Clockers (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Trailer-Clockers, Do The Right Thing; Jungle Fever
Rating	?
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	123:04
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (68:26)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Spike Lee
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Mekhi Phifer Harvey Keitel John Turturro Delroy Lindo
Case	?
RPI	Box	Music	Terence Blanchard

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired German Dutch Swedish Danish Norwegian Finnish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Clockers is a film that revolves around the investigation of a homicide at a New York fast food restaurant. While a suspect quickly confesses to the murder, police officer Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) feels that something is not quite right.

    This film is set in the world of drug dealing in New York's precincts in the early 1990s. Strike (Mekhi Phifer) is a lookout for the local drug dealer Rodney (Delroy Lindo) and he wants to get off the benches and work his way up through the organization. When Rodney tells him that one of his dealers working in a local fast food restaurant must be taken care of, Strike sees this as a way to improve his station. After the murder of the fast food worker, Rodney's brother quickly confesses to the crime but NYPD detective Rocco Klein feels that something is wrong and pursues the matter.

    This is an interesting film that portrays many of the sides of the drug trade and shows what devastating effects it has on all those involved at any level.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is reasonably sharp throughout but occasionally some scenes appear slightly softer than the majority of the transfer. This is not distracting to the viewer and seems to be inherent in the source material. At no stage was any low level noise detected during the transfer. The shadow detail on offer in the transfer is acceptable but some scenes do not reveal extensive information in the dark parts of the image. This lack of detail appears to be inherent in the way the movie was filmed and not a problem with the transfer.

    The colours displayed during the transfer are quite natural and appear to be accurately reproduced. Numerous vibrant highlight colours are used throughout the transfer to brighten the gloomy environment that the film is set in.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected during the transfer at any stage.

    A number of aliasing artefacts may be seen throughout the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 28:59, 59:59, 68:30, 83:17, 88:05 and 116:03. The majority of these artefacts are quite minor and are only slightly distracting to the viewer.

    Numerous small film artefacts may be seen throughout the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 2:44, 11:42, 32:03 and 39:50. These artefacts are all quite minor and are not distracting to the viewer. Some film grain is obvious throughout the transfer but this is easily overlooked by the viewer and is not distracting.

    During the transfer, some minor NTSC to PAL conversion artefacts may be seen at 54:54 and 57:16. Each of these artefacts are quite minor and are not distracting to the viewer. A cross colour artefact may be seen in a fence in the background of the scene at 6:12 but due to its short duration it is not distracting to the viewer.

    Subtitles are provided in German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish and English for the Hearing Impaired. I extensively sampled the English subtitles and found them to be consistently accurate.

    The layer change occurs at 68:26, mid-way through Chapter 10. Its placement at a scene change is only slightly disruptive to the viewer.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand throughout the transfer.

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

    The original score by Terence Blanchard suits the on-screen action well and is supplemented by numerous hip hop and rap tracks.

    The surround channels are used minimally throughout the transfer to support the score and some special effects.

    The subwoofer channel is used extensively for both the score and effects such as gunshots.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The non animated menu is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

Trailer: Jungle Fever (2:25)

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

Trailer: Clockers (2:29)

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

Trailer: Do The Right Thing (2:03))

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

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• Production Notes

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    The differences between the two versions seem to be very minimal.

    Clockers is an interesting look at the low levels of the drug trade and how it affects everyone who is involved.

    The video transfer for this film displays very few problems and is only marred by the regular occurrence of minor film artefacts.

    The effective 5.1 soundtrack found on this disc is focused across the front three channels and makes extensive use of the subwoofer channel.

    There are no real extras provided on this disc.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall