Crusty Demons of Dirt (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Sports	Main Menu Animation Featurette-Bonus Footage
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	32:39 (Case: 41)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Jon Freeman Pat Solomon Dana Nicholson
Studio Distributor	MRA Entertainment	Starring	Ryan Hughes Jeremy McGrath Brian Manley Buddy Antanez Joel Albrecht Seth Enslow
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	None Given

    Crusty Demons Of Dirt is an action sports feature displaying the antics of some of the worlds best freestyle motor-cross and dirt-bike riders.

    The Crusty Demons series has become the worlds largest selling action sports series and this is the feature that started it all. There is not much that needs to be said about this series, it features a number of riders performing some incredible stunts and huge jumps set to a metal soundtrack. These riders perform their stunts jumping over sand dunes, plummeting into canyon walls and scaling cliffs. As you would expect, not all of these jumps come off and there are numerous horrific crashes.

    This is the feature that brought Seth Enslow to the general public's attention with his massive jumps and stunning crashes. Seth and many of the other riders in this feature still continue to perform these stunts and appear in similar features. If you enjoy action sports I can definitely recommend that you take a look at this disc.

Video

    This feature was shot primarily on consumer grade video equipment although a number of shots appear to have been shot on film. Consequently the video quality of the transfer does vary considerably throughout.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    Due to the frequent use of low quality video sources the transfer appears quite soft throughout. This is initially distracting, but is able to be ignored as the feature progresses. Low level noise is visible during the vast majority of the transfer, again due to the relatively low quality source material. The short segments shot on film have significantly less low level noise. During the small number of dark shots almost no shadow detail is visible, probably due to the use of consumer equipment. As there are relatively few dark scenes, this is not too bothersome.

    As you would expect, the colours displayed during the transfer all appear quite muted and flat. Reflecting the source material to a large extent, this is only of marginal consequence to the overall transfer.

    A small number of MPEG artefacts are visible during the transfer. Some examples of these errors may be seen at 0:40, 2:47 and 6:25. Each of these errors are quite minor and, due to the relatively high amount of low level noise present in the transfer, are not too intrusive. An unusual MPEG encoder error may also be seen at 15:18 which is only minimally distracting as it only occurs for six frames.

    Some very minor instances of aliasing occur at 7:32, 7:44 and 15:58 but as they are not too lengthy they are not terribly distracting.

    Numerous minor film artefacts may be seen during the transfer, with obvious examples at 3:07, 3:45, 12:49, 18:09, 19:04 and 19:25. As the artefacts are only quite minor, they are only minimally disruptive to the viewing experience.

    The transfer is riddled with analogue tape errors, examples of which may be seen at 0:52, 4:46, 5:49, 7:14, 19:54 and 26:26. Each of these errors only lasts a single frame but due to their frequency they are mildly distracting.

    No subtitles are included 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 audio track is provided on this disc.

    The minimal dialogue is usually easy to understand but during the race scene in chapter 6 it is a little muffled.

    As most of the feature is presented with only a soundtrack and the majority of the minimal dialog is presented as a voice over, there is little opportunity for sync problems to occur. Unfortunately during the one scene requiring good audio sync, obvious problems may be seen: the problem occurs at 10:41 and continues throughout chapter six. It is a bit too noticeable to ignore.

    The soundtrack is provided by various metal bands including Sensor, White Zombie, Strung Out and SOAK. This soundtrack works well with the on-screen action.

    The surround and subwoofer channels are not utilised during this transfer.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The minimally animated menu is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Bonus Footage (11:10)

    This is a collection of additional footage from the feature and includes a number of new scenes, as well as extended versions of scenes from the main feature. This footage is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0 mix of the original production audio.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• PCM audio track

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    Both versions of this film appear to be nearly identical and I therefore would have no strong preference for either version.

    Crusty Demons Of Dirt is a highly enjoyable feature that should appeal to all action sports fans.

    The video is adequately presented considering the relatively low quality original source material.

    The Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is suitable for the material presented.

    The additional footage included on this disc is enjoyable but it could have been supplemented by the inclusion of some background information or rider profiles.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall