Barenaked Ladies-Barenaked in America (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-The Stunt Tour
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	138:16
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Jason Priestly
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Steven Page Ed Robertson Tyler Stewart Jim Creeggan Kevin Hearn
Case	Click
RPI	$39.95	Music	Barenaked Ladies

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    One American that had noticed the Barenaked Ladies prior to their Stunt album was Jason Priestly (yes...he of Beverly Hills 90210 fame), and following their breakthrough success he and the band decided to make a road movie rockumentary. This genre has had limited success in the past, with what is probably its most famous entry being the spoof This Is Spinal Tap - and again here we have the very reasons why. While the information divulged within this documentary is going to be at least mildly interesting to fans of the band, those that are not fans will not find it all that interesting. Even for fans, the billing on this disc is likely to be the reverse to the official listing, as the concert extra that presents 10 songs from the Boston leg of the Stunt tour will certainly see more repeat viewings than the documentary.

    So who is really the target audience of this disc? Only die-hard fans are likely to watch the documentary more than once, so those with only a mild interest in the band would be well advised to rent it first, as the concert footage only runs for three quarters of an hour. Those looking for a good introduction to the Barenaked Ladies should try some of their CDs first.

Video

    Presented at 1.85:1, this transfer is not 16x9 enhanced.

    As is the case with many band road movies, the quality of the transfer is extremely variable. At times it can be quite sharp, while at others - particularly during the concert footage - it is not particularly sharp at all. The sharpness levels are certainly not helped by a fairly high level of background grain, that while mostly kept under control, still breaks out wholesale from time to time. The worst examples are the video sourced recording of Be My Yoko Ono from 12:08 to 12:19 and pretty much the entirety of Chapter 6 (Backstage). Shadow detail is passable, although it certainly is not spectacular, although given that the concert footage is the only part of the documentary that is not well lit, this does not have any real effect either way.

    Colours have a slightly unnatural look to them, having a somewhat bleached look throughout the transfer giving the band members a slightly pallid appearance (then again, being rockers they probably see little of the sun). Overall, the effect is not too pronounced, but it is slightly annoying.

    The only compression artefacts present are small amounts of pixelization when the grain levels rise high. There are only a very few instances of aliasing, and all are minor - most likely due to the less-than-sharp nature of the transfer. Film artefacts are unfortunately both common, and quite noticeable. The most obvious are what appear to be reel change markings (although they do not take the common form). One such occurrence of these is at 53:10 and 53:17 and they are both extremely obvious as the large black marks occur on a white backdrop both times. Other big black marks are not uncommon, such as at 34:46, and there are many smaller marks. All up, they do become quite distracting.

    There are no subtitles at all on this disc.

    This is a dual layered disc, however it appears to be authored with the documentary on one layer, and the concert extra on the other, as there are no detectable layer changes in either feature.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only one audio track present, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track (at 224 Kbps).

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times. The range of people interviewed and situations in which those interviews occur makes this a relatively impressive effort.

    Audio sync is generally fine, apart from the last half of Call and Answer from 81:00 to 82:24 where it goes out to such an extent that it becomes extremely obvious. Interestingly enough, during Call and Answer in the concert extra - from which this footage was taken - the audio sync is spot on.

    The music is provided by the Barenaked Ladies (duh!), and is generally worked quite well into proceedings. The concert footage is generally quite short, and there is not a full performance of a song during the main feature.

    Being a stereo track, the surround channels were not used at all during this feature. Being a interview-based documentary, the stereo track mostly sounds like 2 channel mono. The concert footage provided the only instances of stereo mixing during the feature, and it is actually quite good, giving a decent separation of instruments across the soundstage.

    Again, being a stereo-only track, there was no subwoofer-specific information, however it did receive a good amount of re-directed bass during the concert footage. While it certainly will not blow your socks off, it gives an added punch to the performances.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

The Stunt Tour (46:14)

• Nothing

• Everything

    The video quality is simply all right. While it gets the job done, it really cannot be described as good.

    The audio quality is listenable, but like the video quality, it will not be winning any awards.

    The single extra present on this disc is worth more than the main feature itself, and will most likely get many more repeat viewings than the main feature.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall