I’ve noticed that some have given this film a Horror category but I would have to disagree. It is much more of a heavy drama with a little science fiction. There is not a lot that can be said of the plot without ruining the film for those that haven’t seen it and I’m certainly glad I had heard or read anything about the film before I watched it the first time. This is a great movie and very powerful as a story. Charlize Theron as Jillian Armacost and Johnny Depp as Spencer Armacost give sensational performances and I have to say that like Sandra Bullock I am beginning to like Charlize Theron more and more each time I see another of her movies, beginning of course with her great character in The Cider House Rules.

Anyway back to the film, Charlize Theron is of course the astronaut’s wife. Spencer Armacost her husband has been on a recent space mission in which for a period of 2 minutes NASA lost contact with him and the other astronaut. Something happens in these 2 minutes that neither of them will ever talk about.

Alarm bells start ringing when Spencers partner dies of a stroke and his wife commits suicide shortly after by electrocuting herself. No one knew but she was pregnant with twins.

When Jillian here’s off the similarities in their situations things begin to click into place as she is also pregnant with twins and her husband really just doesn’t seem to be himself at all.

So how does this transfer hold up?

...

VIDEO
The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is in my opinion reference quality. I have heard reports from friends that it shows some small flaws on a much larger screen but on your average TV and especially one converted to 16x9 these are not to be seen. There are no mpeg artefacts and no film artefacts. A hint of aliasing could be seen but it’s hard to spot so I won’t deduct any points for that. Colour was brilliant throughout and showed perfect saturation for the context of the film.

The images are consistently sharp and clear, and shadow detail is good.

...

AUDIO
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track was also spectacular. I didn’t really listen to the Dolby 2.0 track much but I did a little sample. Dialogue was easy to understand throughout and there were no sync problems.

The surround channels were very active in supporting the sound effects and the score. The LFE channel similarly was felt relatively often as well. This is a very enveloping audio track which although has a lot of dialogue in the front sound stage is still spread throughout the channels quite well.

The score from Georges S Clinton is full of suspense and support for the onscreen action.
(There are logos on the back cover of this case for DTS and SDDS along side the Dolby Digital Logo. While the original theatrical source may have facilitated these sound formats the dvd does not. It amazes me the number of misprints in many of the DVD covers, which are produced in region 4. Since all the cover art is redone in Australia by Australian Designers for region 4, I see no reason why these faults should be acceptable as this can be misleading)

EXTRAS

...

• Theatrical Trailer
• Cast and Crew bios
• Original Ending: 9 minutes of an alternate ending for the film.

OVERALL
This is a fantastic film and I would recommend it to everyone. Just don’t get excited about any DTS audio tracks!

 

PICTURE QUALITY	10/10 perfect
SOUND - Quality - 5.1 WOW Factor	9.5/10 exciting and full of suspense 10/10 very enveloping
EXTRAS	4/10 very average
OVERALL	9.5/10 exciting film

Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Pioneer 737
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V595a
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfedale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf
Sub: M&K v75

- Reviewed 17th May 2001

* jpeg files for internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by Roadshow Home Entertainment