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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
In Too Deep (1999)

In Too Deep (1999)

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Released 3-Oct-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Thriller Dolby Digital Trailer-Egypt
Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 1999
Running Time 93:03
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Michael Rymer
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Omar Epps
LL Cool J
Nia Long
Stanley Tucci
Hill Harper
Pam Grier
Case C-Button-Version 2
RPI $34.95 Music Christopher Young


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    A little-known cast star in this story about an undercover cop who may have just gone too far down into the recesses of crime to get himself back out.  He may have just gone 'In Too Deep'.

    Omar Epps plays Jeff Cole, a rookie undercover police officer who is all starry-eyed about busting as many drug dealers as he can. When he learns from his superior that they are going after 'God', the biggest and hardest-to-catch drug dealer in the city, Cole volunteers to be the one to go undercover. He is charged with the task of getting as close to 'God' as he can. 'God', whose real name is Dwayne Gittens (LL Cool J), is a self-proclaimed drug dealer and general all round bad guy. The closer Cole can get, the better the evidence that can be gathered to take down Gittens and put him away for a very long time, but Cole finds himself getting closer and more involved in many of the illegal actions of Gittens and his ruthless band of henchmen.  When he is expected to kill someone in a drive-by shooting to prove his loyalty and worth to Gittens, he must make a choice.  A choice that is not an easy one to make.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Presented in an aspect of 2.35:1, this transfer is 16x9 enhanced. A pretty fine effort this is too, being sharp throughout with no traces of edge enhancement. Some of the close-ups of the actors show exquisite skin detail. Grain is almost non-existent and though there are several dark scenes, they are handled effortlessly with complete blacks and no low level noise.

    Apart from some slight oversaturation of red on the taillights of several cars, the colour palette in this transfer is superb with many varied shades of a multitude of colours.  Apart from the taillights, there are no other oversaturation or bleeding problems.

   I noticed no MPEG artefacts and even though I was trying very hard, I was unable to spot any instances of aliasing. Only a handful of film artefacts were present, most being the usual small blotches and nicks, though one at 6:28 appeared to be a long scratch or hair running vertically down most of the left side of the screen.

    There is only one subtitle option to chose from, these being English for the Hearing Impaired. They are quite good, with the text nicely placed near the person who is talking at the time. They are also quite accurate.

    This is a single sided, single layered disc. As such, there is no layer change to navigate.



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

Audio

    There is only one soundtrack present, that being an English Dolby Digital 5.1 effort. It shows the benefits of being a relatively youthful film with a quite fine 5.1 audio presentation.

    Dialogue is pretty difficult to understand at times, given how quickly the actors speak and given that some of the lingo that they actually use goes way over my head. I found that when viewing with the subtitles on, a whole new world of 'yo brother' this and 'go girl' that opened up to me. Despite the difficulty at times understanding the dialogue, there is no problem with the way the actual dialogue is presented and there are no audio sync problems.

    The musical score is heavy on the rap music which suits the culture being portrayed beautifully.

    The surround channels are used sparingly. Some of the highlighted use is at 27:48, at 68:19 during a rainstorm, and at 79:50 during a shootout.

    Subwoofer use is quite extensive. Much of its use is to support the rap music, particularly during the introductory credits and at 21:00-21:22.

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

Extras

Dolby Digital Trailer - Egypt

Theatrical Trailer

    Complete with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and presented full frame (1.33:1). Running Time is 2:12 minutes. Doesn't give away much but the full screen is a bit off-putting.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 and Region 4 discs are almost identical. The Region 1 contains an additional music video. Not much value to sway me to that version. Ours is the winner on price and PAL formatting.

Summary

    In Too Deep is a watchable action thriller that doesn't pretend to set any lofty heights for itself. The cast try hard (LL Cool J tries that bit too hard on occasion). There is a bit of a cop-out ending and one which I thought wasn't really developed in terms of plot all that well. It appears almost as if the scriptwriter had another assignment to work on and needed to wrap this one up.

    The video and audio presentations are well above average, although the whole package is let down by the lack of extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Darren Walters (It's . . . just the vibe . . . of my bio)
Sunday, September 09, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDToshiba 1200, using S-Video output
DisplayLoewe Calida (84cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationHarmon/Kardon AVR7000.
SpeakersFront - B&W 602S2, Centre - B&W CC6S2, Rear - B&W 601S2, Sub - Energy E:xl S10

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