"A Knight's Tale (Superbit)"

Synopsis

Plot Overview

In 14th century France, William Thatcher (Ledger) would like to enter jousting matches after the death of the knight he serves, but they are restricted to Nobility. So, with the help of his friends, including one Jeffery Chaucer (Bettany), they draw up forged documents and enter matches all over Europe.

Count Adhemar (Sewell) vies not only for the same championships, but for the affections of Jocelyn (Sossamon) who prefers William, much to the Count's irritation.

Although set in the time of Arthur, the music is modern rock. At first, I was put off by this, but soon came around and found it to be quite enjoyable.

- JEJ -

Extras

This is a Superbit disc with no extras. Superbit means that the bit rate approaches the maximum that DVD can handle (10 Mb/sec) and it is all devoted to the movie rather than extras. If there are extras, they are put on a second disc.

Technical

The movie is mostly shot outdoors in wooded areas. There is a lot of high frequency (fine detail.) It is evident in the trees, the wood that make up the platforms/bleachers, and the armor the knights wear. This is a good looking film. The extra detail is a result of the improved horizontal resolution that all Superbit DVDs have.

The soundtrack is very dynamic from the small Foley effects during the joust to the high impact rock music soundtrack. Dialog is always intelligible when spoken. I do not recall any audible distortion in the soundtrack.

Like all other Superbit DVDs, this DVD-9 (dual layer) is encoded with a seamless layer break.

The flags are typical of CTHV. There are a number of drops to video, including chapter breaks. Their MPEG encoding is about average.

To have a better understanding of what the flags above mean, please refer to our "A Beautiful Mind" review

- Stacey Spears -

"Mask of Zorro (Superbit)"

Synopsis

Plot Overview

In 1821, Californians rebel against Spain, wanting their independence, and Governor Don Rafael Montero (Wilson) refuses to relinquish power. Instead, he gives the state to his Dons, before going into exile.

Upon his return, and California belonging to Mexico, he urges Californians to declare their independence from Mexico, and he will lead them. Unfortunately, this entails slave labor in the gold mines, the spoils of which he plans to pay General Santa Ana in exchange for independence.

Zorro (Hopkins) has been unmasked 20 years before as Don Diego de la Vega, and imprisoned. He escapes to find cruelty all around, but he is now too old to do anything about it. He takes a young bandit, Alejandro Murrieta (Banderas) into his confidence, and trains him to do as he would if he were younger.

The plan is complicated by the presence of Don Diego's daughter Elena (Zeta-Jones) who was kidnapped by Montero when Diego was imprisoned. Both Alejandro and Montero's henchman, Captain Harrison Love (Letscher) vie for Elena's affections, and the story comes to a ripping climax as Zorro et al. try to save the peasants at the gold mine when Montero et al. decide to blow it up so that evidence will be destroyed.

The movie is great fun, and, IMHO, one of the best Zorro films ever made. Be sure also to rent the Tyrone Power version from the last century.

- JEJ -

Extras

This is one of the Superbit deluxe editions. The main disc itself is only the movie and the second disc contains all of the extras. This is the same second disc that is included with the previous Zorro special edition.

First up is the 45-minute documentary entitled “Unmasking Zorro.” This feature covers the origins of the Zorro character. It also talks about the origins of this version of the film. It goes on to explain the casting decisions and provides good insights into the production. Overall, it was an enjoyable feature.

There are two deleted scenes including on the disc the first is called “Wallet” and the second is “Resolution”. The quality of the deleted scenes is poor. They are shown in letterbox, and they are not enhanced for 16:9 displays. I really wish studios would do a better job with the extras so that users do not have to keep changing the aspect ratio on their display. Most extras appear to be designed for 4:3 displays.

Up next is the promotional spots, which include a teaser trailer, the theatrical trailer, and 12 TV spots. There are also several stills that include 21 actor publicity portraits, and 8 conceptual costume designs.

What disc would not be complete without a music video? Included is the video from Marc Anthony for the song “I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You”.

And finally is the standard cast and crew bios, including the films they have been in.

