MOVIE |
After the
success of Independence Day, Roland Emmerich & Dean Devlin
were looking for a larger vehicle to make a boatload of money on,
so they took the safer option of remaking Godzilla. Now there is a
lot of people divided about how they like this movie and there are
others who think the movie is so shallow and pointless they wonder
why it was ever made.
Now I'm not going to get into the
old ring here so I'll just sit on the fence here. While it's not a
great movie, it's not too bad either. Like the filmmakers said,
"We make popcorn movies!" And this certainly is a
popcorn movie filled with lots of action and special
effects.
The basic story goes along the
lines, that during the French nuclear testing in French Polynesia
in the 50's a lizard slowly evolved over the years into a huge
dinosaur like reptile. Now 40 years later it's slowly moving
around the world and ends up in and is ready to nest in New York
City. Great setting at least. I won't go too much into it, suffice
it to say Matthew Broderick plays a nuclear scientist who studies
mutations and has been drafted to find out about the big
lizard.
So anyway like I said, Godzilla
makes his way to NYC and decides that if he can make it there he
can make it anywhere, even if it means destroying it along the
way. And the Army will have something to say about it. Have a
watch it's good escapist fun.
|
VIDEO |
Now this is where we are talking reference quality, you would think that a movie
like this would show up a lot of noise and MPEG artifacts but it doesn't. There has been a
lot of great MPEG encoding done on this disc and it really shows well. The shadow detail
is very crisp and it shows Columbia/Tri-Star are the best at DVD's at the moment.
This is a single sided, dual layer
disc.
Godzilla is framed at 2:40:1 and
is 16:9 enhanced.
|
AUDIO |
The audio on the disc is encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is very impressive.
The use of the surround channels is very aggressive and immersive. The .1 Channel was also
frequently used and used well & the dialogue was clear and easy to understand for
about 95% of the movie. Great Stuff.
|
EXTRAS |
Talk about a lot. Firstly you get 2 teaser and 1 theatrical trailer that are all
encoded in Dolby Surround but still very impressive. You also get a feature length
commentary track by Volker Engel about the movie's special effects and although it's a
little shallow is informative in places. You also get a music video of The Wallflowers
"Heroes", a cheesy documentary and some production notes including photos and
cast notes. Quite impressive really.
|
FINAL THOUGHTS |
Even though the movie isn't the best ever made, the reference quality of the
picture, sound, the amount of extras you get with the movie make it a must buy for all you
DVD nuts out there. Great job Tri-Star.
|
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
5.1 speaker system. |
Copyright © 2000 by [Roger
Ward].
Revised: 25 May 2000 14:40:45 +1100
.
|
|
Region
Coding: |
Region
4 |
No of
Discs: |
1 |
OFLC Rating |
PG |
Running
Time: |
133
minutes |
Case
Type: |
Keep
Case |
Release
Date: |
15/12/98 |
Catalog
Number: |
D21739 |
List
Price: |
$34.95 |
Distributor: |
Columbia/Tri-Star |
Disc
Format: |
PAL |
Disc
Type: |
Picture
Disc |
Disc
Format: |
SS-RSDL |
Chapters: |
28 |
Macrovision: |
Yes |
Manufacturer: |
Sony
DVD Center |
Aspect
Ratio:
|
2:40:1 |
Anamorphic: |
Yes |
Film
Format: |
35mm |
Dolby
Digital:
|
5.1
Surround
2.0 Surround |
DTS: |
None |
PCM
Stereo: |
None |
Other: |
None |
Languages:
|
English |
Subtitles: |
Yes |
Audio
Commentary: |
Yes |
Theatrical
Trailer: |
Yes |
Teaser
Trailer: |
Yes
(2) |
TV
Spots: |
None |
Dolby
Trailer: |
City
Trailer |
Documentary: |
Yes |
Cast
& Crew Bios: |
None |
Deleted
Scenes: |
None |
Music
Videos: |
Yes |
DVD Rom
Content: |
None |
Collectable
Booklet: |
None |
Scene
Access: |
Yes |
Animated
Menus: |
Yes |
Production
Notes: |
None |
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