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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.
Unspeakable (2000)

Unspeakable (2000)

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Released 1-Aug-2001

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Horror Menu Audio
Featurette-Interactive Troma
Trailer-Toxic Avenger, Sgt Kabukiman
Featurette-Aroma Du Troma
Featurette-Public Service Announcement
Featurette-Radiation March
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 2000
Running Time 80:45
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Chad Ferrin
Studio
Distributor
Lloyd Kaufman
JJC Entertainment
Starring Roger Cline
Tamera Noll
Timothy Muskatell
Larry Richards
Rae Robinson
Eddie Shea
Case Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI ? Music Nick Smith


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Not 16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio Unknown Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, Single shot after

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

Plot Synopsis

    Unspeakable is a film about a man who sets out on a path of vengeance and destruction after losing his only child in a car accident.

    The film starts with a car accident that results in the death of Jim Fhelleps' daughter and leaves his wife, Alice, severely incapacitated. To help care for his wife, Jim receives help from Barry, a nurse who provides home care. Barry has a scatological fetish (if you don't know what this is you probably don't want to) and abuses Alice while Jim continues his favourite pastime - feeding the birds at the park. During one trip to the park, he meets a prostitute and eventually kills her. After this murder, Jim experiences a vision of his daughter and he believes that he must continue killing to keep this connection.

    Troma is a name that is instantly associated with bad low budget films. They have given us classics like Tromeo and Juliet, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. and of course The Toxic Avenger. Their films often fall into the "so bad they are good" category but they are entertaining and their low budget effects and minimal acting adds to their charm. Unfortunately, Unspeakable does not fall into this category and is just plain bad. The movie does not entertain the viewer and I found myself continually looking at the player's counter to determine how much more of this I had to sit through.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is consistently soft throughout and numerous shots are completely out of focus. No low level noise was detected. Shadow detail is poor during the dark sections of the transfer. In an effort to combat this, some darker scenes appear to have had their brightness increased, resulting in all blacks becoming greys and significantly increasing the grain, but with no resultant improvement in detail.

    The colours displayed in this transfer are quite natural looking, except during the occasional blood shot, and appear to be accurately reproduced.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected during the transfer. Pleasantly, no instances of aliasing were noted.

    Numerous film artefacts may be seen during this transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 14:52, 16:55, 19:44, 20:06 and 26:01. These are usually quite minimal and are only slightly distracting. During many of the poorly lit scenes, large amounts of moderately distracting grain is visible.

    No subtitles are provided on this disc.

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

Audio

    A single Dolby Digital 224 kbps 2.0 soundtrack is provided on the disc. Despite being flagged as Italian, this track is in English.

    At numerous points through the film, the dialogue becomes quite hard to hear and is very muffled. This is not uncommon in low budget films but is quite distracting nonetheless. In a number of scenes, the dialogue is also quite hard to clearly hear as a result of having the music mixed in to the soundtrack at quite a high level, overpowering the actors.

    No dropouts or problems with audio sync were detected during the transfer.

    The original score by Nick Smith is used obviously during a number of scenes but never seems able to easily blend with the visuals and continually draws attention to itself.

    The surround and subwoofer channels were not utilized at all during this transfer.

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

Extras

Menu

    The non-animated menu is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Interactive Troma

    This extra is a short collection of clips showing different parts of the Troma offices and clips from various Troma films. I found this extra to be reasonably entertaining and significantly more enjoyable than the movie.

Trailer: The Toxic Avenger (3:10)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Trailer: Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. (3:39)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Aroma Du Troma (2:00)

    This is a collection of shots from various Troma films set to a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Public Service Announcement (2:47)

    This is a short announcement by Sgt. Kabukiman warning against the dangers of masturbation. This is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Radiation March (0:54)

    This is a short dance segment warning against rising pollution levels. This is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

R4 vs R1

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 disc misses out on;

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

    As the Region 1 version of this disc includes numerous additional extras including a commentary track, it is the clear winner when compared to the local release.

Summary

    I usually enjoy bad low budget films, but I found Unspeakable to be almost unwatchable. I would suggest that only die-hard Troma fans bother taking a look at this disc.

    Considering the extremely low production values for this movie, the video transfer is acceptable.

    The audio suffers from problems relating to the low production values but this is not a fault of the transfer.

    The extras included are moderately interesting but the exclusion of the feature-specific extras found on the Region 1 release is extremely disappointing.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Anthony Kable (read my bio)
Sunday, September 23, 2001
Review Equipment
DVDToshiba 1200, using S-Video output
DisplaySony KP-E41SN11. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationFront left/right: ME75b; Center: DA50ES; rear left/right: DA50ES; subwoofer: NAD 2600 (Bridged)
SpeakersFront left/right: VAF DC-X; Center: VAF DC-6; rear left/right: VAF DC-7; subwoofer: Custom NHT-1259

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