Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by

Columbia TriStar

Cat.no: CDR 98646

Cert: 15

Running time: 91 minutes

Year: 1993

Pressing: 1999

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 28 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)

Languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish

Subtitles: 20 languages available

Widescreen: 1.85:1

16:9-Enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 5

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index, Filmographies, Theatrical Trailer

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Director:

Robert Harmon (Gotti, The Hitcher)

Producers:

Craig Baumgarten and Gary Adelson

Screenplay:

Joe Eszterhas, Leslie Bohem and Randy Feldman

Music:

Mark Isham

Cast:

Sam Gillen: Jean Claude Van Damme (A.W.O.L., Bloodsport, Cyborg, Death Warrant, Double Impact, Double Team, Hard Target, Legionnaire, Knock Off, Maximum Risk, The Quest, Streetfighter, Sudden Death, Timecop, Universal Soldier)
Clydie: Rosanna Arquette (After Hours, The Big Blue, Black Rainbow, Crash, Desperately Seeking Susan, Flight of the Intruder, Gone Fishin', Hope Floats, Pulp Fiction, Silverado, S.O.B.)
Mookie: Kieran Culkin (Father of the Bride 1 & 2, Home Alone 1 & 2, The Mighty, Only The Lonely)
Mr. Dunston: Ted Levine (Betrayed, Flubber, Heat, Ironweed, Mad City, Next of Kin, The Silence of the Lambs, Switchback, The Wild Wild West)
Franklin Hale: Joss Ackland (Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey, The Hunt for Red October, It Couldn't Happen Here, A Kid in King Arthur's Court, The Mighty Ducks 1 & 3, Miracle on 34th Street (1994), The Sicilian, Surviving Picasso, Swept from the Sea, White Mischief)

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Brother-of-Macaulay, Kieran Culkin turns up as Rosanna's son who befriends Van Damme after he is found sleeping in the woods in a tent (where did he get that from if he escaped with nothing ?) and Ted Levine plays Ackland's right-hand man Mr. Dunston who is there to do all the running around that Ackland's too old to do now.

The picture quality is mostly good but there's a slight amount of grain from time to time, which isn't really noticeable from the usual viewing distance. The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1, is enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions - thus allowing for 33% higher resolution - and the average bitrate is a good 5.55 Mb/s, regularly peaking over 7Mb/s.

The sound is fine in terms of clarity, but while a general action film would get five stars this one loses one for having so few action scenes to make use of it. Each of the five languages are Dolby Surround only but presented via a Dolby Digital stream.

Extras :

Chapters :

Languages/Subtitles :

Filmographies :

Menu :

Upon selecting the "Start Movie" option, you'll first see a "Sony Pictures DVD Center" logo, the copyright logo and then the film itself. No DD helicopter demo this time obviously.

It makes me laugh when the trailer says "Van Damme as you've never seen him before" since it's Van Damme as we've *ALWAYS* seen him before, unless it means that we've never seen his films get this bad before. Any action that comes is very few and far between and apart from one brief fight early on, there's nothing else until we're into the last half-hour. Even then it doesn't classify as highly as action-by-numbers since it doesn't even reach the first positive integer! On a motorbike chase, Van Damme always manages to evade the cops yet they routinely crash into each other.