The sound quality is first-rate and is one of the few comedies that gives your
speakers a workout, given the special effects scenes as Stanley zooms around
the screen as The Mask and the after-effects that come with his character.
This is one of the few EiV titles to get a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack - why
can't they ALL be encoded with Dolby Digital ?
And another one.
Extras :
Chapters and Trailer :
There are 30 chapter to cover the 97-minute film which is good and the
scene-selection screen is animated and scored with the dramatic theme music.
The original theatrical trailer is also included.
Languages & Subtitles :
Just one language, but the good news is that it is in English and in Dolby
Digital 5.1. No subtitles are to be found though, which is surprising. Either
the person in charge couldn't be bothered, or failed to keep up with Carrey's
manic delivery.
Other extras :
Biographies & Filmographies: Brief, but at least give you some
background info on Carrey, Cameron Diaz, Jeni, Greene and Riegert
with a list of films made to date.
B-Roll: An interesting selection from the daily rushes (footage shot
during the film including different takes on some scenes), but it only lasts
for 5 minutes.
'Making of' featurette: For "'Making of' featurette", read
"extended trailer with a few soundbites thrown in from Carrey and Cameron",
which leads on to...
Interviews: Brief chats with those listed in the B&F extras, but
most of them don't last any longer than a few seconds if that and will not
be something you'll go back to time and again.
Director's Commentary: Not often included on DVDs in the UK, but
they're always welcome and worth dipping into to hear the thoughts of the
director in question. In this case, it's Charles Russell's turn and
he certainly sounds like he's enjoying himself as he takes you through it.
It would have been nice if one had been included from Warner on his more recent
film, Eraser, if only to find out his thoughts on the BBFC cutting nearly
four minutes from the Arnie flick.
Menu :
The main menu and scene-selections are brilliantly animated and scored with
dramatic music from Randy Edelman's score to set the scene. The others
are static and silent but equally colourful to fit in with the theme of the
film.
On inserting the disc, you see the copyright info, the Entertainment In Video
logo and finally the New Line Cinema logo before the menu appears.
Clicking on "Play Movie" brings up the New Line Cinema logo again before the
film starts.
Cameron Diaz was often to be found walking around the set in the nude,
much to the surprise of the other cast members.
The Mask on DVD is a product that scores close-to-full marks in
most sections. About the only thing missing here that's on the American release
is some deleted scenes and with this version containing an anamorphic picture
and DD5.1 sound, it's definitely one of EiV's better releases.
It makes me wonder though - if these two aforementioned high-points are a
possibility in the world of UK DVD, how come so many of their titles are coming
out non-anamorphic and with a ProLogic soundtrack ?
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