Technical

Like the majority of the Superbit releases, the same original master was used for this new disc. The difference is in the MPEG encoding. Halos are still visible as they were before, but they have been reduced in amplitude.

In keep with tradition, there is an improvement in horizontal resolution and the DVD-9 (dual layer) is now encoded with a seamless layer break so those of you with DVD players that are a bit slowing at changing layers will enjoy the uninterrupted flow of the film.

The improved horizontal resolution lends itself to defining fine detail.

The soundtrack is very dynamic. The surrounds are active most of the time but never distract your attention away from the on-screen action. The soundtrack is filled with a lot of low frequency (a.k.a. bass) information that will keep your heart racing. Dialog remains intelligible at all times and I noticed no audible distortion present.

The MPEG flags are on par with previous CTHV DVDs. Every chapter break drops to video for approximately 5 MPEG pictures.

To have a better understanding of what the flags above mean, please refer to our "A Beautiful Mind" review

- Stacey Spears -

"Grease"

Synopsis

Plot Overview

This is the successful film that was based on the popular musical. It stars John Travolta as Danny and Olivia Newton John as Sandy, and if you have never seen it, then you must be living in a cave and can’t possibly be reading this review now.

How does one review "Grease"? By now most people have seen it, and we are happy it has finally arrived on video. The film opens with two kids saying goodbye on the beach. Sandy is on her way back to Australia after her summer vacation, while Danny is off to finish his last year of high school.

Both Sandy and Danny are surprised when they are reunited back at school. While trying not to look foolish in front of his friends, Danny comes off as being a jerk. The rest of the film is spent with the two of them going back and forth.

You can't talk about "Grease" without talking about all of the great songs in the film. Each song tells its own story. How many of us cannot sing along with this movie? We all have specific memories of our childhood, good or bad. One of those memories is when I received the soundtrack to "Grease" on LP. It was many, many Christmas's ago, and it was a gift from my aunt and uncle. I remember hearing the songs, especially Grease Lighting, and not having any idea what it was talking about. The subject matter of that song is adult oriented, and my dad just laughed as I sang them.

At long last the film is finally available on DVD. The weekend I received the disc, it was also on TBS. The TBS version was in Pan & Scan and there was much information missing from the sides. The video quality was superior to the presentation on TBS, so as unhappy as I am with the overall quality of the DVD, it is the best it has ever looked on video.

Extras

There is little in the way of extras on this DVD. In fact the only thing on the DVD is a 20th anniversary special where we get to hear from some of the cast on what it was like to bring the popular musical to the big screen. Of course, we are way beyond the 20th anniversary, which goes to show this content has been sitting on the shelf for a few years waiting to be released.

Technical

Both the audio and video on this disc are disappointing by today's standards. The image has visible mesquito noise and a fair amount of edge enhancement. It is, however, a noticeable improvement over the previously released laserdisc. Because it is a 2.35:1 transfer, the anamorphic enhanced DVD really benefits from the extra vertical resolution. There is visible line twitter and moiré on the LD version that is not there on the DVD.

The soundtrack itself is dated. It is pretty obvious when they are lip-syncing, and it is also thin sounding at times. The surrounds are rarely used. They also included the original two-channel soundtrack if you don’t like newly re-created 5.1 mixes.

As with most Paramount DVDs, the MPEG encoding on this disc is virtually perfect. You should encounter no problems at all with flag based progressive scan DVD players.

To have a better understanding of what the flags above mean, please refer to our "A Beautiful Mind" review

- Stacey Spears -

"Monsters, Inc."

Synopsis

Plot Overview

How does Pixar keep creating such great films? "Toy Story" was just a great idea that we could all relate to, but when "A Bug's Life" was announced, I wondered how a film about bugs could be entertaining, but it was! Next up was "Toy Story 2", which was an obvious hit, but then the idea of Monsters? Come one, could it really work? Well yes, it could, and it did.

Monsters, Inc. is the story of two monsters, Mike and Sulley, whose day-to-day job is to scare children and collect their screams. The screams are used as power that keeps the city of Monstropolis alive and running.

