The picture is marred by the same artifacts that affected
Magnolia which give it a very grainy look for some of
the dark scenes while bright scenes look fine. It's in the original anamorphic widescreen
ratio of 1.85:1 and the average bitrate is 6.21Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
Dolby Digital 5.1 is the order of the day in the sound dept. which is used to excellent
effect and often, mostly in the supernatural scenes when things begin to be not of this
Earth.
Extras :
A 2-minute Trailer, Cast Biographies for the four main participants, plus
writer/director Rand Ravich who made his directorial debut with this film,
as well as the Original Ending in non-anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Stereo, since
the alternative one is attached to the end of the film. Between the two I prefer the alternative
one. The original one has a touch of the cartoon strip's The Numbskulls about it...
The menus have some weird sounds to mimic parts of the film - with animation - and the
20 chapters on the disc accommodate the length well. I still can't understand why we can't
have a wealth of chapters for all films from EiV though and the timings of these in the
booklet are still an hour out (!)
Overall, this film does make for an entertaining near-2hrs, but it's still absolute bloody
nonsense with everyone playing their part convincingly enough to warrant this a rental,
if not a purchase. It's a film that's sure to find a home on Channel 5 though.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
