An American Werewolf in Paris (1997) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Horror |
Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer-2 Interviews-Cast & Crew |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1997 | ||
Running Time | 98:30 (Case: 102) | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Anthony Waller |
Studio
Distributor |
Magna Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Tom Everett Scott Julie Delpy Vince Vieluf Phil Buckman |
Case | Click | ||
RPI | $34.95 | Music | Wilbert Hirsch |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Auto Pan & Scan Encoded | English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) | |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles | None | Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
The fact of the matter is that this story is completely removed from An American Werewolf In London, even in the small detail that the first movie dealt with only a single werewolf - it was not really about the attacks of werewolves, but more the effect becoming a werewolf would have on a person - while this movie deals with a wolf pack. The story follows Andy McDermott (Tom Everett Scott) who is travelling through Europe on a daredevil tour with two friends, each performing stunts in the cities they travel to, trying to top the others. When they arrive in Paris, Andy has come up with a stunt to beat all stunts - to bungee jump from the Eiffel Tower. Just as Andy is preparing to jump off, a pretty young woman chooses that moment to attempt suicide by throwing herself off the tower. Andy saves her life by jumping after and catching her (well almost...). After finding her suicide note (ahh...why would a woman who lives alone without a family write a suicide note?), they manage to track her down, and Andy talks her - Serafine (Julie Delpy) - into a date. After things go awry on the date, Andy and friends return to Serafine's house only to meet Claude (Pierre Cosso) who invites them to a party at the Club de la Lune. It is there that the fun really begins.
My personal opinion is that this movie is a good entry into the "it's so bad it's good" category of schlock horror films. It is quite a ride to be enjoyed, and has all the elements needed for a bad horror movie - stupid decisions by the characters, unintentionally funny moments, gratuitous nudity, really bad special effects, and some decent one-liners. The werewolf effects deserve a special mention - they are mostly digital shots this time around (London created some of the most ground-breaking make up effects), and they are, to put it nicely, utterly pathetic. They have the look and feel of the CGI effects used in episodes of Hercules or Xena, and are really only good for a laugh.
Those looking for anything like An American Werewolf In London, or anyone looking for a "serious" horror film, should stay away - but as schlock horror goes, this is not too bad.
Presented in the slightly cropped aspect ratio of 1.78:1 (the theatrical ratio was 1.85:1), this transfer is 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer is quite soft, and this is not helped by the abundance of grain. Most scenes contain at least moderate amounts of grain, and many fall in to the severe category. There are a few scenes, such as in the hospital from 13:41 to 15:13, where the screen fairly crawls with grain, all but blurring the actors' faces. The result of this problem is that what sharpness there could have been in the transfer is totally destroyed. For the brief times when the grain subsides, the sharpness is all right, without being anything spectacular. The shadow detail is, surprisingly, quite good, and the night-time scenes (of which there are quite a few, this being a werewolf movie and all) look much better than the day-time scenes as the grain becomes less obvious. In fact, the cleanest sequence of the movie is the during the opening credits, as the camera pans down over some gothic architecture at night in the pouring rain. There may well be some low-level noise present, or there may not - the grain levels make it impossible to tell.
Colours are passable, although a number of the brighter sequences appear to be somewhat washed out. The darker scenes, especially those involving the catacombs, look quite good, but in general it appears as if the brightness was raised overall for the movie - causing the aforementioned problems with the brighter scenes.
There are a few compression artefacts during the transfer, mostly associated with the high grain levels. The combination of high grain, and rapid strobe lighting causes some rather obvious macro-blocking at 31:54 and again at 34:37. The overall softness of the image, and the high grain levels keep aliasing to a minimum, although despite that there are still a few obvious instances, such as at 37:25-27 on the shelf of the 'fridge, and on the gun at 53:46. Film artefacts are a constant affliction. While there a none that could be considered large, the ones that do occur are certainly not tiny - being quite easily visible at normal running pace - and appear frequently enough to be somewhat annoying.
There are no subtitles present on this disc.
This is a single layer disc, and as such is not affected by a layer change.
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There is only a single audio track present on this disc, being the original English dialogue presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo.
The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times. The mixing of score, effects, and dialogue was never a problem and all were in good proportion to each other. This is an especially good effort as there is no dedicated centre channel to anchor the dialogue.
The score is attributed to Wilbert Hersch, and is a gothic-themed effort that really beats you over the head with its "you're watching a horror movie"-style dark chanting and heavy orchestral nature. It is not at all subtle and is quite obvious, doing a rather poor job. There are also a number of contemporary songs used in the production, and these work a lot better than the score, which is always a worry.
The stereo separation is very good, giving a good sense of depth from only two channels. There have been a number of 5.1 tracks that were less dynamic and engaging that this stereo effort. While surround use would have added to the atmosphere, the expansiveness of this stereo track is sufficient to almost make up for it.
The subwoofer received a small amount of redirected bass. Certainly it is not enough to blow you out of your chair, but what is there provides a nice backbone to the audio.
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Overall |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The video quality is very poor. It suffers from extremely high levels of grain, and contains numerous film artefacts.
The audio quality is actually very good for a straight stereo track, and delivers a good aural experience.
The extras are quite limited, consisting of two trailers and a number of interviews, where the interviewees all seem to think they have been involved in the making of a modern masterpiece. Most amusing are the interviews with the visual effects house, who seem keen to build their company based around the effects in this film - pity they are some of the most laughably bad CG effects to ever grace the screen.
Video | |
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Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using Component output |
Display | Loewe Xelos 5381ZW. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Onkyo TX-DS787, THX Select |
Speakers | All matching Vifa Drivers: centre 2x6.5" + 1" tweeter (d'appolito); fronts and rears 6.5" + 1" tweeter; centre rear 5" + 1" tweeter; sub 10" (150WRMS) |