A couple of problems arise. First, it is becoming more difficult to scare children. Kids are becoming desensitized to violence on TV and in video games, and they are staying up later, which appears to make them sleep through the monsters' tactics.

The second problem is that one child accidentally ends up in Monstropolis. The deal here is that all monsters are actually afraid of children because of all the horrible diseases they carry. There is even a monster quick reaction force in place to take care of any close encounters a monster may have with a child.

Somehow, a child slips through the system and ends up in the care of Mike and Sulley. Sulley quickly falls for the cute child and must now find a way to return her home safe. There is an obstacle in the way, namely Randall, a chameleon-like monster who is competing with Sulley to be the top scarer.

As I said at the opening, Pixar just keeps hitting home runs with their films. While the first three films were all directed by John Lasseter, this project was headed up by Peter Docter. David Silverman and Lee Unkrich are credited as co-directors.

Extras

Disney has released a nice two-disc set of "Monsters, Inc." By far the best extra on this disc, for me anyway, was the tour of Pixar studios. This section is introduced by John Lasseter himself, and is made up of seven segments but can be viewed as one continuous piece. At the end, there are even some hidden sections, but are easy enough to find. This documentary is located under the “Human World” section of the disc.

The extras are pretty much broken into two sections. There is a "Human World" and "Monsters World", and each have their own goodies to delve into.

The last two Pixar films have used the same formula. On initial theatrical release, they just had the film. A few months later, around Thanksgiving, they added some outtakes to the film. This seems a like a dirty tactic to increase the film's gross income. All of those outtakes are included on the second disc and are not part of the film itself. Of course, the outtakes are just more computer animation, but they are incredibly clever and enjoyable. The outtakes on the second disc are not as enjoyable as those found on "A Bugs Life" or "Toy Story 2", but they are still a treat to watch. The last outtake is actually the play that Mike made up during the film while trying to hide the child. They even included an entire program for the play. They really went all out for such a small piece.

Also included on the disc is the wonderful short that was shown before the film in the theater, entitled “For the Birds.” This is a mini silent film, and it goes to show how body language really can be used to tell a story. There is also the new short entitled “Mike’s New Car.” This is not half as enjoyable as “For the Birds”, but I did get a good laugh out of the 6-wheel drive car.

There is actually a lot more on the disc with a lot of small features. This is not a DVD you will want to rent; it is a must own, so go and buy and enjoy the discovery process yourself.

Technical

This is a good looking disc! It is not as good looking as past Pixar discs, but it is a treat to look at. They crammed both the widescreen and Pan & Scan (actually a re-formatted 4:3.) version of the film on the same side of a DVD-9 (dual layer). The average bit rate appears to be pretty low. (A low bit rate might be 4 Mb/sec, a high rate might be 6 Mb/sec, and Superbit might be 9 Mb/sec.)

There is visible mosquito noise, and overall the image is a bit soft. This disc was used all over at the recent CEDIA trade show. If they were not showing HD, they were showing the DVD of Monsters, Inc. While it is not the best transfer or even as good as the past Pixar films, it still looks great.

The soundtrack surpasses the image quality in every way. Like all animations, every sound has to be created from scratch. The surrounds are actively used and envelope you in a 3D world of audio. This disc is encoded as Dolby Surround EX, and they even included an EX effects-only mix. The soundtrack is very dynamic with a lot of good low frequency rumble. There were a couple of times that I could hear audible clipping, which is most likely is a result of microphone preamp clipping and not the encoding.

I was surprised that such an old MPEG encoder was used. The progressive frame flag toggles on and off during the film. This is a trait of the C-Cube encoder. Now the fact that most MPEG decoders are aware of this and can deal with it makes it a non-issue, other than MPEG encoders have matured and a newer MPEG encoder can encode at lower rates with higher quality. So, I believe this disc could have been better visually at the same bit rate if a newer MPEG encoder had been used. On a good note, there were no extended drops to video on any chapter breaks.

To have a better understanding of what the flags above mean, please refer to our "A Beautiful Mind" review

- Stacey Spears -

"Big Trouble"

Synopsis

Plot Overview

An impressive cast was assembled for this latest Barry Sonnenfeld film. I am not sure where to begin because there are so many things happening in the film. There are several characters who are brought together by a few small actions. We have a corrupt business man, a hired hit man, an ex-writer, an unhappy housewife, two cops, a pair of FBI agents, some Russian smugglers, two idiots, a nosy dog, and a toad.

