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| Category | Action | Theatrical Trailer(s) | None |
| Rating |
| Other Trailer(s) | None |
| Year Released | 1994 | Commentary Tracks | None |
| Running Time | 97:48 minutes | Other Extras | None |
| RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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| Start Up | Movie | ||
| Region | 2,4 | Director | Deran Sarafian |
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Distributor |
Warner Home Video |
Starring | Charlie Sheen
Natassja Kinski james Gandolfini Christopher McDonald |
| Case | Amaray | ||
| RRP | $34.95 | Music | Joel McNeely |
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| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | MPEG | None |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Dolby Digital | 5.1 |
| 16x9 Enhancement | Yes | Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
French (Dolby Digital 5.1) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0  ) |
| Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 |
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| Macrovision | ? | ||
| Subtitles | English
Dutch Portuguese English for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | Yes |
Charlie Sheen is Ditch Brodie, a parachute instructor. One day, the seductive Natassja Kinski (Chris Morrow) comes to his parachuting school requesting a jump. Thinking rapidly with his little head, Ditch agrees, but tragedy apparently strikes.
Here is where the plot comes unstuck, since for no good reason Ditch delves deeper into the death and finds himself tangling with some very nasty ex-KGB agents with excellent American accents and very German looks. Add to this a motive for helping out that is plain ludicrous, and this action movie doesn't mount up to an awful lot. Nice stunts, though.
The transfer was generally sharp and clear. A few scenes seemed very murky, such as the opening sequence, and some of the aerial shots left a little to be desired in terms of grain, but generally this transfer looked excellent. Shadow detail was variable. Some scenes were excellent in this regard, whereas others were just a murky black. There was no low level noise.
The colours were somewhat variably saturated, with earlier scenes having somewhat muted colour and later scenes being more fully saturated.
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of small amounts of aliasing at times, and some moiré effects on some of the TV monitor displays. Film artefacts were present a little more frequently than I would have expected for a transfer of this vintage, but this remained as a minor issue.
You cannot change audio selections on the fly, and must do this via the main menu.
Dialogue was easily understood at all times.
There were no audio sync problems with this disc.
The musical score by Joel McNeely was very much unremarkable, and a typical action movie soundtrack.
The surround channels were variably used during this soundtrack, with the action sequences being nicely enveloping but non-action sequences being up-front-and-centre only. Fortunately, there are a lot of action sequences.
The .1 channel was kept busy supporting all the explosions and supporting the music.
The video quality is generally very good, with only a few problematic scenes.
The audio quality is also very good, with some aggressive surround effects.
The extras are non-existent.
| Video |  |
| Audio | |
| Extras | nil |
| Plot |   |
| Overall |  |
© Michael Demtschyna
1st July 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 |