10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	93:32
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (54:14)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Gil Junger
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Julia Stiles Heath Ledger Joseph Gordon-Levitt Larisa Oleynik Larry Miller Andrew Keegan David Krumholtz Susan May Pratt
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	Richard Kendall Gibbs

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) Czech Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Italian French Hungarian Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, during credits

    This is the story of the Stratford sisters (nice in-joke that one), Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) and Katerina (Julia Stiles). Bianca is the babe of Padua High, the heart's desire of all hormonally-charged young guys there. Elder sister Kat, is not. Now it just so happens that the rules of the Stratford household are that Bianca can get to date when Kat goes on a date. Since Kat is, by choice, date-challenged, Bianca is frustrated, as are her new French tutor Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and model/hunk Joey Donner (Andrew Keegan), both desirous of the attentions of Bianca. So Cameron and new Padua High nerdy mate Michael Eckman (David Krumholtz) hatch a little plan to get Kat a date with anyone and score a date with Bianca for Cameron. The plan involves the money-enhanced Joey Donner (who naturally thinks he is to be the recipient of the date with Bianca) paying one Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to date Kat. As you can imagine, a tangled web is created, especially when Patrick actually falls for Kat, Cameron realizes that Bianca wants Joey, and Bianca realizes that she cannot stand Joey and wants Cameron.

    This is the sort of tangled web of a story that only a hack like Shakespeare can actually carry off with ease, and this version of the tale has certainly been updated well. The story has been well brought to life by a cast of essentially up-and-comers, with some nice enough performances on offer. I would like to say that Australia's Heath Ledger was one of the notable performances, but here he is somewhat overshadowed by Julia Stiles in my view. In general, the consistency of the cast is the main asset here rather than any being especially stellar. The direction is not much more than a typical by-the-numbers effort by a rent-a-director type that seems to be the norm for the Disney conglomerate.

    10 Things I Hate About You is a better-than-expected film that I actually quite enjoy. It demonstrates the continued relevance of William Shakespeare in modern day life, and is a most worthwhile effort.

Video

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

    Whilst this is better than most Buena Vista transfers I have seen lately, as I suggested I have some qualms about the visuality of the transfer. I find the transfer a little less sharp than perhaps I was expecting for a recent film, and this is one area where I felt the transfer lets itself down just a little. Detail is good if not especially spectacular, and this is another area where I feel the transfer could have been a little better. Certainly the film gives plenty of opportunity for a shining transfer and we simply do not get it. Shadow detail is also good without being spectacular. Clarity is good. There did not seem to be any low level noise problems with the transfer.

    The slightly disappointing image is perhaps best demonstrated by the colours, which whilst good, simply do no approach the vibrancy that they should. That is not to suggest that this is a flat palette of colours, but simply not as vibrant as I feel it should have been. The palette is nicely handled though, very nicely consistent and demonstrating a nice naturalness. Saturation is pretty much spot on and there is no hint of oversaturation here. There are no colour bleed problems here. The opening credits could perhaps have been better handled to make them a bit more legible.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There was something of a consistent, although relatively minor, aliasing problem in the transfer. There did not seem to be any real problems with film artefacts.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD with the layer change coming at 54:14. This is a relatively poorly handled change that is far too noticeable and mildly disruptive to the flow of the film. The change could have been placed a little better just a few seconds later, and been significantly less disruptive.

    The packaging omits to mention the Hungarian subtitle option.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand throughout.

    There did not appear to be any hint at all of audio sync problems with the transfer.

    The musical score comes from Richard Gibbs, but this is subservient to a collection of popular music tunes that really sets a nice mood to the film.

    At its very core, this is a thoroughly serviceable soundtrack that has not an awful lot wrong with it. Whilst I would certainly suggest that rear channel ambience could have been better, and that front surround channel use was perhaps a little restrained at times, to really suggest that this is a faulted soundtrack is to be seriously wrong. It is simply a question that the standards of sound are always being lifted on DVD and this is simply not as spectacular as perhaps it could have been. Bass channel use was thankfully a little restrained, which gave a nice balance to the overall soundscape.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

• Theatrical trailer

• 16x9 enhancement

    A good video transfer.

    A good audio transfer.

    No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall