Route 666 (2001) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Horror |
Menu Animation & Audio Theatrical Trailer |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2001 | ||
Running Time | 86:31 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | William Wesley |
Studio
Distributor |
Universal Pictures Home Video |
Starring |
Lou Diamond Phillips Lori Petty Steven Williams Dale Midkiff Alex McArthur Mercedes Colon L.Q. Jones |
Case | ? | ||
RPI | $36.95 | Music | Terry Plumeri |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles | None | Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
Route 666 is a B-Grade schlock horror movie, made with an A-Grade budget.
Jack La Roca (Lou Diamond Phillips) leads a group of US Marshals transporting a protected witness from the Arizona desert to Los Angeles. In order to save time, the group turns on to an abandoned highway, Route 666, which runs through the desert.
Throw in a few rogue cops, mafia hit-men, a chain gang of un-dead zombies, plot holes that you could drive a truck through, and some obvious continuity and production errors (such as the crew being perfectly reflected during a close-up of one of the main character's sunglasses), and there are all the ingredients for a 'so bad it's good' movie.
The quality of the transfer is good, and is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The sharpness, black level, and shadow detail are all good.
The colour is great, and is used effectively, with the bright red convertible contrasted against the blue desert sky and burnt desert landscape.
There are no MPEG artefacts to complain of. If one wanted to be really, really picky, then one might spot some extremely mild (and rare) pixelization and posterization. But if I had a hat, I would take it off to the talented people who compressed this 16x9 enhanced widescreen movie with two audio tracks on to a single layer disc. However, there was mild aliasing throughout the movie, such as aslight shimmer on the car's grille at 7:11.
Small film artefacts also appear throughout the movie, such as at 5:46, 10:57 and 34:53.
There are no subtitles.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
Apart from the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, there is also a Dolby Stereo-Surround track.
I listened to both, and the dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent.
The musical score is credited to Terry Plumeri and is mainly comprised of South-Western blues guitar-based music, which suits the movie very well.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound mix is quite good, and the rear speakers are used to help carry the score, for example at 1:03 and 11:53, and provide ambience, such as at 43:59.
The subwoofer is also called upon to support the score, for example at 14:54, and the sound effects, such as the gun fight at 8:04.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
The extras are slim.
A very simple menu, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
Theatrical Trailer
This one minute and thirty two second trailer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital stereo surround-encoded audio.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
Route 666 was released on DVD in Region 1 in October, 2001. As far as I can gather, there is no real difference between versions. Thus, I would favour the local release for its affordability, and its superior PAL image.
As a movie, Route 666 is so bad that it's good. I imagine that was the filmmakers' intention, for the movie does not ever attempt to aspire to anything other than what it is. A must-see for schlock horror fans, but a movie for schlock horror fans ONLY!
The video quality is good.
The audio quality is good.
The extras are slim.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
Display | Grundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Sony STR DE-545 |
Speakers | Sony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer |