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Category | Musical | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
Rating | Other Trailer(s) | None | |
Year Released | 1988 | Commentary Tracks | None |
Running Time | 89:37 minutes | Other Extras | Menu Audio & Animation
Animated Scene Selections |
RSDL/Flipper | No |
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Start Up | Menu | ||
Region | 4 | Director | Marcos Zuringa |
Distributor |
Force Video |
Starring | Raul Julia
Valeria Lynch Ruben Juarez |
RRP | $34.95 | Music | Atilio Stampone |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | Pan & Scan | MPEG | None |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | None | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
16x9 Enhancement | No | Soundtrack Languages | English (Spanish) (Dolby Digital 5.1, 448 Kb/s)
English (Spanish) (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 192 Kb/s) |
Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.66:1 |
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Macrovision | ? | Smoking | Yes |
Subtitles |
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Annoying Product Placement | No |
Action In or After Credits | Yes |
Another Pan & Scan mess from Force, this transfer is in 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.
Sharpness is non-existent, as is shadow detail. There is a slight presence of low level noise throughout the movie.
The colours are truly awful, being sometimes washed out and sometimes oversaturated. Never does the colour look even vaguely natural or clean.
Now, when it comes to converting film to PAL there are two basic methods. Firstly, the film is sped up by 4% - this has the effect of creating a 1:1 ratio between film frame and video frame, and is a terribly neat solution which Region 1 NTSC producers would kill for. The one downfall is that audio is raised slightly in pitch, however this is a small compromise. Secondly, film frames can be combined and blurred to turn 24 film frames into 25 PAL frames, which preserves the pitch and tempo of the audio. This is the unfortunate method that has been used on this transfer, and it looks god-awful. Panning shots simply fall apart, and MPEG artefacting is rife during these times. Film artefacts are prevalent throughout the movie to one degree or another. Telecine wobble is also evident throughout.
In a curious disregard for the subtitling system which is part-and-parcel of the DVD format, this transfer has English subtitles burnt into the frame; and particularly bad looking titles they are. Should you happen to understand the Spanish that this movie was made in, you will still have to put up with the English subtitles, which is blatantly ridiculous..
Dialogue was, for me, never clear or understandable because I don't speak Spanish. It was, however, poorly recorded.
Audio sync was at times poor.
The music is repetitive and dull, and if I hear another tango tune I will scream.
Surround presence consists of post-produced reverberation, though thankfully this is kept to a low level and is not intrusive.
The subwoofer was not used.
The video is incredibly bad, and worth a look just to see how bad it is.
The audio is unremarkable.
Nice menus, and thankfully no extras.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
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DVD | Panasonic A350A S-Video output |
Display | Pioneer SD-T43W1 125cm Widescreen 16x9 |
Audio Decoder | Internal Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD Player) |
Amplification | Sony STRDE-525 5x100 watts Dolby Pro-Logic / 5.1 Ready Receiver; 4 x Optimus 10-band Graphic EQ |
Speakers | Centre: Sony SS-CN35 100 watt; Main & Surrounds: Pioneer CS-R390-K 150-watt floorstanders; Subwoofer: Optimus 100-watt passive |