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Category | Science Fiction | Theatrical Trailer(s) | Yes, 1 |
Rating | Other Trailer(s) | Yes, 2 - Dolby Digital City, Columbia Tristar DVD Promo | |
Year Released | 1996 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time | 104 minutes | Other Extras | Cast & Crew Filmographies |
RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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Start Up | Menu | ||
Region | 4 | Director | Christian Duguay |
Distributor |
Columbia Tristar |
Starring | Peter Weller
Roy Dupuis Jennifer Rubin Andy Lauer |
Case | Transparent Amaray | ||
RRP | $34.95 | Music | Normand Corbeil |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | MPEG | None |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
16x9 Enhancement | Yes | Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English (Dolby Digital 5.1) French (Dolby Digital 5.1) German (Dolby Digital 5.1) |
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 |
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Macrovision | Yes | ||
Subtitles | English
French Dutch German Hindi Hungarian |
Smoking | Yes |
Yep, the premise sounds good. The movie looks good. The movie sounds good. But, the movie's plot is, well, it stinks, big time. It blows chunks, to quote Wayne's World. It hurls. Why? The characters are all stereotypical and one-dimensional. The characters continually do and say really really stupid things. Basically, you end up hoping they will all hurry up and die. There is no suspense since it is blindingly obvious what the sting in the tail of this movie is going to be. This is a really really bad movie.
I feel I just have to give you a few examples of the really stupid things these characters do. The all-time stupidest thing that the grunt character does is go out onto the battlefield, with the very deadly Screamers all about, and with an unknown amount of N.E.B. enemy force around, and the first thing he does is to put on his (presumably Sony) Discman so he can't hear any them coming. The second thing he does is take off his protective bracelet making him vulnerable to Screamer attack. Well, duh! The movie is filled with really ridiculous things like this, from all of the characters.
Peter Weller fluffs about aimlessly as the Alliance commander. The rest of the cast are not worth mentioning by name. Suffice it to say that we have; the rookie grunt who does stupid things, the beautiful but resourceful female who does stupid things, the shell-shocked warrior geek who does stupid things, the callous drifter who does stupid things and the innocent-looking child who isn't so innocent who does really cool things, like trying to eliminate other cast members.
The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer was very sharp and very clear throughout. One special effects sequence (the hologram) was a little grainy, but I'm sure that this was how the original interpositive must have looked because otherwise the transfer was pristine. Shadow detail was excellent, and no low level noise was apparent.
The colours were well rendered at all times. There are a lot of browns in this movie, which always come up well on DVD.
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of trivial aliasing which passed in the blinking of an eye. Film artefacts were extremely rare and virtually non-existent.
Dialogue was pretty much always spot on and easy to understand, with the exception of a few words here and there.
There were no audio sync problems.
The score by Normand Corbeil was unremarkable.
The surround channels were used aggressively for music, ambience and special effects. It is a very nice mix indeed, and very enveloping. Split surrounds are often utilized for aggressive surround placement of moving objects.
The .1 channel received a good workout, and was heavily used to support the numerous explosions and gunshots and special effects in this movie.
The video quality is exceptionally good.
The audio quality is a good, aggressive, surrounding mix.
The extras are limited but acceptable.
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Extras | |
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© Michael Demtschyna
11th May 1999
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DVD | Pioneer DV-505, using S-Video output |
Display | Loewe Art-95 95cm direct view CRT in 16:9 mode, via the S-Video input. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
Audio Decoder | Denon AVD-2000 Dolby Digital AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials. |
Amplification | 2 x EA Playmaster 100W per channel stereo amplifiers for Left, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear; Philips 360 50W per channel stereo amplifier for Centre and Subwoofer |
Speakers | Philips S2000 speakers for Left, Right; Polk Audio CS-100 Centre Speaker; Apex AS-123 speakers for Left Rear and Right Rear; Yamaha B100-115SE subwoofer |