Awakenings
Columbia / 1990 / 100 Mins / Rated M15+

This Review is sponsored by 
Columbia/Tri-Star Home Video
MOVIE
Awakenings is the true story of a group of people who contract a type of sleeping illness in the 20's & 30's. One of these people is Robert De Niro, his character contracts the disease when he is only a teenager. 

30 years later a doctor played by Robin Williams begins working at a hospital that is looking after these people. He studies them and tries to figure out ways to get them out of there sleep induced state. After experimenting with a drug called L-Dope some of these patients awaken and try to live a bit of there life as they have missed so much so far. 

This is a very moving and well put together movie and one of the better movies made this decade. A bit of pointless trivia, look out for the voice of Marge Simpson (Julie Kane) as Eleanor. A bit of Marge comes through in that voice.
VIDEO
Compared to other CTHV releases, this transfer is a lot more soft and lacks the definition of there other releases. The colors also seemed a little off as well. This disc could have received Dual Layer treatment to give it a better picture definition. Quite a shame. Several MPEG artifacts were present in the transfer as well. 

Awakenings is framed at 1:85:1 and is 16:9 enhanced.

This is a single-sided, single layer disc.
AUDIO

Standard Dolby Digital 2.0 that sounds very hollow. There seems to be no use of the surround or .1 channels. The sound field is based in the center channel, very dialog based.

The dialog was easy to understand always at least.
EXTRAS

An average selection of extras are included on this disc. Firstly there are some cast notes of the main cast and director as well as

Making Of Featurette: A Short 6 minute featurette that interweaves the trailer and some interviews. Standard fare.

Theatrical Trailer: An average trailer in full screen with poor mono audio and soft picture quality.

Subtitles include: English, French, Italian, Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Hindi, Turkish, Arabic, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Spanish.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Great movie, on a below average disc, sadly not one of Columbia's best transfers.
16:9 ENHANCEMENT DISC RATING

VIDEO:
AUDIO:
EXTRAS:
PLOT:
OVERALL:

REVIEW EQUIPMENT
Display: 48" Sony RPTV.
DVD Player: Panasonic A350 Player using S-Video Cables.
Receiver: Pioneer VSX-D508 Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.
Speakers: Accusound speaker system.

Copyright © 2000 by [Roger Ward].
Revised: 24 May 2000 15:17:59 +1100 .

DVD INFORMATION
Region Coding: Region 4
No of Discs: 1
OFLC Rating M15+
Running Time: 100 minutes
Case Type: Brackley Case
Release Date: 7/12/1999
Catalog Number: D12460
List Price: 34.95
Distributor: Columbia/Tri-Star
DISC SPECIFICATIONS
Disc Format: PAL
Disc Type: Picture Disc
Disc Format: SS-SL
Chapters: 28
Macrovision: Yes
Manufacturer: Sony DVD Center
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS
Aspect Ratio: 1:85:1
Anamorphic: Yes
Film Format: 35mm
SOUND SPECIFICATIONS
Dolby Digital:

2.0 Surround
DTS: None
PCM Stereo: None
Other: None
Languages:




 English
French
Italian
German
Spanish
Subtitles: Yes
SPECIAL FEATURES
Audio Commentary: None
Theatrical Trailer: Yes
Teaser Trailer: None
TV Spots: None
Dolby Trailer: None
Documentary: Yes
Cast & Crew Bios: Yes
Deleted Scenes: None
Music Videos: None
DVD Rom Content: None
Collectable Booklet: None
Scene Access: Yes
Animated Menus: None
Production Notes: None
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