The cast includes Stanley Tucci, Dennis Farina, Tim Allen, Rene Russo, Janeane Garofalo, Patrick Warburton, Tom Seizmore, Johnny Knoxville, Heavy D, Omar Epps, and Jason Lee.

The quick version is that Arthur (Stanley Tucci) has upset his employers who have in turn brought in a hit man named Henry (Dennis Farina) to take care of him. When the first attempt fails, Arthur goes to see a couple of Russians looking for a missile. At this point, a couple of complete morons decide to kidnap Arthur and his new silver suitcase. Things just get more complicated as time goes by.

It was a rather short film, but then so have other recent films from Sonnenfeld. Stanley Tucci and Dennis Farina both did great jobs in their roles. Stanly played a complete jerk and Dennis was just plain funny. He did not even have to speak in some scenes, and I busted out in laughter.

The film has some funny moments, and the characters are enjoyable. It is confusing at times with so many characters, but it is easy to recommend as a rental.

Extras

There is not much in the way of extras expect for the 5-minute version of the film, which is actually a little over 7-minutes in length. This segment plays through most of the main scenes and is probably Barry’s shortest work to date.

Technical

The image quality is very good and is on a par with previous released from Buena Vista. Both the interior and exterior shots are free of any visible noise and are detailed. I don’t recall any obtrusive ringing in the image that would distract from the story.

The audio soundtrack, while subdued, is done well. The surrounds are used, but unless you turned them off, you might not know they were there. For most of the film, they provide you with ambient information, and when bullets fly, they come to life. There is also some surprising bass that shakes the sub whenever the silver suitcase is tossed around.

There are 93 total drops to video, and they last an unusually long time. There are a large number that last over 20 MPEG pictures with some in the 100 and 200 range. Surprisingly, none of the chapter breaks caused a drop to video.

To have a better understanding of what the flags above mean, please refer to our "A Beautiful Mind" review

- Stacey Spears -

"Sorority Boys"

Synopsis

Plot Overview

Sometimes you have to wonder how such a film got made. I am generally a fan of high school and college films, but "Sorority Boys" was a little dry. It feels like it tries real hard to be like another "Animal House" with a little "Tootsie" action thrown into the mix.

The basic premise is simple. Someone has set up three college guys who are in charge of the fraternity funds. When they fraternity discovers the money is missing, they get kicked out. Adam (Michael Rosenbaum) has a hidden video camera pointed at his bed that he uses to video tap sex with girls. It just so happens that his bed is next to the safe where the money is kept. So, Adam, Dave (Barry Watson), and Doofer (Harland Williams) dress up in drag to try and sneak back into the room to retrieve the tape.

The three of them end up in dog catcher's net on the front step of the DOG Sorority. Leah, the head of the sorority, takes them in and offers them a place to stay. The three guys decide to stay at the sorority until they can get the tape back.

Of course, the three guys get to know the women of DOG well and begin to realize that some of their past actions in the KOK fraternity were not right.

There were a few funny parts in the film, which include the great Wookie impression from Doofer.

Extras

For the extras, they attached a mini camera to several key members on the film crew. They did this for three scenes in the film. You can watch that scene from the crew member’s perspective. I have not seen this done before. Perhaps if the film had been better, I might have enjoyed the extras more.

Technical

From a technical standpoint, it is a good looking DVD. The colors in this film stand out. You can see saturated colors in the bright colored women’s attire that the three guys wear, the Powder Puff Girl room accessories, and the hot pink outfits the Tri Pis wear in the football game. There is also a lot of detail, and the images are free from any distracting ringing.

The soundtrack is not earth shattering, but it is very clean and free of any audible distortion. There was not a lot of surround activity, but what was there, was well done.

The MPEG encoding on this disc is excellent. There are no drops at all to video.

