Best in Show (2000) |
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Best in Show (2000) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Listing-Cast & Crew Audio Commentary-Christopher Guest (Director/Actor) & Eugene Levy (Actor) Deleted Scenes-17 +/- Director's commentary Theatrical Trailer |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2000 | ||
| Running Time | 86:28 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Christopher Guest |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Warner Home Video |
Starring |
Jennifer Coolidge Christopher Guest John Michael Higgins Michael Hitchcock Eugene Levy Jane Lynch Michael McKean Catherine O'Hara Parker Posey Fred Willard |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-Dual | ||
| RPI | $34.95 | Music | None Given |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German 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 German French English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
The film starts by showing us the background to the various contestants and then follows them as they travel across the country to the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show. The film contains laughter throughout its relatively short 87 minutes and everyone will surely recognise some character traits in the dog lovers that they know.
The picture was very sharp throughout, although not quite in the leading edge category. Shadow detail was excellent and there was no low level noise encountered in the few dark passages in the film.
Colours were strong, natural and very pleasing. There were absolutely no problems with this part of the transfer.
MPEG artefacts were vanishingly few and far between. This is an excellent transfer to video. There are still a number of film artefacts, more than I expected for such a recent film. Nevertheless, they were mostly small and not intrusive and in no way could be termed a problem.
The subtitles are accurate to the spoken word.
This is an RSDL-formatted disc, but I have yet to identify the change point. It could be that the feature is on one layer - it is short enough - and the extras were on the other. If the change was during the main feature, it sure was a smooth one.
| Sharpness |   |
| Shadow Detail | |
| Colour | |
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| Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
| Film Artefacts | |
| Overall | |
Dialogue quality was never a problem. At all times, voices were very clear and natural-sounding. This of course is important for a dialogue-driven film. Audio sync was also not a problem.
There is almost no music during the film. It is a dialogue-driven one with the centre speaker having the vast majority of the work.
Although this film is nominally presented with a 5.1 soundtrack, the surround channels are used very sparingly. Only during some of the scenes during the final judging did things like crowd noise open up the soundstage and add some surround information.
There was nothing for the subwoofer to chew on.
| Dialogue | |
| Audio Sync | |
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| Overall | |
The feature length commentary by Christopher Guest and other cast members is a fairly solid one. It covers most of the topics pertaining to the feature, why cast members were chosen, and so forth, and they recall incidents that occurred while filming and what made them make the film in the style they did. As far as these things go, it is a solid if unspectacular commentary.
There are seventeen often quite lengthy additional scenes with optional commentary by the director. Some of them could have fitted into the film quite well and some were better left out. The director explains the choices well. The additional scenes are all in stereo and 1.85:1 but not 16x9 enhanced.
In stereo and 16x9 enhanced.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Toshiba 2109, using Component output |
| Display | Toshiba 117cm widescreen rear projection TV. Calibrated with AVIA Guide To Home Theatre. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Rotel RSP-985 THX Ultra certified surround pre-amp. |
| Amplification | Parasound HCA-2003 3x300w THX certified power amp, NAD 208THX 2x300w power amp. |
| Speakers | Velodyne HGS-18 1250w 18” servo-driven subwoofer, Celestion A3 front speakers, A2 rear speaker (full range) and A4c center channel speaker. |