Die Hard
20th Century Fox / 1999 / 122 Mins / Rated M15+


MOVIE
I still vividly remember this movie the first time I saw it nigh on 12 years ago now. It was a movie that launched Bruce Willis' movie career and has spawned 2 sequels that are almost as good as the original.

John McClane is a New York cop who is visiting his estranged wife in L.A. She works for the Nakatomi corporation a huge company that holds a lot of money if there safe. 

After McClane arrives to meet his wife so do a bunch of terrorists headed by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman).

Now McClane has to stop the terrorists, save his wife and the hostages while trying not to get killed.

Great fun!

VIDEO
Sadly Die Hard suffers from a mediocre transfer at best. The transfer is soft and there is no shadow detail at all. There are problems with film artifacts but no MPEG artifacts. Colors are over saturated for most of the movie.

Die Hard is framed at 2:35:1 and is 16:9 enhanced.

This disc is a single sided, dual layer disc. The layer change occurs at 63:54.

AUDIO
Never being recorded in Dolby Digital 5.1 this disc has been re-mastered form it's original Dolby Stereo sound. And a nice job they did considering what they had to work with.

Dialog was easy to hear for most of the movie all except for the occasional dialog line here and there.

The surrounds are very, very active. There is not much separation in the mix for the surrounds but they are utilized well into the mix. Dialog was easy to hear and the .1 channel had a good thump as well.

EXTRAS
Standard Fox extras yet again.

Theatrical Trailer: Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 1:33:1 video. An average trailer with below par technical abilities.

Featurette: Your basic extended trailer with very little information.

Subtitles: Closed Captioned, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Spanish.

FINAL THOUGHTS
One of my favorite movies on an average disc. But it's the best way to see the movie in the home.

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 Jul 2000 20:15:10 +1100 .

DVD INFORMATION
Region Coding: Region 4
No of Discs: 1
OFLC Rating M15+
Running Time: 126 minutes
Case Type: Clear Amaray
Release Date: 12/1/2000
Catalog Number: 1666SDV
List Price: $39.95
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
DISC SPECIFICATIONS
Disc Format: PAL
Disc Type: Picture Disc
Disc Format: SS-RSDL
Chapters: 30
Macrovision: Yes
Manufacturer: WAMO
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS
Aspect Ratio: 2:35:1
Anamorphic: Yes
Film Format: 35mm
SOUND SPECIFICATIONS
Dolby Digital:

5.1 Surround

DTS: None
PCM Stereo: None
Other: None
Languages:

English
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: None
Deleted Scenes: None
Music Videos: None
DVD Rom Content: None
Collectable Booklet: None
Scene Access: Yes
Animated Menus: Yes
Production Notes: None
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INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE INFO
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