Wrongfully Accused (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Introduction Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer TV Spots Featurette Interviews-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	81:33 (Case: 85)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Pat Proft
Studio Distributor	Magna Home Entertainment	Starring	Kelly Le Brock Leslie Nielsen Michael York Richard Crenna Sandra Bernhard Michael York Melinda McGraw
Case	Click
RPI	$29.95	Music	Bill Conti

    Whenever you see the headline 'From the Naked Gun Team', you have a fair idea of what you are in for. The silly satire. You either love this style of movie or you hate it. Wrongfully Accused is dubbed as silly satire, though just plain silly is the better description.

    Leslie Neilsen stars as Ryan Harrison, a world class violin player who is framed for the murder of Hibbing Goodhue (Michael York). His apparent motive for the murder is so that he can continue his affair with Goodhue's wife, Lauren (Kelly LeBrock). Harrison is caught, tried, convicted, and sentenced, but somehow the bus transporting him to prison crashes and he manages to escape (yes before the train comes). In the tradition of The Fugitive, a chase ensues with Harrison trying to clear his name by finding the one armed, one legged, one eyed true murderer (sound familiar) whilst being pursued by Lt Fergus Falls (Richard Crenna) in a lampooned Tommy Lee Jones Fugitive/US Marshals style role.

    Ripping off and poking fun at many different movies throughout, including Titanic, Mission Impossible, The Empire Strikes Back, Braveheart, North By Northwest, and of course The Fugitive, the tagline used to promote this was 'A True Story Based On Real Events From Other Actual Movies'. There are a couple of truly funny moments but these are few and far between.

    Note: The sub menu system doesn't work properly on this DVD. When you select 'play movie' from the sub menu or from the main menu after you have started viewing any of the extras, it simply continues playing the extra. The only way I could get the movie to start was to reload the disc or select the first scene from the scene selection menu.

Video

    From an original aspect of 1.85:1 we get a 1.33:1 full screen effort. This makes the whole thing have a late night television feel to it. It is obviously not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is mostly sharp, though some of the scenes exhibit a general softness around the characters which does become quite noticeable at times. Shadow detail is well defined and grain does not raise its ugly head other than on a couple of occasions. There is no low level noise.
   
    Colours are pretty average. They are not particularly vibrant, though there are no oversaturation or bleeding problems.

    No MPEG artefacts were noticed. There are no obvious film to video artefacts. The level of film artefacts is reasonably high, with a fair scattering of blotches and scratches. They are not overly obtrusive, given the overall quality of the production.

    There are no subtitles present.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Introduction

    A slapstick scene from the movie showing Leslie Neilsen getting clobbered by a boom gate. The menu options then fade into view. Presented Full Screen 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack of the main theme.

Menu Audio

    The theme repeated. A Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack provide the audio.

Theatrical Trailer

    Presented full screen 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, this trailer pretty much sums up the whole pointless idea behind this movie. Total running time is 2:29 minutes.

TV Spots

    Running for 1:12, this extra shows three different television commercials. All very similar to the trailer.

Featurette

    With a running time of 4:54 minutes, this featurette is really just an extended trailer.It shows a little behind-the-scenes stuff and a few snips of interviews with the cast and director (though these are repeated in the cast interviews). Video is presented as 1.33:1 and it is not 16x9 enhanced. Audio is by way of a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Really just adds to the overall silliness.

Cast & Crew Interviews

    Interviews with the main cast. The total running time is  8:00 minutes. They are broken into chapters for each person. Interviews are featured with Leslie Neilsen, Michael York, Kelly Le Brock, Melinda McGraw, Richard Crenna, and Director Pat Proft.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on

• Dolby Digital 5.1 English and French soundtracks

    The Region 1 disc misses out on

• Dolby Digital 2.0 English soundtrack

    Both regions discs feature an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Although the presence of a 5.1 soundtrack would make the R1 more appealing, I really can't imagine anyone wanting to place an overseas order for a movie of this quality. I'll concede a draw on this one.

    I really fail to see the point of these types of films any more. They were quite funny in the eighties and early nineties with the Flying High and Naked Gun series, but I really think they have lost their steam, continuously repeating the same tired old jokes over and over. The running time of only 80 minutes is testament that there simply isn't that much to laugh about in this genre anymore.

    The video is only average and its full screen presentation is a major let down. It really gives it that late night forgettable TV feel. Likewise, the audio is only serviceable.

    The extras are just average, though the clumsy way the menu system works (or doesn't work depending on how you look at it) takes points off.

    Wrongfully Accused is only for the dedicated Neilsen fan or the equally desperate silly satire buff.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall