MOVIE |
Contact is the movie based on the best selling novel by Carl
Sagan. It revolves
around the story of contact with alien beings and the consequences that are involved for
us personally and as one race. Human. The story begins in the early seventies, where we
meet the main character a young Ellie Arroway (Jenna Malone), would-be scientist. We begin
to learn of her love for searching and exploring while she is growing up with her father.
The story then flashes foreword several years where we meet the adult Elle (Jodie Foster)
where she is now working at Puerto Rico, where we are also introduced to her main love
interest in the movie Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey) who plays a very religious man.
What a match huh! After she and her team have their funding taken away, Ellie manages to
get funding for ongoing research, it is here where the movie really begins to take shape
as the message arrives.
The message is a signal from an alien civilization containing
blueprints for a vessel to send an explorer to another planet. But what would the
consequences be? Will science prevail over religion? You'll have to see, I won't spoil the
movie for you but it does include quite a few surprising scenes and some of the most
ingenious cinematography and SFX you will ever see. I would put contact in my list of one
of the top 10 movies of the 90's. Engrossing and compelling stuff.
|
VIDEO |
The video transfer of Contact seemed to
be very high in quality for 90% of the movie. Although I did notice a very slight bit of
noise on the edge of the dishes during the message arrival scene when she is rushing back
to the main VLA building. It certainly makes the Laserdisc version of the same movie look
quite lacking. Excellent stuff.
Contact is framed at 2:35:1 and is 16:9 enhanced.
This is a Single Sided, Dual Layer
disc. The layer change occurs at 74:32.
|
AUDIO |
The sound mix in the movie is very impressive, especially in the spectacular
opening credits with a mix of music and audio snippets as the planets are spinning by.
Also spectacular are the sequences which include the actual machine itself. The rear
channels are used quite often in the movie, but mainly by the music soundtrack. Where
there are scenes including the machine or any other type plane etc the surrounds and the
.1 channel are used quite aggressively and very effectively. Not much unlike the Laserdisc
version really.
|
EXTRAS |
WOW chock full where do I start. The first thing that makes this movie great is
the audio commentaries, you get 3 of them as well. The first is commentary by Jodie
Foster, now while some of the stuff she babbles on about is quite interesting. (e.g.: why
she had a bump on her head in a certain scene) Most of what she is on about is very
stolid, like she didn't want to be there. The second track is commentary by Bob
Zemeckis & Steve Starkey, this is the same as the one on the Laserdisc version and is the best
of the commentaries on the disc, they explain the difficulties of filming the movie in a
fun and light-hearted way. The third commentary track is by Ken Ralston & Stephen
Rosenbaum who created the special effects for the movie and it is very informative as it
fills in a lot of the holes about the SFX that Bob & Steve didn't talk about. On top
of that you also get 2 trailers, 1 teaser trailer and 1 theatrical trailer, a little
Featurette about making the SFX. A heap of production notes, cast credits the list never
ends and it is spectacular. Plus it's dual layered. Anyone who says that region 4 isn't
getting good releases can eat a huge piece of humble pie.
Subtitles are in English, Arabic, Closed
Captioned.
|
FINAL THOUGHTS |
Move over Right Stuff, Contact is now the best DVD I've seen from you guys. I
would even go as far as saying it is the best R4 DVD yet! Great movie, great picture,
great sound, 3 audio commentary tracks, 2 trailers, SFX Featurette, music only soundtrack
excellent production & cast notes. WOW what a package for the price. Certainly makes
my LD version look sad. |
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: 25 May 2000 00:12:14 +1100
.
|
|
Region
Coding: |
Region
4 |
No of
Discs: |
1 |
OFLC Rating |
M15+ |
Running
Time: |
144
minutes |
Case
Type: |
Snapper
Case |
Release
Date: |
30/11/1998 |
Catalog
Number: |
15041 |
List
Price: |
$29.95 |
Distributor: |
Warner
Bros. |
Disc
Format: |
PAL |
Disc
Type: |
Label
Only |
Disc
Format: |
SS-RSDL |
Chapters: |
43 |
Macrovision: |
Yes |
Manufacturer: |
WAMO |
Aspect
Ratio:
|
2:35:1 |
Anamorphic: |
Yes |
Film
Format: |
35mm |
Dolby
Digital:
|
5.1 Surround |
DTS: |
None |
PCM
Stereo: |
None |
Other: |
5.1
Music Score |
Languages:
|
English |
Subtitles: |
Yes |
Audio
Commentary: |
Yes
(3) |
Theatrical
Trailer: |
Yes
(1) |
Teaser
Trailer: |
Yes
(1) |
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: |
Yes |
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