|
Director
John McTiernan works in what I call double vision. Every actor
he has worked with, he's done so twice. He directed Bruce
Willis in both the first and the third Die Hard films. He
worked with Schwarzenegger in Predator and Last Action Hero.
And his first film, Nomads, as well as his current one, The
Thomas Crown Affair, show the career progression of both the
director and the films' star Pierce Brosnan. With McTiernan's
upcoming The 13th Warrior due in theaters any day, I'm already
looking forward to his next reunion with Antonio Banderas.
Medicine Man was the director's mandatory second film with
Sean Connery, after the phenomenal success of The Hunt for
Red October two- years before.
Medicine
Man tells the story of Dr. Robert Campbell, a brilliant, yet
slightly eccentric scientist who, deep in the Amazon rainforest,
has found the cure for cancer. As the story begins, Campbell
has willfully isolated himself from his superiors. When a
mysterious message is sent to his corporation, requesting
supplies and assistance, Dr. Rae Crane (Lorraine Bracco) is
dispatched to Campbell to get answers. Upon arrival, she learns
the truth. All of it. Yes, Campbell has indeed found the cure
but for some reason, he can't duplicate it. With the destruction
of the rainforest for construction of a new road approaching
closer to camp each day, will they be able to solve the mystery
before the cure is destroyed for good?
Make no
mistake about it, this is a message picture. Fortunately,
it's not a heavy-handed one. The story is pretty easy to take
and if you let it, can actually make you think about these
issues. I like Sean Connery in just about anything he does
and he does just fine here. Bracco can be really grating at
times but that was sort of the point of her character I think.
The real star of this film, however, is the wonderful cinematography
by Donald McAlpine. It's a shame Buena Vista ruined it.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
As I just
mentioned, the 2.35:1 photography by Donald McAlpine, is fantastic!
But this is not what McAlpine had intended. There are several
things wrong with the video on this disc and I will go through
them with some reference points for you to check out if you
want to rent this before deciding on a purchase. First, there
are near-constant digital compression artifacts throughout
the entire film. There is a great deal more edge enhancement
present here than I would care to see. With that comes a shimmering.
Take a look at the shot that starts at 5 minutes 30 seconds.
Horrible! At 23:46, notice how the camera is locked off and
yet there is still movement in the jungle backgrounds. And
nearly all of chapter 6 (my favorite part of the film) suffers
from this. There is also a bit of color smearing most evident
in the orange sticker appearing in the shot that begins at
the 13-minute mark. THIS is why seven-and-a-half-year old
transfers are unacceptable for transfer to a DVD. They bring
up every blemish, deficiency and overcompensation from a previous
format. The overall image quality is flat, with none of the
depth of field that I remember from seeing this theatrically.
There's just an ugly, blah quality to this disc. Weirdly enough
though, the picture did improve somewhat from about the 60-minute
mark through the end of the film. I don't know if this is
due to being transferred from the old laserdisc or what. Even
with a better looking second half though, Medicine Man is
still one of the WORST DVDs I've seen yet.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
While the
video quality is a downright disappointment, the audio is
at least serviceable. There is quite a bit of surround use
and some really fine directional effects in the front soundstage
from this 2-channel Dolby Surround soundtrack. Jerry Goldsmith's
gorgeous score really sounds wonderful is both range and envelopment.
There's not a lot of use for your subwoofer except for a few
thunder effects. There can be a slight harshness to the soundtrack
from time to time, most notably in chapter 5 as they argue
back and forth in the lab. It's not a constant thing, but
one that can be irritating. This isn't the best soundtrack
I've heard, but it's certainly not the worst either. A French
language track is also provided.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? Nothing
to rock your world here. The theatrical trailer and a featurette
are included. The trailer is full-frame mono and serves it's
purpose. The featurette is yet another one of those examples
where you can throw some interview bits into what is essentially
the trailer and call it a production featurette. To be honest,
I learned nothing about the production from this featurette,
isn't that false advertising?
Parting Thoughts
Medicine
Man needs medical attention immediately! With anemic supplements,
a fair soundtrack and video that would make a blind guy angry,
if this DVD were a kitten, I'd drown it!
(Editor's
Note: DVDFILE.COM does not in any way support the drowning
of cats nor cruelty to animals. Now hamsters, well, that is
another story...)
|
