General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 plus 3 TV spots
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	Yes, 1 - All The President's Men
Year Released	1998	Commentary Tracks	Yes, 1 - Dustin Hoffman (Lead Actor) and Samuel L. Jackson (Supporting Actor)
Running Time	129 minutes	Other Extras	Featurette - "Shaping The Sphere: The Art of the Special Effects Supervisor" (15 minutes) Production Notes Cast & Crew Biographies
RSDL/Flipper	RSDL (66:54)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Movie
Region	4	Director	Barry Levinson
Distributor	Warner Brothers	Starring	Dustin Hoffman Sharon Stone Samuel L. Jackson Peter Coyote Liev Schreiber
RRP	$29.95	Music	Elliot Goldenthal

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Dolby Digital	5.1
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English (Dolby Digital 5.1) Audio Commentary (Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
Macrovision	Yes
Subtitles	English Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired Audio Commentary

    The premise is simple enough - an apparently alien spaceship of immense proportions is found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. A team of five is sent to investigate - Dr Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman) who is a psychologist, Beth Halperin (Sharon Stone) who is a biochemist, Harry Adams (Samuel L. Jackson) who is a mathematician, Ted Fielding (Liev Schreiber) who is an astrophysicist, and Barnes (Peter Coyote) who is a military type.

    They discover that the spaceship is apparently American. Along the way, we get several very decent scares, which makes you think we are in for a horror movie. They also discover an immense golden Sphere which appears to be intelligent. Harry enters the Sphere.

    Pretty soon, bad things begin happening to the crew, and the apparent intelligence inside the Sphere contacts the remaining crew members. Things go from bad to worse, until only three crew members remain.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer was razor sharp all of the time. Shadow detail was pretty much always excellent, something which is important for a movie such as this one which takes place mainly in low lighting conditions. No low level noise interfered with the picture.

    The colours were well rendered, though they were marginally undersaturated at times for my tastes. There were certainly no problems with oversaturation.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen, except perhaps for some graininess in the sky very early into the movie (the upwards pan over the helicopter of the opening shot).

    Virtually no aliasing was seen, which was a definite plus given the nature of some of the scenes in this film which are dead-set sitters for aliasing artefacts. Other than that, no film-to-video artefacts were seen. In particular, I would like to comment on the frequent computer and video displays which were all clear and free of aliasing.

    There were far too many film artefacts for the film's age. They appeared mainly to be as a result of dirt on the negative, as they were virtually all white flecks. The problem was worse early on in the movie, and was a significant distraction.

    The disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change occurring at 66:54, between Chapters 23 and 24. The layer change is very well placed and causes a minimal disruption to the flow of the movie.

Audio

    Dialogue was always clear and easily understood, which is a big plus for this soundtrack, since there is a lot of competing ambience.

    The musical score by Elliot Goldenthal was very dull and derivative, sounding like a combination of other scores. I must admit that I have heard a number of Elliot Goldenthal's scores, and they all seem to sound alike, and all sound like a conglomeration of other movies' soundtracks. I felt that the music added little to the atmosphere of the movie.

     The surround channels were used aggressively for ambience, action and music. They were active almost all of the way through the movie, mainly with subtle ambience, but also with special effects at times. Overall, the experience was pleasingly enveloping.

    The .1 channel was lightly worked with music and special effects.

    The major extra of this disc is the audio commentary by Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson. Unfortunately, this commentary track is not as it seems. Dustin's so-called commentary is merely a 15 minute audio interview that he recorded at some stage that has been chopped up and pasted into the gaps in Samuel's commentary. Virtually none of Dustin's comments are specific to the scene they occur in and in the end they just cause irritation rather than enlightenment. Samuel, on the other hand, is obviously watching the movie, as he speaks for the majority of the time, with some gaps. His insights into the movie are somewhat limited, however. Of specific note are his comments regarding his acting towards the non-existent Sphere - he imagined the Sphere to be silver rather than gold, and specifically feels that he would have given a different performance if he knew that the Sphere was gold. Overall, the commentary track was of limited benefit, and a commentary from either the Visual Effects Supervisor or the Director would have been far better.

    The next biggest extra of this package is a 15 minute documentary entitled "Shaping The Sphere: The Art of the Special Effects Supervisor", enthusiastically narrated by the Visual Effects Supervisor. This is presented at a 4:3 aspect ratio with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Other than significant aliasing and chroma noise during the pans down the storyboards, the video is well presented. The content of this documentary is excellent, and offers a great deal of insight into the movie-making process.

    The theatrical trailer is present on this disc, presented with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced and with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Also present are 3 TV spots for the movie, presented in a 4:3 aspect ratio, and also with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Rounding off the trailers, for the first time in a Warner Brothers Region 4 release, there is a theatrical trailer in the Reel Recommendations section - for All The President's Men. This is presented with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced with a compressed mono Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    Extensive Cast & Crew biographies are present, including the very interesting entry in Sharon Stone's filmography of Antz (1999).

    Rounding off the extras are extensive Production Notes.

    The video quality is generally good, with some irritating artefacts.

    The audio quality is nicely enveloping, but somewhat uninspired.

    The extras are variable in their quality, from excellent, to a merely so-so audio commentary.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
24th December 1998