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Category | Comedy/Drama | Main Menu Audio
Biographies-Cast & Crew Interviews-Cast & Crew Featurette-Making Ned Devine (8:01) Theatrical Trailer |
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Rating | |||
Year Released | 1998 | ||
Running Time | 87:10 | ||
RSDL/Flipper | No/No |
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Start Up | Menu | ||
Region | 4 | Director | Kirk Jones |
Distributor |
Universal Pictures Video |
Starring | Ian Bannen
David Kelly Fionnula Flanagan Susan Lynch James Nesbitt |
Case | Transparent Amaray | ||
RPI | $36.95 | Music | Shaun Davey |
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Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English (Dolby Digital 2.0 , 384Kb/s) | |
Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 |
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Macrovision | ? | Smoking | Yes |
Subtitles | None | Annoying Product Placement | Yes, a little |
Action In or After Credits | No |
Tully Moor is a small Irish village of 52 inhabitants. They are all honest country folk with nary a care in the world. It is pretty big news when Jackie (Ian Bannen) and his lifelong friend Michael (David Kelly) discover that one of their fellow villagers has won the State Lottery. Jackie, Michael and Jackie's wife Annie (Fionnula Flanagan) set about determining who the winner is, so that they can get in their good books. With only 52 possibilities, it shouldn't be too hard, now should it?
It turns out that it is Ned Devine who has won the lottery. Ned lives on his own and has no family whatsoever. Unfortunately, Ned died from the excitement of winning the lottery, and Jackie discovers him stone cold dead in front of his television, still with his winning lottery ticket in his hand and still with a huge grin on his face.
Who'd let such a prize go to waste? The only problem is that Ned has written his name on the back of his winning ticket, and so a scheme needs to be concocted quick-smart so that his winnings do not revert to the state, which is what would occur if the State Lottery official finds out that Ned is dead.
The image is generally clear and reasonably sharp, within the limitations of the original source material. Shadow detail tends to be lacking, with many dark shots being impenetrably black. However, what needs to be seen in these scenes is seen, so this appears to be as much a result of the original cinematography as anything else. The opening few scenes were somewhat grainy, but this grain settled down once the movie really got going.
The colours were somewhat variable, with the lower-lit scenes tending towards oversaturation while the more brightly lit scenes were more pleasingly rendered. Greens were surprisingly muted in this transfer, when I would have expected to see really lush and vibrant greens. Nonetheless, the colouration of many of the scenes was still gorgeous, just not as eye-poppingly vibrant as I expected.
No MPEG artefacts were seen. Aliasing was not a problem,
and film artefacts were inconsequential.
Sharpness | |
Shadow Detail | |
Colour | |
Grain | |
Film-To-Video Artefacts | |
Film Artefacts | |
Overall |
Dialogue is always clear and usually easy to understand, subject to the limitations of the sometimes quite strong Irish brogue. Audio sync was never a significant problem, although the earlier part of the movie may have been very subtly out of sync at times.
The music was composed by Shaun Davey. As you would expect, it prominently features rustic Irish themes and figures. It is by no means omnipresent, but does nicely add to the scenes in which it can be heard.
The surround channel had only limited use with this soundtrack. In essence, this was mainly a monophonic soundtrack. Music and the occasional special effect was limited to the front soundstage except for the storm scenes and the helicopter scenes, which were the only two sequences to feature any surround presence of any significance. By the time the storm sequence begins, you are so used to the front soundstage of this movie that the heightened rear presence comes as quite a surprise!
The subwoofer lay dormant for almost the entire movie
save for some nice, and unexpected, support given to the dream sequence.
Dialogue | |
Audio Sync | |
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts | |
Surround Channel Use | |
Subwoofer | |
Overall |
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
© Michael Demtschyna
(read my bio)
21st November 2000
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DVD | Pioneer DV-535, 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. Denon AVD-1000 DTS AddOn Decoder, used as a standalone processor. Calibrated with the NTSC DVD version of Video Essentials and the NTSC DVD version of The Ultimate DVD Demo Disc. |
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; Hsu Research TN-1220HO subwoofer |