The Avengers (1998) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Action | None | |
Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1998 | ||
Running Time | 85:44 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Programme | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Jeremiah Chechik |
Studio
Distributor |
Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Ralph Fiennes Uma Thurman Sean Connery Jim Broadbent |
Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
RPI | $24.95 | Music | Joel McNeely |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) |
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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 |
English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
The critics were right. This is a really bad movie. All style and no substance at all. It looks and sounds great, but there is no real story here, at least no clear one that I could readily discern - it's all one big mish-mash. And what's with the teddy bear suits?
Ralph Fiennes (John Steed) is a British Secret Agent for The Ministry. Apparently there's been some sort of problem with the weather, so he picks up Dr Emma Peel (Uma Thurman) and they go about pursuing their quarry, Sir August De Wynter (Sean Connery), a megalomaniac intent on controlling the world's weather. But first, they must speak with uppity English accents and drink lots of cups of tea.
I reckon this script would have looked good on paper. The problem is that it doesn't translate well onto the big screen at all. Special effects are thrown in for no good reason at all, characters do inexplicable things, and some of the dialogue is just plain silly.
You have been warned. And don't let the excellent opening credits fool you - they're the best part of the movie. It's all downhill after this. Except perhaps for the mechanical insects which even though they are completely senseless in terms of plot development are a great audio-visual treat. It's almost a shame that the transfer quality is so good.
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer was extremely sharp and very clear at all times. Shadow detail was excellent, and there was no low level noise.
The colour was well saturated throughout.
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some minor aliasing in some views of some of the cars, but nothing excessive. Film artefacts occasionally intruded, but were not too bad.
Dialogue was always clear and audible.
There were no audio sync problems with this disc.
The musical score was by Joel McNeely. It was nicely suited to the movie.
The surround channels were very aggressively used by the soundtrack for special effects, music and for ambience. This is a superbly executed soundtrack, with very well defined sound placement and it was extremely enveloping.
The .1 channel was heavily used supporting the soundtrack and was very well integrated into the overall mix.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;
Full Frame version of the movie
Theatrical Trailer
Production Notes
Cast & Crew Biographies
The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;
Nothing
There is nothing compelling about either version to prefer one over the other.
The video quality is superb, and is almost of reference quality.
The audio quality is superb, and is of reference quality.
The extras are non-existent.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output |
Display | Loewe Art-95 (95cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL). |
Audio Decoder | Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital decoder. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
Amplification | 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer |
Speakers | Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer |