| Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah put in great
performances in this romantic comedy from Fred Schepisi. Steve Martin stars as CD Bales the life loving fire chief in a small country
town. The type of small town where everyone knows about your HUUUUUUUUGGGGE nose. CD is a
respected member of the community but he’s lacking a female figure in his life, and
obviously his rather large nose causes this. Enter stage right, Roxanne Kowalski (Daryl
Hannah) as the beautiful and intelligent astronomer who has just left her boyfriend. CD
finds he has a very big soft spot for Roxanne. He is taken aback by her intelligence which
he finds to be simply charming. However Roxanne is a little smitten by a new comer to the
fire department Chris McConnell (Rick Rossovich). Little does she know; that Chris is your
typical yobbo who wants nothing more than to get her into bed. CD being the kind of guy he
is, is willing to help Chris, and between them they manage to convince Roxanne that he is
intelligent and well spoken. Roxanne goes away for a week and CD finds himself writing 3
love letters a day all signed by Chris, but written and heartfelt by CD. Roxanne finds
herself head over heels in love with Chris until she realises that he can’t come up
with the goods. With some much needed help from Dixie (Shelley Duvall) a mutual friend
everything comes out in the open and heads for a nice romantic and happy ending.
So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?
VIDEO
I was expecting a lot less from this transfer given that it’s turning 14 years old
this year. I have only ever seen it on VHS so it is great to finally get a glimpse of it
in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format. It is another quality example of
the work produced by Columbia Tristar transfers of late. When you take into account the
age of the film this really is something to be proud of. The image is generally sharp and
clear with a few small instances of ailiasing, some slight graininess and at times a
fluctuation in the sharpness of the image. There were also many barely noticeable
instances of edge enhancement. The only thing that really let the transfer down was the
lack of shadow detail. I had vaguely remembered the film as being quite bright and airy
but it comes across very dark at times. Colour saturation was also impressive, Skintones
were natural and smooth and the other bright colours showed a good use of hues, and tones.
There some minor dust marks and flecks but nothing the average viewer would notice.
Generally the transfer is very impressive for it’s age.
AUDIO
The audio is presented in its original format of a Dolby digital 2.0 surround
track. Which in itself is quite good considering there isn’t a lot of opportunity to
take advantage of a 5.1 track. There is no use of the bass channel of course and the
surrounds are mainly used to back up a purely dialogue driven audio track. There is some
use of the surrounds to create a little ambience but not much more than that. The basis of
the film is dialogue though so it is more important that this is up to scratch, which it
is of course. Always crisp and clear and made good use of the front sound stage.
The musical score from Bruce Smeaton is a very vivacious
feeling score, which flatters the film nicely.
EXTRAS
Short comments on this subject. Such a great transfer for a film of it’s age is let
down by the lack of extras. Only a Trailer and some cast filmographies.
Overall this is a great transfer for the age of the film
and it is of course a fabulous story which makes you think twice about running someone
down because of the way he or she looks.
Mmm well, not what I would have hoped for. Only the usual
trailer, production notes and cast and crew bios. Being a landmark film in it’s time
for the type of film it was shot on it would have been nice to have at least seen a making
of doco to provide more information on this technology and how it increases the quality of
the film.
Overall I would recommend the film for entertainment value,
and if you are a Cruise and/or Kidman fan then by all means grab it. If you are looking
for superior quality though you might want to think twice.
| PICTURE QUALITY |
7/10 very good considering it’s
age |
| SOUND QUALITY |
7/10 also good as the original track |
| FEATURES |
2/10 Very Very Sad |
| OVERALL |
7/10 Very Good |
Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Samsung DVD907 (via S-Video)
Receiver/Proc: Sansui A505/Sony Amp & Yamaha DSP-E390
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfdale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf
- Reviewed 20th March 2000 |
