Bon Jovi-The Crush Tour (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Music Video-It's My Life Music Video-Say It Isn't So Featurette-On Tour With Bon Jovi Featurette-Photo Gallery Discography Web Links Booklet
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	122:19 (Case: 124)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (73:43)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Rudi Dolezal Hannes Rossacher
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	John Bon Jovi Richie Sambora David Bryan Tico Torres Hugh McDonald
Case	Flexbox
RPI	$36.95	Music	Bon Jovi

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, fireworks, backstage footage and background music

    Bon Jovi: The Crush Tour is a recording of a concert held in the Letzigrund Stadium, Zurich, Switzerland on the night of 30 August 2000. I didn't realise this until probably about half an hour into the concert when it suddenly dawned on me: the audience looks way too homogeneous, clean cut, "pretty", and blonde to be a North American audience. Plus of course Jon actually mentioning the word "Zurich" kind of gives it away :-)

    Fans of Bon Jovi need no introduction and can probably skip to the next paragraph. For the rest of us, Bon Jovi is a "hard rock" band with heavy metal influences that surprisingly has attracted a fairly large set of female fans (at least judging by the audience at this concert). No doubt some of them are attracted to the good looks of the charismatic lead singer and guitarist Jon Bon Jovi, whose full name is actually John Francis Bongiovi Jr. The band's line-up has remained fairly constant over the period of 20 years: Richie Sambora on lead guitar, David Bryan on keyboards, Tico Torres on drums and Hugh McDonald on bass (who replaced Alec Such). Most of the band members (with the notable exception of Tico) were born in and still live in New Jersey, and the band is proud of their suburban roots. Jon has acted in a few movies, including U-571 and Pay It Forward.

    Overall, if you are a fan of Bon Jovi, and especially if you like your music loud, your singers flamboyant, and enjoy open air stadium concerts, you will love this one. Bon Jovi performs a selection of old and new favourites. I particularly liked the ballad Livin' On A Prayer, Bed of Roses, Just Older, and Lay Your Hands On Me. It have been been raining pretty hard during the concert, as I can notice it in a few of the camera shots (even though there has been some attempt via digital editing to "remove" the rain), so I really pity the people in the audience.

Video

    I suspect that this concert has been recorded in widescreen video for broadcast on European Digital TV, as the transfer is presented in 1.78:1 with 16x9 enhancement. Every now and then, the screen is split into two smaller 1.78:1 images put side-by-side, again confirming the native aspect ratio.

    As it was raining during the concert, I suspect the video has been digitally enhanced to increase colour saturation and sharpness. The transfer seems to feature really bright and at times over-saturated colours, and variable levels of detail, ranging from acceptable to slightly soft. I suspect the softness may be caused by excessive use of zooming for some of the close-ups.

    Black levels are not that great, and there is low level video noise present throughout the transfer, in some cases looking remarkably similar to film grain.

    Surprisingly, the transfer is relatively clean from edge enhancement artefacts, although there are minor instances of posterization, macro blocking and occasionally significant instances of Gibb's effect ringing.

    Unfortunately, the video stream has been encoded without elapsed time codes, so on my DVD player I was unable to get any running time or even chapter information.

    This is a single sided dual layered disc (RSDL) and the layer change occurs in Chapter 15 (Bad Medicine) right after Jon shouts "Is There A Doctor In The House?" around 73:43. Although the layer change does disrupt the feature, I can't think of a better place to insert the layer transition.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    This main feature has two audio tracks (both in English): Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kb/s), and Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kb/s). I listened mainly to the 5.1 track, but switched to the 2.0 track on occasions.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 track has a "native" 5.1 mix, as the rear surround channels feature split surround effects (mainly audience conversation and clapping). The rear channels are also used for ambience, and I get a nice enveloping effect listening to the audio track as if I was at the centre of the stadium. The subwoofer is mainly utilised to enhance the low frequency content of the music, though it is also called upon to reproduce the low end of the fireworks exploding at the end of the concert. I found the track pleasing to listen to, although the high frequencies do sound slightly unnatural and "phasy."

    In comparison, the Dolby Digital 2.0 track is mastered at a much lower volume level and features a two dimensional collapsed soundstage.

    I did not detect any audio synchronisation issues, though it is sometimes hard to figure exactly what Jon Bon Jovi was shouting about in between songs.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    We do get a reasonable collection of extras on this DVD, including two music videos, a 30-minute documentary made in conjunction with the concert, photo gallery, discography, and booklet. Surprisingly, the video transfer quality of the extras is quite good, in some cases (particularly the music videos) surpassing that of the main feature itself.

Menu

    The menu features extensive animation and background audio, but unfortunately is not 16x9 enhanced.

Music Video-It's My Life (4:29)

    Interestingly, this music video is presented (for the most part) in an extremely wide aspect ratio of around 2.5:1 (letterboxed). But, in a few brief instances, the first of which is around 1:53, the aspect ratio stretches vertically to full frame. I'm not sure why, but I think it's for artistic reasons. The audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Music Video-Say It Isn't So (3:55)

    This is presented in full frame and Dolby Digital 2.0, and is quite fun to watch, as it features references to various films (the ending of Blazing Saddles, Gladiator, Terminator 2, Young Guns) and cameo performances by quite a few actors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilio Estevez, Matt LeBlanc, and Claudia Schiffer.

Featurette-On Tour With Bon Jovi (27:00)

    This is a fairly length documentary of the band featuring back stage scenes, excepts from the concert, interviews with the band members, and even "making of" interviews and shots of the music videos It's My Life and Say It Isn't So, not to mention excerpts from the shooting of U-571. Towards the end, we get to see the band visiting the sights of Rome (including the band members engaging with some horseplay with "gladiators" outside the Coliseum) and even doing a bit of a webcast from their home studio in New Jersey. The documentary ends with time lapse photography of the set being dismantled after the concert. The documentary is presented in full frame, although excerpts from the concert and U-571 are presented in letterbox. The audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0.

Featurette-Photo Gallery (2:26)

    Interestingly, this photo gallery is presented as a video stream (full frame) showing 14 photos in sequence, accompanied by music (Dolby Digital 2.0).

Discography

    This is a set of menus providing the album cover and track listing of 12 Bon Jovi albums, including solo releases by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora.

Web Links

    Upon insertion into a PC equipped with a DVD-ROM player, this disc will auto start a browser pointing to the Bon Jovi web page.

Booklet

    This is an eight page colour booklet containing colour photos, plus production information.

    I suspect, but am not able to verify, that the Region 1 and 4 versions of this disc have identical content and features (apart from PAL vs NTSC formatting). Amazon seems to think that it has a "full frame" video transfer, and DVD File thinks it's only got a Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track, but I think they are both wrong.

    Bon Jovi - The Crush Tour is a good DVD to own or rent if you are a fan of the band. It is presented on a DVD with acceptable video and audio transfers, and with a generous collection of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall