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Millennium
Madness
With all
the hysteria concerning Y2K, credit Strange Days with jumping
the gun a bit. Taking place on New Year's Eve 1999, the film
definitely presents a much more bleak existence than I think
we'll actually experience. But in 1995, who knew? With the
new drug of choice called "the wire," people can actually
connect with prerecorded experiences the brain processes like
your own. So now, not only can you experience the adrenaline
of robbing a bank, but the memory of witnessing a murder can
be passed on to anyone who "wire trips."
This film,
I could only describe as brutal. This is not your run-of-the-mill
action film. Contained within is, gasp, a real story. But
along with that story comes the brutality of the real world
that inspired the film, the Rodney King beating. Don't be
fooled by seeing James Cameron's name attached as writer.
This film is darker and more disturbing than anything he's
directed himself. Director Kathryn Bigelow, who previous helmed
Point Break, proves she has more action instinct than many
of her male peers.
(Editor's
Note: Just wanted to warn people that Juliette Lewis is in
this movie, so be forewarned. Just doin' my civic duty here...)
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Strange
Days is presented THX approved in it's original 2.35:1 aspect
ratio without 16X9 enhancement. I was extremely surprised
with the image quality, which is remarkably good. This seems
to be the same transfer used for the laserdisc released in
1996. However, it doesn't exhibit any of the over enhancement
problems that the Die Hard with a Vengeance transfer had when
carried over to DVD. The picture is a tad on the soft side,
but I actually prefer that and think that it gives the disc
a much more film-like appearance while eliminating a lot of
the artifacts that accompany artificial enhancement. Colors
are strong and natural. Detail, for a non-anamorphic disc
is wonderful. With the big New Year's celebration, there is
a ton of confetti and this disc performed well beyond what
I expected when handling all the small pieces and different
colors. I don't think I can stress this highly enough. This
is how a disc (if it just HAS to be non-anamorphic) should
be done. It's jaw-dropping! Had this disc been anamorphic,
it surly would have set a new reference.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
I'll make
this brief. You're unlikely to hear a more realistic, in your
face 5.1 soundtrack! When experiencing the point-of-view segments,
the sound design is exemplary of creating a completely convincing
encounter. User voices are aimed at the listener from the
surrounds, with all other sounds placed and panned to reflect
their place in the 360 degree soundfield. When out of the
POV segments, the soundtrack still exhibits the same care,
although without the exaggerated quality used for POV. Everything
is blended together with care and precision with no masking
of the dialog from music or effects. All in all, this is a
soundtrack that I will be looking forward to listening to
again and again. Also included are 2-channel stereo mixes
in English and French with English and Spanish subtitles.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? Definitely
a step above the usual Fox output. All of the extras contained
on this disc are recycled from the laserdisc and I'm glad
that Fox has decided to include them. First off, there is
a 55-minute audio discussion of the 4-minute opening POV sequence.
That's right, it takes 55-minutes to discuss that opening
and how it was done. Thankfully, this is not a full commentary
because at that rate, it would be like a two-day event! The
only downside to this audio lecture is that there is no visual
reference like there is with a standard commentary, so you
really have to know the sequence to have any sort idea what
she's referring to at times. Also of note, the audio for this
was pulled directly from the LD and at the 56:55 point, she
stops talking. However, that was for the LD side change and
the discussion continues at the 57:48 for another two-minutes.
The other
immigrants from the LD are two-deleted scenes and the original
teaser and trailer. As with most deleted scenes, they just
don't belong within the frame of the film as is, but are good
to see as a sort of side note. The original teaser is presented
2.35:1 with mono sound and was shot specifically for use as
a teaser with no actual footage from the film included. The
full trailer is presented at 1.66:1 with 2-channel stereo
and gives much more of an overall explanation of the film
it advertises. I'll have to admit, I'm a total trailer guy
and the full trailer actually gave me chills to watch. The
entire disc is tied together with simple but effective motion
menus with music. And similar to the Alien discs, the insert
actually contains brief cast bios and production notes. Don't
worry, you won't learn much from these.
Parting Thoughts
Although
the disc could hardly be considered a full-on special edition,
it does contain enough little goodies to make it worthy of
the $29.99 price tag Fox has given it. With impressive video,
mind-blowing audio, and more than the usual supplements, this
is definitely a cut above the standard Fox release. If you
like the film, you won't be disappointed with this edition.
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