Lexmark3200
08-22-2004, 11:45 PM
Added this to my collection yesterday after finding it on sale at FYE for 10 bucks....aside from the usual sucky, ****ty Warner snap case, the DVD boasted Dolby 5.1 EX sound, so I gave it a spin....
Well, incase there are some of you who didnt get to catch The Perfect Storm in theaters or on broadcast cable, the film debuted theatrically in the summer of 2000, helmed by Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, In The Line Of Fire, Air Force One), and centered on a group of fishermen from Massachussetts who encounter the storm of the century which occurred in 1991. Two massive storm fronts collided, and the fishing boat Andrea Gail was lost forever, with no survivors. The film was actually based on a novel regarding the storm and the case of the lost boat, but many critics have ripped Perfect Storm apart based on the fact that the film adaptation just didnt get it right; I mean, for certain, we really DONT KNOW if what happened on that boat as the film portrays actually HAPPENED because no one is alive to confirm or report this. We have to assume that most of the dialogue between the captain (played by George Clooney) and his men (assorted characters played by Mark Whalberg, Alan Payne and more) COULD HAVE been said the way it was portrayed. Still, visually, the CGI effects for this film were downright amazing, blending seamlessly with actual film of the guys on the Andrea Gail, to the point that you just dont know what was CGI and what was not.
Warner Bros presents Perfect Storm on DVD in an aspect ratio somewhere close to 2:35:1, and the picture looked fine to me. The audio was in Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, rare for this studio, who likes to put EVERYTHING in standard Dolby Digital 5.1 and who refuse to jump on the bandwagon regarding DTS (save for rare instances like Twister). The audio needs some analysis here. I thought it was just my system, but after reading other online reviews of this DVD, others seemed to find what I did regarding this 5.1 EX mix....early on, you would be hard pressed to know that this was even a surround track; everything seems either mono or stereo in nature....then, halfway through the DVD, the soundtrack picks up and the sounds of the waves, wind and rain crash around the listening space and there seems to be a definite "phantom center rear image" created for those (like me) who do not have that sixth back surround channel. Pretty nice mix. I had to constantly, though, keep playing with my Onkyo receiver's volume control to maintain loud and soft passages; seems once the guys are out in that storm, you are going to need to LOWER your surround system's volume....its pretty intense if you have it cranked.
There are a TON of extras on this single disc release, and I didnt get to any of em yet....an HBO making of (which I saw on HBO) and all kinds of real background on what really happened during that storm in '91.
Well, incase there are some of you who didnt get to catch The Perfect Storm in theaters or on broadcast cable, the film debuted theatrically in the summer of 2000, helmed by Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, In The Line Of Fire, Air Force One), and centered on a group of fishermen from Massachussetts who encounter the storm of the century which occurred in 1991. Two massive storm fronts collided, and the fishing boat Andrea Gail was lost forever, with no survivors. The film was actually based on a novel regarding the storm and the case of the lost boat, but many critics have ripped Perfect Storm apart based on the fact that the film adaptation just didnt get it right; I mean, for certain, we really DONT KNOW if what happened on that boat as the film portrays actually HAPPENED because no one is alive to confirm or report this. We have to assume that most of the dialogue between the captain (played by George Clooney) and his men (assorted characters played by Mark Whalberg, Alan Payne and more) COULD HAVE been said the way it was portrayed. Still, visually, the CGI effects for this film were downright amazing, blending seamlessly with actual film of the guys on the Andrea Gail, to the point that you just dont know what was CGI and what was not.
Warner Bros presents Perfect Storm on DVD in an aspect ratio somewhere close to 2:35:1, and the picture looked fine to me. The audio was in Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, rare for this studio, who likes to put EVERYTHING in standard Dolby Digital 5.1 and who refuse to jump on the bandwagon regarding DTS (save for rare instances like Twister). The audio needs some analysis here. I thought it was just my system, but after reading other online reviews of this DVD, others seemed to find what I did regarding this 5.1 EX mix....early on, you would be hard pressed to know that this was even a surround track; everything seems either mono or stereo in nature....then, halfway through the DVD, the soundtrack picks up and the sounds of the waves, wind and rain crash around the listening space and there seems to be a definite "phantom center rear image" created for those (like me) who do not have that sixth back surround channel. Pretty nice mix. I had to constantly, though, keep playing with my Onkyo receiver's volume control to maintain loud and soft passages; seems once the guys are out in that storm, you are going to need to LOWER your surround system's volume....its pretty intense if you have it cranked.
There are a TON of extras on this single disc release, and I didnt get to any of em yet....an HBO making of (which I saw on HBO) and all kinds of real background on what really happened during that storm in '91.