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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
OSS 117: Lost in Rio (OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus) (2009)

OSS 117: Lost in Rio (OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus) (2009)

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Released 13-Sep-2010

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Comedy Main Menu Audio & Animation
Featurette-Making Of
Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
Teaser Trailer
Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2009
Running Time 96:14 (Case: 101)
RSDL / Flipper RSDL (80:44) Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Michel Hazanavicius
Studio
Distributor
Mandarin Films
Madman Entertainment
Starring Jean Dujardin
Louise Monot
Rüdiger Vogler
Alex Lutz
Reem Kherici
Pierre Bellemare
Ken Samuels
Serge Hazanavicius
Laurent Capelluto
Cirillo Luna
Moon Dailly
Walter Shnorkell
Case Amaray-Transparent
RPI $29.95 Music Ludovic Bource


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

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     Back in 2007, I reviewed a very funny French film, called OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies which was a spoof of an older set of serious French spy films and early James Bond. That film was set in 1955 and is now being followed by a sequel OSS 177: Lost in Rio which is set in 1967.

     The lead character here is Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (Jean Dujardin) also known as OSS 117 (a French equivalent to the 00 numbering used in the Bond films). OSS, by the way, stands for the Office of Strategic Services. He is a wonderful mixture of intelligence, stupidity, cultural insensitivity, sexuality and bravery. Despite the changing times our hero has really not changed maintaining his sexist and racist views. This time Hubert is sent by his bosses to Rio to pay off an ex-Nazi in order to recover a list of French Nazi collaborators (which his boss is probably on). He ends up getting rescued from a sticky situation by the Mossad who want him to help them catch the Nazi rather than pay him off. He teams up with a Mossad agent who is an attractive but very emancipated woman. Of course, initially, Hubert thinks she is a secretary.

     This is a funny film but not as good as the first one, which was my favourite comedy of the last couple of years. An American film would not be able to handle these topics with such humour and neither would they probably be allowed to attempt it. There are quite a few laughs to be had here but also some passages which are less amusing. To my mind the music was not quite as well done in this second film and the story not quite as interesting. Regardless, fans of the first film will certainly enjoy this one. An added bonus in this film is references to a variety of classic Hitchcock films, including Vertigo and North by Northwest. The sets and costumes are excellent once again and there is a running joke on the use of split screen techniques in films of the era.

     So, a worthy sequel but not quite as good as the first in the series. I believe a third is on the way!

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Transfer Quality

Video

     The video quality is very good.

     The feature is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced widescreen. The picture was quite clear and sharp throughout. Shadow detail is very good. There are some minor MPEG artefacts especially during fast motion. The colour was very good with no colour artefacts. The colour palette of the film was obviously a tribute to films made in the era this film is set. There were no other noticeable artefacts.

     There are subtitles in English which were clear and easy to read (in yellow). Unfortunately there were also some burnt in French subtitles for other languages.

     There is a layer change at 80:44 which was quite noticeable during playback.

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

Audio

     The audio quality is good but will hardly stretch your home theatre. This DVD contains two audio options, a French Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and also a French Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s. Most sound comes from the front three speakers regardless of the encoding. Dialogue seemed clear and easy to understand however my French is pretty average.

     The surround speakers were only used for some mild atmospherics, mostly involving music and an occasional explosion. The subwoofer was used occasionally for music support and explosions.

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

Extras

     The extras are in French with English subtitles.

Menu

     The menu was nicely designed including music and scenes from the film.

The Making of (24:22)

     A decent making of featuring interviews with the cast and crew, behind the scenes footage and some on-set messing around. Worth a look.

Deleted Scenes

     There are a few deleted scenes here with a number of cut jokes but mostly they were cut for good reason. Still worth a look though. Not 16x9 enhanced. Introduced by the director and actor.

Outtakes (11:08)

     Lots of onset silliness and giggling but nothing really funny.

Teasers (1:02 & 1:01)

     Two silly teaser trailers.

Theatrical Trailer (2:12)

Other Madmen Trailers

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 version of this film includes only the 2.0 soundtrack and the making of plus one trailer. The other extras and the 5.1 are missing. There is a Region 2 version, however I have been unable to confirm its exact contents. Region 4 seems to be the best English speaking territory version.

Summary

     A slightly lower quality follow up to the original, hilarious OSS117 comedy from 2006. The video quality is very good. The audio quality is good. The set has a decent collection of extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Review Equipment
DVDSONY BDP-S760 Blu-ray, using HDMI output
DisplayLG Scarlet 42LG61YD 106cm Full HD LCD. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderBuilt into BD player. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-511
SpeakersMonitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Sony SAW2500M Subwoofer

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