Tequila Sunrise

General		Extras
Category	Thriller	Theatrical Trailer(s)	Yes, 1
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Running Time	111 minutes	Commentary Tracks	Yes, 1 (Producer - Thom Mount)
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Other Extras	Cast/Crew Biographies Production Notes
Region	4
Distributor	Warner Brothers
RRP	$29.95

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	No	MPEG	None
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Dolby Digital	2.0
16x9 Enhancement	Yes	Soundtrack Languages	English 2.0  Producer's Comm 2.0
Theatrical Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
Macrovision	Yes
Subtitles	English  Arabic English for the Hearing Impaired Producer's Commentary

    The movie stars Mel Gibson as Dale McKussic, a former drug dealer who is trying to lead a legitimate life. His former associates, however, find it hard to accept his retirement. The movie also stars Kurt Russell as Nick Frescia, a Los Angeles police officer who works in the narcotics office. Dale and Nick went to school together, and remain friends, despite Dale's former life.

    The movie opens with Dale accompanying his lawyer on a cocaine sale. Dale is quick to smell a set-up, and disposes of the cocaine. His suspicions are proved true when Nick turns out to be one of the buyers. After this, Nick goes to Dale's favourite restaurant, where Dale informs him that he is no longer in the drug trade, and he was only trying to help out his lawyer. During this encounter, we meet Jo Ann Vallenari (Michelle Pfeiffer) who owns the restaurant. Nick is instantly attracted to Jo Ann, and it becomes clear that Dale is attracted to her as well. Love triangles are a Hollywood cliché, and are generally very predictable. This one isn't and it is a pleasure to watch this one unfold.

    We next learn that 'Carlos' is coming to town. Carlos is a very big drug dealer from Mexico, and a former associate of Dale's. We also learn that an informant is feeding the FBI information, and we learn who the informant is via a clever bit of editing. Dale remains unaware of the informant.

    Jo Ann next gets to meet Escalonte (Raul Julia), a Mexican police officer who is involved in the operation to arrest Carlos.

    Dale's house is placed under surveillance, and the plot unfolds from here. To describe the plot in detail from here would be to ruin the suspense, so all I will say is that this is an excellent plot with a number of very interesting and unpredictable twists and turns and with a very satisfying ending.

    This movie never falls into the trap of spoon-feeding the story to the viewer. Rather, it relies on excellent writing, great acting, strong character development, and respect for the audience's ability to figure out the story for themselves. These are features that are all too rare these days at the movies.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The movie was pretty much razor sharp at all times. Shadow detail was somewhat lacking, particularly early on in the movie during low-lit sequences, but no noise was present to interfere with the picture quality.

    The colour was reasonably well preserved throughout the transfer. Early on, some the darker scenes were undersaturated, but this was not a major problem.

    No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some telecine wobble early on, and a short period of vertical aliasing of a door frame in Dale's house from 75:23 to 75:41. This was not a major artefact, but it was a little distracting. Film artefacts were reasonably rare, but still more frequent than you would expect to see in a current transfer. The artefacts were certainly not distracting in any way.

Audio

    Dialogue was always completely clear and intelligible, which was a pleasant surprise given the film's vintage.

    The music is excellent. Dave Grusin is responsible for the soundtrack, which has a sophisticated yet laid-back feel to it, and it superbly complements the on-screen action.

     The surround channel was used fairly sparingly during the movie. The music was mixed into the surround channel, and occasional effects (such as helicopters) were mixed to the rear. A little ambience was placed in the surround channel as well now and again. Compared with current soundtracks, this one tended to be more up-front than enveloping.

    The .1 channel was not specifically used, but low frequencies were sent from my surround processor to my subwoofer. This mainly occurred with music.

    The theatrical trailer is present on this DVD. It is presented at a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, 16x9 enhanced, and with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack (stereo only).

    The other extras on this DVD are still frames for the cast and crew biographies which are quite extensive, and still framed production notes.

    The video quality is quite satisfactory given the film's age and only the most finicky would find fault with it.

    The audio quality is reasonable, and there are no specific problems.

    Finally, the extras are the best of any Region 4 DVD so far with the inclusion of the Producer's running commentary which adds significantly to the understanding and enjoyment of this movie. This earns this DVD the highest rating I have given any DVD so far in the extras area.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Michael Demtschyna
2nd November 1998