Postcards from the Edge (1990) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Drama |
Audio Commentary-Carrie Fisher (Screenwriter) Trailer-As Good As It Gets; Jerry Maguire Trailer-My Best Friend's Wedding; Kramer vs. Kramer Filmographies-Cast & Crew |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 1990 | ||
Running Time | 97:27 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (57:08) | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Mike Nichols |
Studio
Distributor |
Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Meryl Streep Shirley MacLaine Dennis Quaid Gene Hackman |
Case | Soft Brackley-Transp | ||
RPI | $24.95 | Music | Carly Simon |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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 German Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish French Audio Commentary German Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | Yes, singing and dancing during credits |
Suzanne Vale (Meryl Streep) is an actor with a drug problem. She is not making any friends in the film industry because of her addiction and soon winds up in an emergency ward with a plastic tube down her throat. From here, rehab is the only option. We then follow Suzanne's roller-coaster recovery through family turmoil, heartbreak, and career quirks. Shirley MacLaine is Suzanne's ageing mother, wonderfully cast in the role of a glamorous movie (and musical) queen. Dennis Quaid, Richard Dreyfuss, and Gene Hackman all make appearances to round out an all-star cast.
Postcards From the Edge is an interesting movie that is quite enjoyable. It shows how someone can put their life back together, even despite drug abuse and a dysfunctional family.
This transfer is presented in the 16x9 enhanced aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
Sharpness is quite good throughout with only a few scenes being softened by grain. Very light grain is present throughout the movie. Unfortunately, a few scenes deteriorate further causing notable loss of detail (12:38). Shadow detail is never very good but remains serviceable for the majority of the transfer. A few notable examples of poor shadow detail can be found at 37:45 - 38:10 and 57:08.
This transfer does not have any exceptional colour use. Colours remain relatively drab with nothing noteworthy. I am not sure whether this was an artistic choice or a fault of the transfer/source material. Colour levels remains consistent and skin tones are faithfully rendered. There are no instances of colour bleed.
There are no notable MPEG artefacts in this transfer and aliasing is never present. There is a light spattering of film artefacts that are not distracting.
I sampled the English subtitles and found them to be quite accurate. I cannot account for the other 25 subtitle streams.
This disc is RSDL formatted with the layer change occurring at 57:08. It is well-placed at a scene change and is not disruptive. In fact, I missed it the first time around.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
There are six audio tracks on this disc. All are presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded at 192kbps. Even the audio commentary track is surround-encoded
Dialogue quality is fine throughout the feature with no discernible audio sync problems. This is a good thing as the movie is entirely reliant on the dialogue. I did not have any problems understanding what was being said.
The musical score is well-suited to the movie. There are numerous musical performances by both Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine that are also suited to the movie and the characters.
Surround presence was very close to non-existent and the subwoofer rarely received any redirected bass.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The video quality is acceptable but could have been better.
The audio quality is acceptable and all that the movie needed.
The extras are reasonable.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
Display | RCA 80cm. 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) |