Screen Format	P&S
	Audio Tracks	English MPEG2.0 (Default) English DD2.0
	Subtitles	None
	Region Code	4
	Chapters	31
	Running Time	106 minutes (PAL)
	Classification	PG

With there being a distinct lack of reviews on region 4 titles...or is that lack of region 4 titles to review...The MASK is a good one to start with. Charles(the director formerly known as Chuck) Russell has pulled out all the stops to bring Dark Horse's comic book to life.

This is such a fun movie to watch, lots of eye and ear candy, and you can tell that it must have been a blast to make, everyone has gone all out on this one. Greg Cannom's Mask Makeup is truly awesome, ILM have excelled themselves, once again, with their computer animation and FX, and the entire cast has done an amazing job in bringing this film to the screen. The undeniably funny Jim Carrey (Stanley/Mask) plays the lead role to the extreme and takes it even further (he certainly made ILM's jobs a lot easier) and the irresistible Cameron Diaz(Tina) gives a terrific performance in her movie debut. The one actor in this film that doesn't get the credit he truly deserves is Peter Riegert (Lt. Kellaway), who nearly steals the show, but at the end of the day this is a Jim Carrey vehicle. But Enough about the info you can read during the credits...oh wait no one ever bothers to stay that far into a movie do they...no wonder I feel so lonely at this point of a movie...what's The Mask about?

The title is somewhat of a clue, but is really only a metaphor. The film is about exploring our inner selves and how deep down, who you appear to be on the surface isn't the true you. This film delicately portrays this theme in an earnest manner...oh please I studied Computing, not Psychology...The Mask, is the story of a bank clerk, Stanley (Carrey), who finds an ancient mask in the local river. He discovers that when he wears the mask at night, he becomes the person he dreams of being. During one of his many transformations into the Mask, Stanley robs the bank he works for, right before the local mob, headed by Dorian(Peter Greene of Pulp Fiction fame) can steal it. This greatly angers Dorian for not only does Stanley take his money, but he also takes "his girl" Tina (Diaz). The law is also after the Mask so Stanley is trying to avoid both sides of the law while he pursues a romantic relationship with Tina.

So how does this transfer hold up?
This is the seventh region 4 title from ROADSHOW and the sixth one they have released ONLY in Pan & Scan and 2 channel stereo....The Wally's...Is there an early adopter alive that finds these two features as the appeal of buying into DVD????Well at least they included more than the movie on this DVD. From the menu you can select from the 31 chapters of the movie, watch a trailer, see the making-of, or select an interview with the actors' in which they talk about their respective role/s. The latter is a bit stupid as it seems it was part of the making of featurette, but isn't in the featurette. One "Easter Egg" that Isn't accessible from the menu is TITLE 4 of the 22 TITLES accessible. God knows why they made so many. Anyways, it features behind the scenes footage of the movie from the Documentary Point of View. It runs for about 4 minutes and contains a few interesting scenes, no bloopers here, but It was a nice surprise.

You can also select from two audio tracks, the default being the 2 channel MPEG2-Audio, or the 10dB too low DD2.0 track (thru the samsung at least). Seeing as the DD track is recorded far to low I have only really listened to the MPEG2-Audio track and it is pretty good, but really needs to be 5.1` to get the full effects of the comic book movie. The sound mixers have done a great  job with the MASK's soundtrack and it has a good use of rear channel effects, through Dolby Pro-logic that is. (There is a terrific sound bite at the VERY end of the movie credits that you must hear, I love playing this bit over and over, I just wish Roadshow would record in Multi-channel on DVD so you could really hear the effect of this. It's surprisingly also a soundtrack that's not overly dynamci. It's the sort of sound you can play at ridiculously high levels and not cause your ears to bleed, for a good subwoofer workout, try 1:03:30 when Dorian turns on the paper milling machine...WOW....Liquid free enemas anyone!!!.

Overall, The image is still a bit soft in most of the scenes and .the only glitches now still evident in the film are from 1:05:01 though to 1:05:12, this is nasty stuff here, there are square blocks over the screen that you will want to slomo over and the dog on the bed, or should I say half a dog. (this is a problem associated with only a few DVD players, like mine!!!!)

For $AU35 this is an okay buy, considering you get more quite few features. Still I 'd quite happily give these up for a 16:9 Enhanced, Dolby digital 5.1 version any day, and it seems my wish will come true with the future releases of Roadshow titles.....It pays to pesture them....(Yay DVD'ers)

Review Equipment: TV: Mitsubishi DIVA 68cm TV, DVD: Samsung DVD905, Receiver: Marantz SR870, Speakers: B&W 602's (front), Sony (rears). Cinema Chairs (Gilberton Recliners....okay so there not REALLY cinema chairs but they're very comfy..)