Geena Davis plays mild-mannered schoolteacher and amnesia-sufferer Samantha
Caine who, eight years after the incident, is still trying to piece her
life together in full, but for now things are going well as she enjoys her
job, the company of her family, and lives a peaceful life with her boyfriend
Hal, and her daughter Caitlin.
Then one day (yes, you knew something had to go wrong), as she drives one of
her relatives back to his house after a family do, the car crashes after
running over a deer, tragically killing her passenger (Alan North, from TV's
Police Squad) and Samantha is thrown clear of her car. She's alive, but
her life will never be the same again.
Her memory comes flooding back, and she remembers that she was once a lethal
assassin for the CIA named Charly Baltimore, and now her former employers want
her dead. Pursued by a high-tech army of corrupt government renegades, she
teams up with a wise-cracking private detective, Mitch Henessey, who tries to
help her put the pieces back together again before they get themselves killed.
Once the plot is established, the majority of the two hours that passes
is one superb action-packed film, worthy of any action fan's attention.
When I saw it at the cinema, the last five minutes of the film were worth
the price of admission alone.
Whoops !
Over recent years, Geena Davis has proved herself to be deserved of a place
in the Hollywood A-list of actresses, and she proves she can easily handle
a physically-demanding role such as this. Before and after her transformation
into a cold-blooded killer, Geena looks good in every scene - just another
reason to buy this disc.
And another good reason is the presence of Samuel L. Jackson, an excellent
actor who in recent years has made the best choices possible for the roles
he has played, as well as some curious ones, giving memorable performances
in Hollywood blockbusters such as Die Hard With a Vengeance, Jurassic
Park and Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, as well as
appearing in low-budget films such as 187 and The Great White
Hype.
He also gets some of the best lines in the film, beginning with a bust on a
man in bed with a prostitute. Pulling a gun on the man he says :
"Now you're assuming I won't shoot your sorry ass...
and everyone knows when you make an assumption,
you make an ass out of you, and 'umption'."
On the bad guy front, those on her tail are led by Craig Bierko, a
complete psycho who, told of a colleague, One-Eyed Jack, having escaped prison
after seeing something on TV that disturbed him, says, "Yes, I saw it too.
It's called Baywatch Nights".
Another actor who's made a career out of playing the bad guy in recent years
is David Morse who has starred in a number of big films such as The
Rock, the 1994 remake of The Getaway, and last year's Extreme
Measures. This is certainly not the sort of career I'd have imagined for
a man who, fifteen years ago, started out in television as the doctor with
the Leo Sayer perm in St. Elsewhere.
Alas, the only let down in the bad-guy department are those played by Brian
Cox, an experienced actor who looks like he sleepwalked his way throughout
the whole film, and Patrick Malahide, once the hard-nosed and
downtrodden Inspector Chisolm in TV's Minder, but now returning to
the world of Harlin after Cutthroat Island by playing an American in
this film, although he sounds less like an American, and more like a man
with the worst case of sore throat and catarrh that not even the world's leading
brand of cough mixture could cure.
Finally, at the end of it all is a cameo from US TV chat-show legend,
Larry King.
Now you see the toll bridge...
The picture looks very good, the widescreen framing being essential for Renny
Harlin's action-filled visuals. On fullscreen video, this might not look as bad
as a regular pan-and-scan film as it was shot in Super-35, but to retain the
director's intended vision, the ratio used fulfills that job. However, it's
another case of a non-anamorphic transfer from EiV, whereas the Americans get
what we all want. Artifacts are few and far between though.
The average bitrate is a very good 7.32Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 8Mb/s.
As you'd expect for an action film, once the bullets start to fly, you'll
soon know about it, and so might your neighbours depending on how loud you
have the volume. The sound also comes across very effectively even in the
quietest moments coming across clear as a bell. It's just a shame that we
don't get the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that the Americans get.
Extras :
Chapters & Trailer :
The Americans get 29, we get 12. Do the math. The original theatrical trailer is
also included.
Languages & Subtitles :
Just one language for this disc - English in Dolby Surround - and only English
subtitles.
'Making of' featurette :
A six-minute 'making of', which behaves more like an extended trailer with soundbites
from Messrs. Jackson, Davis, Bierko and Harlin, looking like they've been shot in
a cheesy American studio with a rotating camera. If it makes your DVD-ROM player lock
up, then the output will also appear to stutter.
Stunt scenes :
What looked like it might give some background info on how the stunts were done,
turns out to be nothing of the sort. For "Stunt scenes", read "four more
chapters", since each one links to either "Skating", "Santa Sleigh Pursuit",
"Bridge Explosion" or "Truck crashing". Nice to see once, out of
context, but not something you'll go back to again unless you want to wake up
the neighbours.
Menu :
The menu is static and silent with a picture, replicating the front cover as seen above.
...now you don't.
As good as this film is, don't expect another husband-and-wife collaboration again,
as Geena and Harlin went their separate ways recently. However, if you enjoyed this
film in the cinema or on rental video it deserves a place in your home cinema
system, but it's hard to recommend EiV's release when the Americans score
better in the sound and picture stakes. The only other extras they seem to get
though are biographies.
N.B.: If you are playing this title on a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player,
it will lock up the player when fast-forwarding the trailer and the 'making of'
featurette, so you have to close the player down and start it up again. This
problem also affects
Last Man Standing
and
Long Kiss Goodnight,
both of which also suffer this problem when fast-forwarding during the final
chapter.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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
