Bounce (2000) |
BUY IT |
General | Extras | ||
Category | Drama |
Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Don Roos (Director), Bobby Cohen (Co-Producer) |
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Rating | |||
Year Of Production | 2000 | ||
Running Time | 102:02 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (54:56) | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Don Roos |
Studio
Distributor |
Walt Disney Studios Home Ent. |
Starring |
Ben Affleck Gwyneth Paltrow Joe Morton Natasha Henstridge Tony Goldwyn Johnny Galecki Alex D. Linz David Dorfman Jennifer Grey Caroline Aaron |
Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
RPI | $34.95 | Music | Mychael Danna |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English for the Hearing Impaired English |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
Bounce was advertised as a love story. It is that, but it is rather more. There is an intriguing question of ethics, too. You can enjoy this film as a romance, or you can think about it, and what you might do in the same circumstances.
Buddy Amaral (Ben Affleck) is a rising young advertising man. He has just landed a huge deal with Infinity Airlines, much to the satisfaction of his friend and senior partner, Jim Weller (Joe Morton). He is about to fly home to LA from Chicago. When he gets to the airport he finds that all the flights are delayed or cancelled because of the snow. He chats with a couple of people in the bar: Greg Janello (Tony Goldwyn) and Mimi Prager (Natasha Henstridge). Greg accepts a deal (two free tickets and some money) to give up his seat on the flight to LA. On impulse, Buddy gives his boarding pass to Greg because Greg is talking about selling Christmas trees with his son, and Buddy would rather spend the night with Mimi. Seems like a great deal, right?
Then the flight crashes, killing everyone on board.
It shatters Buddy, and he starts drinking heavily. Later, he feels he owes something to Greg's family, so he looks them up. He finds Abby Janello (Gwyneth Paltrow) trying to manage on her own, with two children: Scott (Alex D. Linz) and Joey (David Dorfman). She's working as a realtor (American language for real estate agent). He sets up a deal for her (because he feels guilty); she really appreciates it, and tries to pay him back (because she feels guilty). A complicated state of affairs. They start to fall for each other. But, hanging over their heads is the truth of why he came into her life...
This is a moving story about two damaged people who are better together than apart, even if it's hard to see how they can get together.
Bounce features magnificent performances from Ben Affleck (he really can act) and Gwyneth Paltrow (we already knew she could act, but this is a tour de force) - you can see everything on their faces. Oh, and really good work from Johnny Galecki as Buddy's assistant, and Caroline Aaron as Abby's close friend and confidante.
Yes, this movie is a love story. And a lot more. Give it a try.
This film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. That's the original theatrical aspect ratio.
The picture is beautifully sharp and limpidly clear. Shadow detail is excellent. There's no low-level noise. This is reference-quality video - gorgeous stuff.
The colours are beautiful - fully-saturated and lush, there's no oversaturation or colour bleed in this transfer.
There is no visible aliasing, no moire, and there are no MPEG artefacts. Awesome. I saw two microscopic film artefacts. This is a very clean transfer.
There are subtitles in English, both plain subtitles and captions for the Hearing Impaired. I sampled the plain subtitles, and watched the captions all the way through (while listening to the commentary, which helped me keep track of the story) - they are well-timed, accurate, and easy to read, presented in white with black edging.
The disc is single-sided and dual-layered. The layer change is at 54:56, at a scene change with no sound. It is pretty much invisible. Love that.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain/Pixelization | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
There are only two soundtracks, the film soundtrack proper (in Dolby Digital 5.1), and the commentary soundtrack (in Dolby Digital 2.0). I listened to both.
The dialogue is easy to understand, and very natural. There are no audio sync problems.
The score is by Mychael Danna. It is excellent and beautifully suited to the movie. Interestingly, they mention during the commentary that the original score was lush and orchestral, and they asked for a much lighter score - definitely the right decision.
The surrounds and the subwoofer get nothing significant to do. That's not a problem - they aren't missed because this is a dialogue-oriented movie. For a frontal soundtrack, this is a nice job.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
The menu is animated with music, softly pleasant music. The one slip-up is that they didn't match the ends of the music - it starts to pick up, ends abruptly, and restarts quietly, which is a bit jarring.
This audio commentary is good, but not great. They discuss some interesting material, but there are some periods where they are busy talking about how wonderful it is to work with X, or how talented Y is - this gets a little tiresome.
On two occasions they mention the deleted scenes that are on the DVD. Oops, they are not included on the Region 4 version of the DVD, only the Region 1.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 1 version of this disc is a two disc special edition. With two discs, it's unsurprising that there are lots more extras.
The Region 4 disc misses out on:
The Region 1 disc misses out on:
The deleted scenes are mentioned in the full-length audio commentary, but they don't appear on this rental-only Region 4 disc.
The R4 has slightly the better transfer for the movie, which I attribute to the PAL vs NTSC advantage in resolution. The difference is slight, but discernible. Some of the extras on the R1 are lower in video quality, and visibly pixelated, but the movie is fine.
This is a tough comparison. The R4 disc is a rental release, but I don't foresee them changing the disc when they release it for sale. If they do happen to release a second disc in a collector's edition, then it is conceivable that we may get most (all?) of the extras from the R1 - that would be nice.
Bounce is a marvellous film, given a superb transfer onto DVD.
The video is of reference quality.
The audio quality is superb, but very much frontal.
The only extra (audio commentary) is good, but the Region 1 disc gets so much more material.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Arcam DV88, using Component output |
Display | Sony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Denon AVC-A1SE |
Speakers | Front Left and Right: Krix Euphonix, Centre: Krix KDX-C Rears: Krix KDX-M, Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5 |