To have a better understanding of what the flags above mean, please refer to our "A Beautiful Mind" review

- Stacey Spears -

"Mr. Deeds"

Synopsis

Plot Overview

Adam Sandler has starred in several films recently, and they have all done pretty well at the box office. I have found a few of his recent films to be disappointing, including "The Water Boy" and "Little Nicky". In both films, Adam played a downright annoying character. He has also done some enjoyable films like "The Wedding Singer" and "Big Daddy". "Happy Gilmore" was not too shabby either. I was on the fence when it came to watching "Mr. Deeds". As of this writing, "Mr. Deeds" is the 12th highest grossing film of 2002, bringing in just over $125 million.

In his latest film, Adam plays Longfellow Deeds, a sort of small town hero and the owner of a pizza shop. He soon learns that he had an uncle who died, leaving all that he owns, including control of his empire, to Deeds. Deeds takes a trip to New York City so that he can sign some papers and sell control of the company to the present CEO Chuck Cedar (Peter Gallagher).

Babe (Ryder), a reporter for a local news show, fakes a mugging to get in close with Deeds. What she never plans on is falling for Deeds, and the feelings are mutual. She makes up who she is on the fly with a fake home town and house. Well, Deeds decides to surprise her one day and not only does that town exist, but so does the house she said she lived in. I guess you could consider this a spoiler, but you can see it coming from a mile away!

This is one of the more enjoyable Adam Sandler films. It is based on the 1936 film “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.” While it is not a great film, it did make me laugh. I do prefer it when he plays a more down-to-earth friendly character and does not annoy you with some stupid voice throughout the entire film. I would make this a rental.

Extras

There is a full length feature commentary. There are five deleted scenes, and most deserved to be cut from the film. The most enjoyable was the jokes between Deeds and the Elevator man.

Also included are three short features. The first feature is 18-minutes long and is entitled “From Mandrake Falls to Manhattan”, the second feature is 6-minutes and is entitled “Spare No Expense”, and the final feature is also 6-minutes long, entitled “Clothes Make the Man.”

There is a music video by the Dave Matthews Band, called “Where are you going”.

There is a short set of outtakes from the film that is just over 1-minute long.

And finally is a set of greeting card poems. I suppose I forgot to mention that Mr. Deeds wants to write greeting cards and each week he writes one and reads it to the town members. He keeps sending cards off to Hallmark in hopes of getting published one day.

All in all, this disc has a nice bunch of extras.

Technical

There are two version of this disc out, and we reviewed the widescreen version of the film. The transfer is very clean. There is virtually no ringing to be found, and there is a lot of fine detail. The colors are also saturated and sort of pop-out at you.

The film is predominantly dialog driven, so don’t expect to much to come form your surrounds. I did not notice any clipping or distortion in the soundtrack. You will find most of the sound to come from your center channel speaker.

There are 28 total drops to video, which is not bad at all. The downside is that there is a drop at every chapter break for 5 MPEG pictures.

To have a better understanding of what the flags above mean, please refer to our "A Beautiful Mind" review

- Stacey Spears -

"Footloose"

Plot Overview

If you don't know the basic plot of this movie, we have to ask where you were in the 1980s because you could not have been awake.  

Big town boy Ren McCormick moves with his mother to small town Bowmont to find a repressed community for whom the word "conservative" would be an understatement.  Dancing and rock and roll music are actually illegal, and the one most craving to break free of the preacher's gaze is his daughter Ariel.

What could be more pedestrian as a plot?  Who the frig cares.  While men may try to deny it, we've all seen this picture more times than possibly any other single feature.  At the time of its theatrical release, the local Odion was still running movies old style: you paid once and could stay all day.  I believe for one week solid I forked over my spare cash and sat with friends, all of us toe tapping and head bopping to every single tune, over and over.

Now, almost two decades later, after actively avoiding the saturation of it on TV, we finally have a copy we can add to the library.  In retrospect, it's even worse, and better, than I remembered.  Airel's big hair and Ren's short spike don't look so cool, but as I watched last night with my wife, both of us started to bop in our seats.  I saw a side of the story I just could not appreciate before.  Improbable and incomplete as it is, the simple undertone lessons of compromise, acceptance, and compassion are there, and I hope the next generation of teenagers will get as much out of it as we did.

