Sadly, the one face who does let down the proceedings is Angela Bassett
as another friend of Nero's, personal security expert Lornette "Mace" Mason,
playing it over the top as usual in an overly-feminist role. Plus I think she's
just a rather crap actress, but if you can get past that then you'll hugely
enjoy the rest of the ride.
Although this DVD has only been released after the time the film takes place,
I had it on video for a while and only actually got round to watching it on
the eve of the two days during which it takes place. I also watched it in two
parts. This wasn't intentional as I started watching it too late on the night
of December 29th, 1999, realised there was a natural break in the film and
carried on the next day. I was going to be out on the night of New Year's Eve,
naturally, so wondered after each part if the following day would be any
similar. It wasn't.
Lesbian blonde fantasies: just one of the many
possibilities when you "jack in" or "wire trip".
The back of the box has a few errors, most notably that the ratio is not
cropped to 16:9, but is in the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. I couldn't
face watching it in a ratio less than that since it is fully utilised throughout
but then you should realise that given the combination of action director
Kathryn Bigelow (Point Break) and producer/scriptwriter James
Cameron (T2). Makes you wonder why the two haven't worked together
on a big-screen follow-up, but what we have here looks fantastic with even
the many night-time scenes encoded effortlessly.
Recorded with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, from the opening "wire trip", through
many action scenes, an early one being the cops chasing an apparent prostitute
through a subway, to even outdoor ambient moments of a helicopter circling
ahead, the sound positioning is accurate and astounding. Pure heaven from
start to finish. My only complaint is that we didn't get the DTS soundmix
as well which would've been even better.
Sadly, what's lacking is any major extras. A two minute Trailer,
six-minute Featurette (which may as well be an extended trailer) and
feature-length Director's Commentary, whereas even the NTSC laserdisc
contained two deleted scenes, the music video for "Selling Jesus" by Skunk
Anansie, several trailers, storyboards and production stills including
poster art conceptions for Year 2000 celebrations. Oh, and a DTS soundtrack.
There are 20 chapters to the film which isn't really enough, English subtitles
for the hard of hearing and menus which are static and silent.
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
