Distributed by

Cert:

Cat.no: P 8690 DVD

Running time: 119 minutes

Year: 1992

Pressing: 2001

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 24 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Languages: English

Subtitles: English (for the hard of hearing)

Widescreen: 1.85:1

16:9-Enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras: Trailer, Featurette, Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary

Director:

Robert Altman (Gosford Park, Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T and the Women, The Gingerbread Man, Kansas City, The Long Goodbye, M*A*S*H, Nashville, Pret-a-Porter, The Player, Popeye, Short Cuts, Vincent & Theo)

Producer:

David Brown, Michael Tolkin and Mick Wechsler

Screenplay:

Michael Tolkin

Music:

Thomas Newman

Cast:

Griffin Mill: Tim Robbins
June Gunmundsdottir: Greta Scacchi
Walter Stuckel: Fred Ward
Detective Susan Avery: Whoopi Goldberg
Larry Levy: Peter Gallagher
Joel Levison: Brion James

Things go awry for him when a writer, spurned six months before, begins to make death threats against him, leading Griffin to take revenge, put the writer out of his misery - permanently - and then move in on his girlfriend, June Gunmundsdottir (Greta Scacchi). However, when the threats continue Griffin has to contend with the fact that he might have killed the wrong writer and that the police, led by Detective Susan Avery (Whoopi Goldberg), are on his tail.

There are scores of brief cameos from actors like Malcolm McDowell, Burt Reynolds and James Coburn, plus a clever opening tracking shot lasting approximately eight minutes, but the whole film seems a bit too clever for itself and winds up being a bit on the boring side.

The DVD is presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and is anamorphic, but has plenty of print flecks, appears rather blurred fairly often and never looks in any way outstanding. The average bitrate is 6.38Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 9Mb/s.

The soundtrack comes in Dolby Digital 5.1, but isn't one to stretch your system, only lending itself to some creepy overtones in the score to accentuate a point in the drama.

For extras there are a 2-minute Trailer, a 17-minute Featurette: Robert Altman - One on One where the man talks about his film and intersperses it with 4:3 clips from the film, Five Deleted Scenes totalling 13 minutes - but none of which would've made any extra impact had they been left in - and a feature-length Audio Commentary from director Altman and screenwriter Michael Tolkin.

There are 24 chapters through the film, English subtitles for the hard of hearing and menus which are static, but contain a looped part of the film score.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.