Noteworthy is a young Sarah Jessica Parker as Ariel's friend Rusty and Sean Penn's brother Chris as Ren's friend Willard.

Extras

What Extras?  There are no extras.  Not even a copy of the theatrical trailer.  Nada.  It would be interesting to know what the projected sales of the DVD were and how that translated into doing NOTHING special with what is obviously an important piece for a large demographic.

Technical

Theatrically released with a Dolby Stereo soundtrack, "Footloose" somewhere along the way has been transposed to Dolby Digital 5.1.  Subjectively sounding much like the original matrix track, the audio is virtually all up front with little or no ambiance in the surrounds.  Music is spacious, dynamic, and punchy, but is curiously lean in bass content.  Dialogue is clean and intelligible, with fidelity corresponding to the median of its day.

The overall video quality barely makes par.  The film shows signs of wear and tear, not to a distracting extent (for some it imparts nostalgia), but you do feel like you're watching a print that's been in the projector for a couple of months.  Colors are consistent but laid back, and select dark scenes are wanting for more detail.  There is some edge enhancement, but it is not as harsh as many of today's titles.  One scene where the preacher's wife is in profile against a bright window, one notes minor ringing at an unusually far distance from the real edge.  Odd, really.  Thank heavens at least it is 16x9 enhanced.

As for MPEG Pic flags...

To have a better understanding of what the flags above mean, please refer to our "A Beautiful Mind" review

- Brian Florian -

"Lucky Break"

Plot Overview

Jimmy (James Nesbitt) and Rudy (Lennie James) have been friends since they were young, and they have been getting into trouble for just as long. The two set up what they believe will be the big job that sets them up for life. When the bank robbery goes horribly wrong, they really do get set up for life, in the big house.

When James initially arrives, Rudy wants nothing to do with him because he left him locked in the bank. The two eventually make up as they plot to escape from prison.

The warden of the prison (Christopher Plummer) happens to be a former actor/play write. James soon learns that the location where the plays used to take place is also the best place to escape from. James gets the warden to throw a play, and he gets Rudy and a few other inmates to create a foolproof escape plan.

Two problems arise. One is the prison's psychologist Annabel (Olivia Williams) who James begins to fall for, and second is a returning inmate that everyone is afraid of. When he learns of Jimmy’s plan, he steps in and changes it.

This film has its moments, and I believe it will make a good rental. It is not as funny or original as "The Full Monty". I also had a difficult time buying the relationship between Jimmy and Annabel.

Extras

The only extra on the disc is the theatrical trailer.

Technical

Paramount has another nice transfer on its hands. The image has excellent shadow detail. There is just a moment or two where you could see visible ringing around objects, but it is minor and does not distract from the film.

There is a lot of detail in the long shots, but some of the close-ups look a bit soft. It looks like a horizontal filter was used to improve MPEG compression, and it removes some of the detail visible in faces.

This is not a very active soundtrack, but it is free of any audible distortion, and the dialog always remains intelligible. Most of the sound comes from the center channel.

There were 4 total drops to video with 3 of them taking place in chapter 14. This is not bad at all, and the longest was for 35 MPEG PICs.

To have a better understanding of what the flags above mean, please refer to our "A Beautiful Mind" review

- Stacey Spears -

"The Sum of All Fears"

Plot Overview

This is the fourth film based on the Tom Clancy character Jack Ryan. It is also the third actor to play the part of Jack himself. In the book, this story takes place just after "Clear and Present Danger". Many people often comment on films not holding true to the book, and the only thing this film has in common with the book are the title and the main character. The rest is not even close. If you are going to compare this film to the book, you will be disappointed. On its own, the film is highly entertaining.

This film is about a young Jack Ryan; he has no kids and is single, but is dating a possible future Mrs. Ryan. He is also an analyst for the CIA, but appears to be very green. The film takes place in present day.

When the Russian president drops dead, a new man is quickly put into place. Ryan had written a paper earlier predicting that this new man would be the next president. Ryan is called upon by the deputy director of the CIA