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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.
The Ladies Man (2000)

The Ladies Man (2000)

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Released 3-Jul-2002

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Theatrical Trailer
Featurette-Cast & Crew Interviews
Rating Rated MA
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 80:49
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding 4 Directed By Reginald Hudlin
Studio
Distributor

Paramount Home Entertainment
Starring Tim Meadows
Karyn Parsons
Billy Dee Williams
Tiffani Thiessen
Lee Evans
Will Ferrell
Case ?
RPI $39.95 Music Marcus Miller


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
Italian
Spanish
Croatian
Greek
Hebrew
Portuguese
Slovenian
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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

Plot Synopsis

   "He's cool, he's clean, he's a love machine . . . The Ladies Man".

    Let me kick off with a quote from my review of Wayne's World: "Over the years, Saturday Night Live (SNL) has  launched a number of spin off movies, such as the forgettable Coneheads and It's Pat:The Movie, and more recently, the sub-par The Ladies Man, A Night at the Roxbury and Superstar: Dare to Dream. The main problem with most of these movies is that a great idea for a short television comedy skit is usually not a great idea for a 90 minute big-screen movie. Wayne's World is the notable exception!"

    The Ladies Man is wonderful television sketch comedy, but as a movie, it is no Wayne's World -- it simply cannot support its own length. The comedy starts to wear thin and it becomes repetitive and very predictable. While some of the jokes hit their mark, many fall flat.

    The Ladies Man is Leon Phelps (Tim Meadows), a sweet and earnest man, who makes very direct and often totally outrageous comments relating to sex. Phelps has a late-night radio talk show in which he genuinely tries to help people by giving them advice about their love and sex lives. Most of his advice is well-intentioned, but completely off-the-wall. After being kicked off the air, Phelps embarks on a search to find a rich 'Sweet Thing' that can financially support him. Meanwhile, a vigilante group of angry husbands are trying to track down The Ladies Man, as their wives have all enjoyed Phelps' 'company' recently.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    This transfer is good overall. I should mention that the image does appear grainy throughout, but this is due to the source material. As with Wayne's World, I assume that a higher-grain film was used, due to the film's relatively low budget, rather than for any artistic reasons.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ration of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    Generally the image is reasonably sharp, but the shadow detail is is not great.

    The colour appears to be quite good throughout, but at times it seems a tad under-saturated.

    There are no MPEG artefacts to complain of. While film-to-video artefacts are never a great problem, there was slight telecine wobble on occasion, most notably at 3:11. There are relatively few film artefacts throughout the movie. One larger example can be seen at 24:49.

    There are nine sets of subtitles present, and the English subtitles are accurate.

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

Audio

    Apart from the English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, there are also French, Italian, and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks.

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are generally fine on the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.

    The original music is credited to George Clinton and Marcus Miller, but there are also a lot of 70s flavoured smooth R&B tracks which serve the movie well.

    The surround sound mix is extremely front-heavy, but considering that this is a dialogue-based comedy, that is acceptable. The rear speakers are used occasionally, and very subtly, to help carry the score and provide some ambience.

    This is not the sort of movie to exploit the use of your subwoofer, but the subwoofer does get utilised with some of the deep bass from the music.

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

Extras

    The extras are slim.

Menu

    The menu is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. It is static and silent.

Theatrical Trailer (2:02)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby 2.0 audio.

Interviews with Cast and Crew (11:09)

    Sadly this is the usual self-congratulatory made-for-television marketing drivel, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby 2.0 audio.

R4 vs R1

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

    This title was released on DVD in Region 1 back in April 2001.

    The Region 4 DVD misses out on:

    The Region 1 DVD misses out on:

    As the two versions are basically even, I favour the local release for its affordability, and superior PAL image.

Summary

    If you're a Foxtel subscriber, and already a fan of SNL and The Ladies Man, then this movie is worth checking out as a rental. If you're not already a fan, then it probably won't make much sense, and you might find it quite laboured and dull.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good, although extremely front-heavy.

    The extras are slim.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Brandon Robert Vogt (warning: bio hazard)
Sunday, July 14, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-535, using S-Video output
DisplayGrundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationSony STR DE-545
SpeakersSony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer

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