Sir Terrence the Terrible
03-02-2006, 03:43 PM
I really like John Carpenter version of the Fog. Its not like I really hated this version, but the characters were just too much eye candy to be taken seriously. I think this version is more about cute and hunky, than the fog itself. I thought most of the characters (played by Selma Blair, Tom Welling, Maggie Grace) were dumb, clumsy, and quite a few things didn’t make much sense. They also would have better serve the movie by just keeping the creatures out of the movie, and focus on the fog. The fog, and the thought of not knowing what was going to happen when the fog rolled in is what made Carpenters version so creepy. This one gives away half of what is going on in the first few minutes. Its not that this movie sucked totally, but it did so many things wrong, so wrong that they could not be overlooked.
"The Fog" is the retelling of John Carpenter's 1982 story of the seaside community Antonio Bay that is afflicted by a curse. The curse came as a result of a reneged land deal many years before where a leper colony was looking to move on the island. A group of men that lived on the island apparently didn’t want the leper colony to ruin growth on the island, so they trapped the colonist on their boat, and set the boat afire. Fast forward to the present. On the town's 100th anniversary a strange fog appears from the sea and in it are the ghosts of those who were deliberately killed by the founding fathers of Antonio Bay. They come to seek revenge and begin killing the relatives of their killers.
The Picture:
When it comes to the video, this movie is reference material. The anamorphic 2:35:1 aspect ratio picture is crystal clear, razor sharp, and not a single compression artifact to be found. Black levels were absolutely endless, shadow detail was exemplary, and colors were very well saturated with rich hues, no bleeding or chroma noise to be found. There was absolutely no evidence of halos around images or edge enhancement. The fog, and digital fog are very tough on MPEG encoders and decoders, but I found no problem whatsoever from this rendering. The average bit rate was around 5mbps, with some peaks at around 7-8mbps. This is one of the best looking DVD I have ever seen bar none. Running time of this movie is 103 minutes.
The Soundtrack:
The 448kbps 5.1 is also excellent. The surrounds are used very aggressively with the entire soundstage like one great big sonic cloud with sound effects swirling around the room in a very smooth fashion. The front soundstage is huge and deep with very effective panning down the sidewalls, and extending around the rear walls as well. Many times the sound is so real it felt like it was in the room itself. All channels have very active deep bass down to 30hz or so (the surrounds bass was down in level relative to the fronts) with the LFE having very loud bass signals to below 25hz. If played back at any level near reference this soundtrack will severely test you sound system. This soundtrack is first rate, but it is not subtle by any measurement.
I am completely bewildered on how Sony could put out a disc of reference quality with a movie with so many flaws and such poor acting and storytelling. They however did. This movie is good for showing off the quality of your system, but even better on showing how not to do a remake poorly.
The DVD contains a commentary track by Rupert Wainwright. Save your time though, it was boring and not worth listening to. It struck me as being shallow, self-congratulatory and entirely without realizing that the director has actually delivered the worst film in his short career.
The same goes for the other bonus materials on the disc, such as a making-of featurette – aka an electronic press kit – and a featurette on the film's mediocre special effects. A selection of deleted scenes is also included.
"The Fog" is the retelling of John Carpenter's 1982 story of the seaside community Antonio Bay that is afflicted by a curse. The curse came as a result of a reneged land deal many years before where a leper colony was looking to move on the island. A group of men that lived on the island apparently didn’t want the leper colony to ruin growth on the island, so they trapped the colonist on their boat, and set the boat afire. Fast forward to the present. On the town's 100th anniversary a strange fog appears from the sea and in it are the ghosts of those who were deliberately killed by the founding fathers of Antonio Bay. They come to seek revenge and begin killing the relatives of their killers.
The Picture:
When it comes to the video, this movie is reference material. The anamorphic 2:35:1 aspect ratio picture is crystal clear, razor sharp, and not a single compression artifact to be found. Black levels were absolutely endless, shadow detail was exemplary, and colors were very well saturated with rich hues, no bleeding or chroma noise to be found. There was absolutely no evidence of halos around images or edge enhancement. The fog, and digital fog are very tough on MPEG encoders and decoders, but I found no problem whatsoever from this rendering. The average bit rate was around 5mbps, with some peaks at around 7-8mbps. This is one of the best looking DVD I have ever seen bar none. Running time of this movie is 103 minutes.
The Soundtrack:
The 448kbps 5.1 is also excellent. The surrounds are used very aggressively with the entire soundstage like one great big sonic cloud with sound effects swirling around the room in a very smooth fashion. The front soundstage is huge and deep with very effective panning down the sidewalls, and extending around the rear walls as well. Many times the sound is so real it felt like it was in the room itself. All channels have very active deep bass down to 30hz or so (the surrounds bass was down in level relative to the fronts) with the LFE having very loud bass signals to below 25hz. If played back at any level near reference this soundtrack will severely test you sound system. This soundtrack is first rate, but it is not subtle by any measurement.
I am completely bewildered on how Sony could put out a disc of reference quality with a movie with so many flaws and such poor acting and storytelling. They however did. This movie is good for showing off the quality of your system, but even better on showing how not to do a remake poorly.
The DVD contains a commentary track by Rupert Wainwright. Save your time though, it was boring and not worth listening to. It struck me as being shallow, self-congratulatory and entirely without realizing that the director has actually delivered the worst film in his short career.
The same goes for the other bonus materials on the disc, such as a making-of featurette – aka an electronic press kit – and a featurette on the film's mediocre special effects. A selection of deleted scenes is also included.