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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Bounce (2000)

Bounce (2000)

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Released 3-Aug-2006

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Drama Menu Animation & Audio
Audio Commentary-Don Roos (Director), Bobby Cohen (Co-Producer)
Rating Rated M
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)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
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

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    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.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    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.

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

Audio

    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.

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

Extras

Menu

    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.

Audio Commentary - Don Roos (Writer/Director) and Bobby Cohen (Producer)

    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.

R4 vs R1

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.

Summary

    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.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Tony Rogers (bio-degrading: making a fool of oneself in a bio...)
Sunday, January 13, 2002
Review Equipment
DVDArcam DV88, using Component output
DisplaySony VPH-G70 CRT Projector, QuadScan Elite scaler (Tripler), ScreenTechnics 110. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationDenon AVC-A1SE
SpeakersFront Left and Right: Krix Euphonix, Centre: Krix KDX-C Rears: Krix KDX-M, Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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