Radio Inside (1994)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	87:20 (Case: 89)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Jeffrey Bell
Studio Distributor	Capitol Films Anchor Bay Entertainment	Starring	William McNamara Dylan Walsh Elisabeth Shue
Case	Brackley-Opaque-Lipped
RPI	?	Music	Gil Goldstein

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Screen, not known whether Pan & Scan or Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
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

    Radio Inside is a rather unusual story. On the surface it appears to be the story of the love triangle formed by the three main characters, but it is really quite atypical. It takes a much deeper look into the lives and feelings of the characters and how events in their lives have brought them to this point.

    The main character is Matthew (William McNamara). He's just finished college and has come to live with his older brother Michael (Dylan Walsh) in Miami Beach, Florida. Mike wants the best for his brother, or, at least, what he believes is best, which is for Matt to get a job which uses his talents. But Matt resists, and takes a job as a lifeguard at the local swimming pool. He tries to placate his brother, who is an advertising executive, by doing some copywriting for him. Matt has issues in his life which he has yet to work through. These are primarily connected with the drowning death of his father. He has a preoccupation with water (remember he's a lifeguard) and also spends a significant amount of time at the local aquarium. The third party in this story is Mike's girlfriend Natalie (Elisabeth Shue) who is a sales assistant in a book store and also tutors disadvantaged children in the evening. As a result of his preoccupation with his job, Michael is not attentive enough to his girlfriend. Matt, on the other hand, has a degree of sensitivity that is obviously attractive to Natalie. As the story unfolds the conflict between Matt and Mike over Natalie affects all their lives.

    If you like action movies then this story will bore you to death. If you like stories that explore characters and relationships then I venture that this is a movie you will enjoy. The soundtrack, which features songs by REM and The Cranberries, is very effectively integrated into the movie and significantly adds to the whole experience.

Video

    This transfer has a few minor problems but is otherwise quite a good effort.

    Information on this title is quite scarce but I suspect that the original aspect ratio for this film is 1.85:1. This ratio has not been preserved on the DVD - it is 1.33:1, and so it is not 16x9 enhanced.

    No low level noise is evident in this transfer. The transfer exhibits very good sharpness with adequate detail always visible. Edge enhancement is present but thankfully it generally does not reach a distracting level. Most of the film is shot under bright lighting. Good shadow detail is exhibited when needed in the darker scenes.

    This film uses a normal colour palette for the present time sequences, and sepia for the flashback sequences. Except for the flashback sequences, colour is accurately rendered and has a natural appearance.

    Film artefacts are very rare in this transfer with only a few small marks appearing. No compression artefacts were noted. Film to video artefacts were limited to some minor instances of aliasing and one significant instance that occurred on the Venetian blinds at 29:02.

    No subtitles are provided in this transfer.

    As this is a single layer disc there is no layer change to disrupt the movie.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    While the audio transfer on this disc is adequate for the purposes of getting the story across it is not without some problems. Most notably there are several instances of loud pops at 14:44, 47:11, 51:26 and 76:31. Occasionally,  if you are listening attentively, you will hear some subtle distortion.

    Only one audio track is provided on this disc: English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded.

    The dialogue was perfectly clear at all times and there didn't appear to be any problems with the audio sync.

    The musical score varies from a quiet little piano, violin and clarinet piece that fits nicely with the mood of the story to a number of well known pop songs including Dreams by The Cranberries,  Everybody Hurts by REM and Radar Love by Golden Earring which are used to underscore some of the key moments in the story.

    The surrounds are only used subtly for ambience and in support of the musical score. Which is basically all you should expect given the nature of the story.

    Even with my amplifier set to redirect bass to the subwoofer, I couldn't detect any contribution of the sub to the sound field from my normal listening position. When all is said and done the story is not one that requires support from the subwoofer so this is not a major drawback.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    This disc contains no extras, not even a menu at start-up. Once the disc is loaded the movie begins immediately after a copyright message. I did find a chapter menu but on my Pioneer player this was accessed by first pressing the Title button immediately followed by pressing the Menu button. Pressing the menu button alone did nothing.

    The local version is an all region disc and it appears to be the same as the R1 in all respects except that the R1 is graced with 1.85:1 16x9 enhanced transfer. On this basis the R1 would have to be the version of choice.

    Radio Inside is an interesting exploration of the relationships that exist between three very different people each of whom, in their own way, is searching for their own path through life.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is adequate.

    The extras seem to have gone missing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall