Henry Rollins-Uncut from NYC (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	88:21 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Paul J. Morra
Studio Distributor	MRA Entertainment	Starring	Henry Rollins
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Rollins Band

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Henry Rollins is known nowadays for his spoken word performances as much, if not more than his abilities as the frontman of the Rollins Band. I've managed to catch Henry several times at local venues, I've even travelled to Sydney, and his spoken word shows never disappoint. As a comedian he's outspoken, intelligent, highly opinionated and very, very funny.

    Uncut From NYC was recorded at New York City's Town Hall in 2006 by the IFC network, a North American station who also air Henry's weekly chat show. As always, Henry is never short of something to say, covering all manner of current world events and his personal goings-on. In this show, Henry also touches on his arduous seven-day voyage on the Trans-Siberian Express, as well as his recent trip to Australia in which he was reported as a suspected terrorist. Of course! A muscular dude, dressed in black, reading a book titled Jihad must be dangerous. If you're familiar with Henry's other past videos, such as You Saw Me Up There, or if you've had the pleasure of seeing Henry live, you should know what to expect.

    You may be interested to know that the follow-up to this show, titled Uncut from Israel, combines his spoken word performance with documentary footage of the war-torn region and has been receiving rave reviews since its airing on IFC in the US. I've often thought Henry would make a fantastic travel series, in the vein of Michael Palin's well documented treks across the globe, so let's hope he continues in this direction.

    This DVD is great entertainment and is highly recommended. For further reading, check out my review of The Henry Rollins Show Season 1 three-disc set.

Video

    In the words of the cover slick, this video transfer preserves the "aspect of the show's original television exhibition". The concert was captured in 1.78:1, but has been transferred to DVD without 16x9 enhancement.

    This transfer is an NTSC to PAL conversion, with overlapping frames and slightly blurry movement on screen. Rollins can become rather animated in his performance at times, and the video flaws can be a bit obvious.

    The image is adequately sharp (considering the interlaced NTSC source) and appears to have been originally shot on digital video. Colours are bright, bold and well handled and the bright stage lighting doesn't present any dire issues.

    MPEG compression artefacting is limited to a very mild amount of grain here and there, certainly nothing overly distracting in nature.

    No subtitle streams are provided.

    This disc is DVD5 formatted (single layered).

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Only the original Dolby Digital stereo audio is included (256Kb/s). Henry's dialogue is always clear and distinct. Being a live spoken word performance, there aren't any other factors that may affect the presentation of his voice, other than crowd noise. I didn't note any audio sync issues at all.

    The quality of the recording is good, with no feedback or distortion to be heard. The sound is crisp and there are no microphone placement issues.

    The only musical accompaniment is a short clip of Your Number Is One, from the Rollins Band album Nice, serving as an introduction and accompanying the closing credits.

    There is obviously no subwoofer or surround activity to report.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    None.

    The DVD transfer is ordinary.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall