Idle Hands: Collector's Edition
Columbia / 1999 / 92 Mins / Rated MA15+

This Review is sponsored by 
Columbia/Tri-Star Home Video


MOVIE
Yet another horror/comedy movie aimed at the teenage audience, Idle Hands is a fun little movie if somewhat strange at times.

Anton (Devon Sawa) is a pot smoking slacker who has no ambitions in life. He hangs out with his other pot smoking buddies Mick (Seth Green) & Pnub (Elden Henson)

One morning he wakes up and finds that his parents are missing and he watches the TV to see that there is a psycho murderer going around knocking off people. He then finds that his hand is possessed and has been committing all these murders, he then stumbles across his parents rotting corpses. His two friends come to the house and the hand murders them as well!

Too lazy to actually walk to heaven, Mick & Pnub stay behind as the living undead to help Anton. Meanwhile Anton cuts off his hand hoping to stop the hand only to realize that the hand is now after his new girlfriend and they have to stop it.

Filled with huge plot holes this movie requires a lot of suspension of disbelief. The movie is filled with a lot of jokes and do pull up this mediocre movie somewhat. Above average.

VIDEO
There is  some slight problems with this transfer. The transfer is not as sharp as it could have been considering it was only made about a year ago. Colors were well rendered but shadow detail was lacking in the print. The movie also seemed quite gray instead on deep black, I even calibrated my Rear Projection TV to make sure it wasn't me.

There were no MPEG artifacts present. The original print looked clean.

Idle Hands is framed at 1:85:1 and is 16:9 enhanced.

This is an RSDL disc. The change occurs at 52:40.

AUDIO

Two soundtracks on this disc. English Dolby Digital 5.1 and German Dolby Digital 5.1. 

Another great soundtrack. This movie makes great use of the .1 and surround channels with excellent sound steering throughout.

The center channel was also very clear and easy to listen to.

EXTRAS
A good selection of extras.

Extras Include:

Theatrical Trailer: Dolby Digital 2.0 sound, 1:85:1 framed trailer.

Feature Directors Commentary: This is a great commentary featuring the director, Seth Green & Elden Henson. The director does give some info when he can get a word in. This track really belongs to Seth Green though, he's informative as well as funny and shows he has quite a lot of knowledge about the whole movie making industry, more than most actors would of his age.

Featurette: A rubbish featurette that is of usual trailer extension format.

Deleted Scenes: 1 extra scene of the alternate ending introduced by the director that you can watch with or without commentary also. This is good.

Storyboard to Film Comparison: 2 comparison  scenes called "Saw Blade" & "Cuff Me". Each one shows the storyboard at the top and a very hard to see video in the bottom as it is so dark.

Subtitles Include:
Closed Captioned, Greek, German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Hindi, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Dutch, Norwegian, Hebrew

FINAL THOUGHTS
An average movie with average video but is redeemed with great extras and sound.

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: 25 May 2000 14:54:30 +1100 .

DVD INFORMATION
Region Coding: Region 4
No of Discs: 1
OFLC Rating MA15+
Running Time: 92 minutes
Case Type: Brackley Case
Release Date: 14/2/00
Catalog Number:
List Price: $39.95
Distributor: Columbia/Tri-Star
DISC SPECIFICATIONS
Disc Format: PAL
Disc Type: Picture Disc
Disc Format: SS-RSDL
Chapters: 28
Macrovision: Yes
Manufacturer: Sony DVD Center
VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS
Aspect Ratio: 1:85:1
Anamorphic: Yes
Film Format: 35mm
SOUND SPECIFICATIONS
Dolby Digital:

5.1 Surround

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

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

INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE INFO
OFFICIAL WEB SITE
VIEW TRAILER