 ... |
The winning combination of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan have given us a
fantastic “chick flick” here with more tear jerking scenes than most other films
you could think of.
Sam (Tom Hanks) is a lonely widow with a fabulously cute son, Jonah
(Ross Mallinger) who has decided to find himself a new mum. Xmas Eve and Jonah decides to
call a talk back radio show featuring Dr Marcia Fieldstone (psychologist) and profess to
the world the blight of his father. Sam has recently lost his wife to Cancer and for 18
months has not been dating anyone.
The phone call is heard all over the country and litterally
thousands of women write to Sam professing their desire to meet him. Jonah being the good
son screens all the letters in search of a new mum. Enter Annie (Meg Ryan)
Annie is a journalist and picks up the situation fast, more so for
the way the story touched her than as a news worthy story. She writes a letter to Sam but
he decides not to meet her even though Jonah can see someone very worthy of being his new
mum. Instead Sam decides to take up with an old aquaintance and plans a nice little
weekend away for Valentines day. Little does he know that Jonah has written back to Annie
and invited her to meet Sam on the top of the Empire state building for Valentines day.
From here the story becomes an almost a typical romantic comedy with
fleeting glimpses and almost misses until Valentines Day!
So how does this transfer hold up?
...  |
VIDEO
Another fabulous transfer from
Columbia Tristar. The 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format was gleaming
with quality. The Colour Palette is broad and cool at times but then it warms to the on
screen mood when required. There were no MPEG artefacts and it was hard to spot film
artefacts or instances of shimmering or ailiasing.
Shadow detail is
very good while a good proportion of this movie could be prone to losing detail it seems
to retain quite a lot. The blacks are deep and dark and the whites sharp and bright but
never show an over use of contrast.
AUDIO
The Dolby 2.0 surround audio
format pretty much does the film justice but doesn’t really beef it up much.
There isn’t a lot of room for great audio here but it could have been a little better
with 5.1 track. The film is basically dialogue driven with some classic old songs thrown
in for some feel good ambience. Dialogue was always clear and easy to understand.
The soudtrack for this film is by far the most enticing ingfredient
in the film and will having you laughing and singing away constantly.
There is as expected little use of the surrounds and of course no
use of the .1 channel.
EXTRAS
- Trailer
- Talent Profiles
- Isolated Music Score: fantastic!
- Audio Commentary: Nora Ephron: Some interesting little bits and pieces on the production
of the film. Not terribly exciting but certainly worth a listen.
- Behind the Scenes Featurette: Short and mainly promotional material.
OVERALL
This is a great “Chick
Flick” and contrary to the Male genre of action flicks this is still a good film
that’ll bring a tear to your eye no matter what.
| PICTURE
QUALITY |
8/10 great! |
| SOUND Quality |
7.5/10 not bad. |
| EXTRAS |
7.5/10 good but nothing terribly exciting. |
| OVERALL |
8.5/10 memorable |
Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Pioneer DV737 (via S-Video)
Receiver: Yamaha DTS RX-V595a (Sweeeeet)
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfdale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf
Subby: M&K V75
- Reviewed 9th March 2001
*Sleepless in Seattle jpeg files for
internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by Columbia
Tristar Home Entertainment |
