ID: HVMC-19668
Price: 25,800 yen
Discs: 2
Sound: A-Mode/EFM
Running Time: 2:09
Released: Sony/Columbia
Tri-Star
(from IMDb):
Wolfgang
Peterson’s films generally all have a warm look to them, and this one is
certainly no exception. While at
first the picture appears to be muddy looking, continued watching shows that
reds and oranges tend to be over saturated and highly emphasized throughout the
film. The film generally has a
soft look to it with only certain scenes showing that sharp HD-like picture you
come to expect. The scene where
Frank is sick at one of the rally conventions is one of them, exhibiting a sharp
detailed picture, with a multitude of colors (red, white and blue of course)
dominating the scene. Each balloon
is sharp and contrasted very well against the sea of convention goers. Fleshtones in this scene also do not
exhibit the green tinge that they do throughout most of the film.
With the
exception of the foot chase through the park between Frank and Leary, most of
the outdoor scenes appear washed out in comparison. They appear dull, lack detail and with the exception of the
orange/red haze over the picture, are under saturated. Quite a bit of the picture is overly
dark in most scenes as well, very sad for a movie of this caliber.
Compression
artifacts are also present, and while not too distracting (appearing more on
characters than in actual scenic scenes), are visible and sometimes
detracting. This disc exhibits
more of the mosquito type MUSE compression artifacts instead of the grainy
analog artifacts.
In
comparison to the DVD release (ironically one of Sony’s first DVD releases),
the DVD is leaps and bounds better.
Picture is brighter, appears to have more detail in each frame, and the
colors appear quite a bit more accurate (not over saturated or muddy looking).
Sound was
reviewed in the EFM track. The
soundstage is open with music and action sequences, but during any interior
dialog scenes, the center channel gets the most workout. Low frequency effects are used during
music scored for the chase scenes, but the surround channels are used very
little. All the action appears to
be in the front speakers.
A great
movie with decent picture that is passable but barely. The film transfer I speculate was one
of the early and first films Sony’s High Definition Facility transferred and
thus has probably been through the ringer again with the latest advances in
film transferring technology.
Additionally, this is one of the early films released to the MUSE Hi-Vision
format. In comparison to the DVD,
I recommend the DVD.
