Alice Cooper-Prime Cuts (1991)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio & Animation DVD Credits Featurette-Additional Interviews (18) Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1991
Running Time	88:50
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Neal Preston
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Alice Cooper Shep Gordon Robert Ezrin Slash Ozzy Osbourne
Case	Brackley-Trans-Lipped-Dual
RPI	$39.95	Music	Alice Cooper

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    I'll be perfectly frank right now and make the following admission up front: I am not a fan of Alice Cooper. Now that I have got that out of the way, I will get into the things worth celebrating about Alice Cooper's musical output.

    Produced in 1991, this documentary covers the career of Alice Cooper from his heyday in the late 1960s and 1970s, through the turbulent crash of the 1980s, to the brief resurrection of his career in the very early 1990s. In addition to the man himself, we have appearances from manager Shep Gordon, producer Robert Ezrin, guitarist Slash, fellow vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, and the numerous session musicians Cooper surrounded himself with from 1968 to 1988. Over the years, Alice Cooper has produced some genuine classics, such as School's Out, Only Women Bleed, The Black Widow, and Elected. This documentary, directed by Neal Preston, demystifies Cooper, mostly covering his heyday in the 1970s, but also briefly mentioning his decline in the 1980s and his resurrection in the early 1990s.

    A track listing is provided on the cover for disc one:

    Unfortunately, this track listing doesn't even begin to coincide with the actual chapters on the disc (there's only about ten if I remember correctly), and the songs included on this disc are mostly just snippets used to further what a given interviewee is talking about. This problem, combined with the generally lacklustre quality of  the transfer (more on that anon), makes it very hard to recommend this two-disc set to anyone but the most ardent of Alice Cooper fans.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is 16x9 Enhanced. Already, we are running into problems, as the intended aspect ratio of this feature was almost certainly 1.33:1, and there is no mistaking the fact that picture information is missing from the archival footage, especially the promotional videos. As a result of this, the scene composition looks unnaturally squashed most of the time, which makes viewing very hard on the eyes.

    This transfer is not sharp: even the contemporary footage that was shot around 1991 looks very hazy and occasionally blocky, but the older source material was in terrible shape. The shadow detail is poor, but this doesn't become an issue very often. There is no low-level noise during the contemporary footage, but it does appear occasionally in archival footage.

    The colours in the contemporary footage are rendered well, but the archival footage of live performances and old promotional videos is dreadful, with bleeding and misregistration on constant display. The first time I noticed this problem was at 6:21, when colours extend far past their natural borders on the costumes worn by Alice Cooper and band, but this persists all through the archival footage without respite.

    MPEG artefacts were not apparent in this transfer, which is quite a surprise when you consider the quality of the source materials. Film-to-video artefacts were not apparent in this transfer, either, but this can be attributed to the fact that the source materials simply do not have the resolution to make such artefacts apparent. Interlacing was occasionally present in such archival promotional videos as Elected, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that these videos were recorded in an interlaced format, or have since been stored in such a manner. Film artefacts were on constant display throughout the feature, with black and white marks on the picture throughout the running length, and some pretty sizeable scratches to boot.

    There are no subtitles on this disc.

    This disc is dual-layered, or so I am assuming due to the fact that I could not spot a layer change at any point during the main feature's running length.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two soundtracks available on this disc, both of them renderings of the original English dialogue. On one hand, we have the Dolby Digital 2.0, 224 kilobit per second soundtrack, and on the other, we have a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix with a bitrate of 448 kilobits per second. I listened to both of these soundtracks, and I preferred the 5.1 mix. The 2.0 soundtrack is one of the most flat and lifeless 2.0 offerings I have heard in a while.

    The quality of the dialogue and vocals on this disc are variable according to the age and nature of the source materials. While the talking in the contemporary footage is clear and easy to understand at all times, the vocals in the live footage are often hard to make out by comparison. The vocals in the promotional videos, on the other hand, are easy to understand. I detected no problems with audio sync, aside from the usual problems with miming in promotional videos.

    The music in this documentary is mainly written by Alice Cooper, with various others having co-writing credit in various amounts. Fans of Alice Cooper will not be pleased to know that there are almost no pieces of uninterrupted music on this disc, but I'm sure they'll agree that this is more than tempered by the documentary nature of this feature.

    The surround channels in the 5.1 mix are used to separate the guitars and keyboards, creating a wider soundstage that keeps the songs sounding clear and easy on the ears. By comparison, the 2.0 mix is extremely cluttered and shy on fidelity, making it something of a chore to listen to. In any event, while the surround channels are not worked especially hard here, you will be pretty grateful to have them when listening to this disc, as they keep the instruments from overwhelming one another.

    The subwoofer was used to support the bass and drums during the archival music, but it was otherwise silent. In spite of this, it did everything that was asked of it without becoming conspicuous.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Just one small comment about the menus: each menu mentions features that can only be accessed from the other disc. When such a feature is selected, a small icon in the shape of a disc with a number next to it appears, and selecting the feature simply results in the menu restarting.

Disc One

Menu

    The menu is rather creatively animated and features Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. It is 16x9 Enhanced.

Alice Cooper Jukebox

    This feature allows the viewer to select their favourite Alice Cooper song from the twenty-three that are found in the main feature, and view a snippet from said feature that contains the song of choice. It is nothing to get excited about.

Disc Two

Menu

    This is the same menu as on Disc One.

Coopergame

    A variation on Snakes And Ladders that can be played upon standalone players, this game revolves around throwing a dice and moving up the board. When the bottom of a chain is reached, one moves to the top and a snippet from the supplemental video plays. The supplemental video is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 Enhancement and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The only incentive to play the game in spite of its high frustration factor is that when one reaches the hundredth square, the complete supplemental video is played. I have yet to figure out any other way of accessing it.

Photo Gallery

    This photo gallery is presented as a two minute and twenty-three second featurette in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with 16x9 Enhancement and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

DVD Credits

    This 16x9 Enhanced, 1.78:1, Dolby Digital 5.1, forty-three second featurette lists all the people behind both the supplemental video and the production of the DVD.

    The two versions of this disc appear to be pretty similarly specified.

    Alice Cooper's music means a lot of things to different people. Prime Cuts as a documentary contains some revealing insights, but they are nothing to write home about in my view, and they are pretty light on the ground to boot.

    The video quality is mediocre: even the more recent footage looks pretty average by DVD standards.

    The audio quality is good, although why such a low-fidelity 2.0 mix was included has got me beat.

    The extras are pretty weak considering this is a two-disc set.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall