible for murdering his parents, but on the night that he finally shows up, James is entertaining a female guest up in the train station's water tower.
Atremis Gordon (Kevin Kline) is a thinker and an inventor. I'm sure you'll recognize many of his inventions. However, his naming convention for these devices is far from perfect, as you will discover. Atremis also works as a U.S. Marshal, and he has been investigating a case where renowned scientists have been disappearing.
Kenneth Branagh plays Dr Arliss Loveless, a legless megalomaniac that wants to take over the United States of America. To accomplish this, he is creating new weapons of immense power and destruction, the likes of which no one has seen. He is assisted in his quest by four beautiful women, Munitia (Musetta Vander), Miss East (Bai Ling), Miss Lippenreider (Sofia Eng) and Amazonia (Frederique van der Wal).
General McGrath (Ted Levine) is Dr Arliss' right hand man, who has seen plenty of action by the looks of him.
Rita Escobar (Salma Hayek) is trying to rescue her father, a renowned scientist, from Dr Arliss Loveless.
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.
The picture is clear and sharp at all times. Shadow detail was excellent for most of the movie, but there were two scenes where I though it could have been a fraction better.
Picture brightness is also excellent, but I would recommend you watch it at night or in a room where most of the light came be blocked out, as there are several sequences that are quite dark. The opening three chapters are good examples of this.
No low-level noise was noticed.
There is some grain present in the picture, but it is not at all distracting and for the most part of the movie I was totally unaware of its presence. It was only when I specifically looked for it that it became apparent.
There is some minor edge enhancement present in a couple of scenes but it is not detrimental to the overall picture quality.
The colour is excellent. It is beautifully saturated, rich and vibrant.
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Aliasing is rare, and mild when it does occur. Only two occurrences stand out a little, at 53:50 and 57:27. I am quite surprised that aliasing was not more of a problem with this transfer, as the subject material, especially the mechanical spider, and the sharpness inherent in this transfer would lend itself to aliasing being a real problem, but this artefact is well-controlled.
Film artefacts are very rare. So rare, in fact, that I was going to say that there were none, but I spotted one small one when I re-watched Chapter 3, so I guess there might be a couple more lurking around somewhere that I missed.
This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed between Chapters 21 and 22, at 70:21. Even though the layer change occurs mid-scene, it is only slightly disruptive to the flow of the movie.
The Italian for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are described as English for the Hearing Impaired on the packaging.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
There are two audio tracks on this DVD; English and Italian. Both soundtracks are Dolby Digital 5.1, 384Kb/s. I listened to the English soundtrack. There is no mention of the Italian 5.1 soundtrack on the packaging.
The dialogue was extremely clear and easy to understand throughout the entire movie.
There are no audio sync problems with this transfer.
Elmer Bernstein's musical score is excellent. It enhances the on-screen action beautifully.
The surround channels were very aggressively used for ambience, music and lots of special effects. Directional effects and precise sound placement within the sound field are excellent, putting you right in the midst of the action, so don't forget your bullet-proof jacket.
The subwoofer is continually being used to add bass to most scenes, and is highly active during the action sequences, which by the way there are a lot of.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The video transfer of this movie is excellent, but is not reference quality due to several trivial problems.
This is a magnificent audio transfer, and is easily reference quality.
There are plenty of extras on this disc, but it is very disappointing that we did not get the director's audio commentary as the Region 1 version did.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Sony DVP-725, using Component output |
Display | Sony Projector VPH-G70 (No Line Doubler), Technics Da-Lite matt screen with gain of 1.0 (229cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Onkyo TX-SV919THX |
Speakers | Fronts: Energy RVS-1 (3), Rears: Energy RVSS-1 (2), Subwoofer: Energy EPS-150 (1) |