Awake: Special Edition (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Main Menu Audio Trailer-I'm Not There, Dan in Real Life Featurette-Making Of Storyboard Comparisons Deleted Scenes Outtakes Audio Commentary-Director Joby Harold
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	80:37 (Case: 84)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (62:09)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Joby Harold
Studio Distributor	The Weinstein Co. Icon Entertainment	Starring	Hayden Christensen Jessica Alba Terrence Howard Lena Olin Christopher McDonald Sam Robards Arliss Howard
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Samuel Sim

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 EX (768Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Clay Beresford (Hayden Christensen) is a young billionaire businessman. He suffers a heart condition and is awaiting a heart transplant, but due to his unusual blood type the wait is long.

    Clay has been secretly engaged to his overbearing mother's personal assistant (Jessica Alba) for six months. So secret is the engagement that Clay has not told his mother (Lena Olin) for fear that she will reject the relationship. These fears prove well founded when she inadvertently finds out and the pair rush out to get married immediately in an act of defiance. Shortly after the ceremony a donor heart becomes available and Clay is rushed to the operating theatre.

    On the operating table, Clay suffers from "anaesthetic awareness"; a condition whereby he is fully conscious on the operating table, able to hear and feel everything, but paralysed. Worse than the initial shock of being awake during surgery, Clay overhears his surgeons plotting his demise and can do nothing about it.

    Awake features a fairly original premise, but one that is wafer thin and struggles to fill the film's 80 minute run time. Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba's stodgy acting don't help the affair much either, particularly next to Terrence Howard's typically solid turn as the guilt-laden head surgeon. The film makes for an adequate time filler on a quiet night, but is in no way essential viewing.

Video

    The film is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, much shorter than the theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced. The cropping is noticeable but not too distracting.

    Though the film is certainly watchable the transfer is not up to the standard you would typically expect of a new release film. The image appears rather soft and fine film grain is noticeable throughout. There is a good level of detail in dark scenes and blacks. There is no sign of low level noise.

    The colour in the film is little bit flat and slightly pale.

    A handful of film artefacts are visible throughout the film, mostly specks of dust and the like. There is no sign of MPEG compression related artefacts.

    The white English subtitles appear to be accurate and well timed.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer break occurs mid-scene at 62:09 but was not noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Three English audio tracks are available; a Dolby Digital 2.0 (224 Kbps), a DTS 5.1 (768 Kbps) and a Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) audio track.

    The dialogue is it a good level in the mix (though it is a very quiet mix) and fairly well synchronised to the video, although ADR looping is noticeable on occasion.

     The film features a brother mundane piano-based score.

    The surround speakers are moderately used for environmental effects (rain, traffic etc) and provide a reasonably immersive sound field. There is not a lot of subwoofer usage, though not much of a need for it either.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The disc opens with an irritating anti-piracy trailer that cannot be skipped and features static menus with a background audio clip from the film.

Audio Commentary with Director Joby Harold

    A rather stilted and very technically focused audio commentary.

Making Of Featurette (13:13)

    A run-of-the-mill press kit making of featurette. Whilst it is moderately interesting, it doesn't tell you much and lavish more praise than is deserved on the cast and crew.

Deletes Scenes (9:34)

    7 assorted deleted scenes. None add a great deal to the film.

Storyboard to Film comparison Featurette (8:44)

    A diverse assortment of scenes presented with storyboards at the top of the screen and the final video that relates to those storyboards on the bottom half of the screen. This featurette inadvertently shows you what the full 2.35:1 aspect of the film should look like.

Outtakes (4:22)

    A rather mundane assortment of bloopers.

Icon Trailers

    Trailers for Dan in Real Life and I'm Not There.

    The Region 1 edition misses out on the Outtakes featured on the Region 4 release, but includes a Theatrical Trailer and Photo Gallery. The Region 1 edition also misses out on the DTS audio track found on the Region 4 edition. This comparison puts Region 4 ahead by a hair.

    An original idea that makes for a mundane medical thriller.

    The video transfer is mediocre but watchable. An excellent range of audio options is present on the disc and each is of a high standard. The disc features a good variety of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall