The Big Hit (1998) |
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The Big Hit (1998) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Action |
Deleted Scenes-3 Audio Commentary-Che-Kirk Wong (Director) & Terence Chang (Exec Prod) Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer Filmographies-Cast Scene Selection Anim & Audio Dolby Digital Trailer-City DVD Teaser Trailer-#2 Scene Selection Anim & Audio |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 1998 | ||
| Running Time | ? | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Che-Kirk Wong |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Mark Wahlberg Lou Diamond Phillips Christina Applegate Avery Brooks Bokeem Woodbine Antonio Sabato, Jr. Lainie Kazan Elliott Gould Sab Shimono |
| Case | Brackley-Trans-No Lip | ||
| RPI | $36.95 | Music | Graeme Revell |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 2.0  (192Kb/s)English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/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 Arabic English Audio Commentary French Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Melvin Smiley (Mark Wahlberg) is a contract killer who is good at his job. Unfortunately, that's about all he is good at - he wants everyone to like him, so he continually gets used and abused, especially by the rest of his team including Cisco (Lou Diamond Phillips).
Cisco comes up with a plan to make some money on the side, and Melvin reluctantly agrees to go along with it because he needs the money. The plan is to kidnap Keiko Nishi (China Chow) and hold her for ransom. Two problems; her father has just become bankrupt, and she is the goddaughter of the killers' boss (Avery Brooks).
Once Cisco realizes the mistake he has made, he tries to pin it all on Melvin, putting Melvin in a, shall we say, very precarious position.
This movie is very much an ensemble piece, with all of the actors contributing nicely to it. There are a number of genuinely funny comedic sequences and running gags all of the way through the movie, the acting is great, the story is very clever, and the stunts are spectacular. A great 90 minutes or so of entertainment!
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer was razor sharp and crystal clear throughout. Shadow detail was excellent, and no low level noise was apparent.
The colours were well rendered at all times with lots of pastel shades and vibrant colours at times, all presented immaculately with no trace of colour bleeding.
There were one or two scene changes where the slightest hint of MPEG artefacts were seen. These consisted of a tiny loss of resolution of the preceding scene before the new scene established itself. These artefacts were trivial in nature, and just barely noticeable. Film-to-video artefacts were essentially non-existent with only some trivial aliasing present in some long shots of skyscrapers. Film artefacts were extremely rare.
The overall level of this soundtrack was a little low. After a short time, I raised the level 5dB and was much happier with the overall sound.
Dialogue was pretty much always spot on and easy to understand except for the odd word here and there. This is despite there often being a lot of ambient noise in the background.
There were no audio sync problems.
The score by Graeme Revell was suitably stylish and aggressive and provided an excellent backdrop to the unfolding action on-screen.
The surround channels were extremely aggressively utilized for music, special effects and ambience. This is a superbly enveloping soundtrack with aggressive sound cues coming from the entire soundfield.
The .1 channel received a huge amount of signal, adding immensely to the enjoyment of this movie.
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;
Additional Pan & Scan version of the movie
Second Audio Commentary Track from the writer, Ben Ramsey.
This would tip the scales in favour of the R1 version.
The video quality is almost perfect.
The audio quality is a great, aggressively immersive mix.
The extras are excellent in quality. It's a shame we missed out on the second commentary track.
| 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 |