DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Collateral (1 Viewer)

[Lewis Besze]

Hehe here we go again,however we had changed places here.I found director Mann's films always "subtle" when it comes to surround placement,he does want you to focus on the screen the whole time,and most of his surround just ambiance.If you revisit his previous films you'll notice this for sure.I found this track in line with his previous efforts,and I found it punchy and very dynamic when it was needed to be.
It was a sure buy for me.

 

[Lewis Besze]

No and I'm using the same player,same goes for I robot. I use the Outlaw 950 pre/pro.

 

[John H Ross]

This is interesting. Thanks for that. I watched I, ROBOT in DTS the night before COLLATERAL. I had no problems with that, but I was watching the R3 (2-disc) version so I'm not sure if that's relevant.

It's interesting that you also have a Yamaha receiver. It's not the DSP-A1 by any chance? I've been doing some research and I've read some comments to the effect that this 5-year old amp might have some "issues" with the more recent DTS formats, i.e. it might be the Yamaha amp that's causing the dropouts rather than the Denon DVD player. Or perhaps it's a combination of the two manufacturers.

This might explain why the other poster above didn't have problems with COLLATERAL.

My first Denon 2900 suffered from SERIOUS dropout problems. It also made regular whirring sounds, like it was searching for something. I had it replaced for the model I have now which, as I said, has performed perfectly so far. So I'm not going to completely rule out a 2900 problem :-(

May I ask, are you using an optical or a coaxial connection? I'm using coaxial.

John

 

[T r o y]

I have a Yamaha DSP-A1 as my pre/pro outboarding power from an OUtlaw 750 and I noticed no dropouts in Collateral.

A very nice presentation listening through my setup.

I've had my A1 since April 98 and have had no issues whatsoever since then. Very pleased.

Later!

 

[John H Ross]

But do you use a Denon DVD-2900 player?

I'm trying to pin down a trend between these two units (Denon 2900 and Yamaha DSP-A1).

John

 

[T r o y]

John,
No I do not. I use a TAW Digilink I dvd player.
Using coax cable.

 

[DeanR]

John, The discs were Region 1 and I use a monster M1000D coaxial cable. My Yamaha is a RX-V1 which was their top of the line receiver model in 2000. I have gotten all the firmware updates for this Denon that I know about, i.e. Alien DTS issue, the Diana Krall DTS issue, and the original update(forget the fixes although I think they were all video related). No issues with my Denon prior to these 2 discs. Other than the brief drop out I thought the Collateral DVD audio presentation was good.

 

[ZacharyTait]

I watched part of the behind the scenes on the DVD and I've got to give kudos to whoever decided to include subtitles for the extras. I really appreciate it when studios do this as it makes it easier for me, a hearing impaired person, to understand what is being said.

 

[Ron Reda]

Watched this movie last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. While the ending was just so-so, the ride was great. I thought Tom Cruise's performance was excellent and Jamie Foxx's pretty good. What I think I loved most about it was Michael Mann's direction...it was top-notch. His visual style is incredible. There was always something interesting going on in the frame and I loved the use of all of those different angles. While the DTS soundtrack was somewhat restained, it really hit with visceral impact whenever shots were fired...what a hoot! All in all, one of the best movies of it's kind I've seen in a while and definitely one of my favorites.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

It lost me at the car crash. It turned from highly improbable to down right ludicrous and went downhill from there.

It would have been interesting if Foxx and Cruise had become more reluctant "friends" where Foxx loses some of his "nice guy" roll and became more like Cruise's morally ambiguous "bad guy." Their morality discussions were good and there should have been more of them. Also, more of Cruise's motivations would have been interesting where the bad guy has a story of his own. All rather than the Die Hard-lite last act. I did like the closing line stated by Cruise, and it helped elevate the film slightly.

I could tell from the first moment it had been sourced from video. It had a very digital, pasty look and motion smeared from time to time. All tell tale signs of CCD artifacts. I think they did do a digital transfer from the high res. source as the grain looked like low light pixelization artifacting and, again, CCD noise.

Digital video is still far from perfect and I wish they'd stop using it in major motion pictures until the problems have been worked out. Fine grain film stock still kicks the crap out of video, and let's not even talk about 70mm.

 

[Sean Patrick]

i liked the movie a lot but i have to agree with Dan in regards to the digital photography. I really didn't like it. i know some people are touting it as adding to the gritty look of the film; i just found it distracting and so obviously "digital" that it took me out of many scenes.

i also noticed the "smeared" look and the low-light digital grain.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Really liked this film, and I'll probably get it when I have funds.

 

[EnricoE]

today i received my copy of collateral and very fast i was pissed (sorry for the language): the trailers for the bourne supremacy and anchorman are a joke. i mean it would be cool to have the full trailers but what dreamowrks gives us here is nothing worth it

 

[dpippel]

I've had Collateral sitting on my shelf since I bought it on release day and just got around to viewing it tonight. LOVED the movie. Cruise, Foxx, and the supporting cast were great. I particularly liked Mark Ruffalo and thought his performance was excellent in a rather small role. I also LOVED THE CINEMATOGRAPHY! What visual splendiferousness! As another poster mentioned, every frame had something interesting to say. If it doesn't get nominated for Best Cinematography I'll be surprised. As for the high-def, I just don't see where the complaints are coming from. It looks wonderful to me and the transfer is extremely good. One of the best I've seen in a while in fact. A slightly different twist on the ending would have been more satisfying, but all-in-all my biggest regret after watching Collteral is that I didn't do it sooner. A very good film.

 

[RichardCrowther]

Hi all,

I've just got three questions about the R1 disc specifically and the film in general:

1) The R2 only comes with a dolby digital track. The dialogue is, on occasion, very muffled, and quite often buried in the mix to the point that it is hard to tell what is being said. Does the dts track on the R1 improve the overall clarity of the mix at all?

2) The subtitles that appear in one scene - are they burnt-in or player-generated, as on the R2?

3) Now, this is about the film itself, not the disc, so should, in truth be on the discussion thred, but since I am here, if you will indulge me :This is possibly a really thick question, but:

Coming from the UK, I don’t know how US subway systems work, so I was wondering if someone could solve a probably really easily resolvable problem I have with the ending of this film.

Max and Annie run to the subway system. They have to make a choice about whether to stay on the level they’re presently on, or go down the escalator to the level below. They choose to run down the escalator to the level below. We see this happen.

Vincent runs onto that same level, and has to make a similar decision – “Did they go down or stay up here with me?” When the train on the level below pulls in and the train on Vincent’s level pulls in, he realises he must make a quick decision and he chooses to stay on his level (i.e. the one above Max and Annie) and jump across the line to the opposite side, and climb onto the back of that train as it sets off. Again, we see this happen.

Max and Annie get on to the train that pulled onto their level below. We see this, too.

My point is – how can Vincent be found to be on the same train as Max and Annie when he clearly got on a completely different train?

Am I missing something here?

 

[ZacharyTait]

Richard,

To answer your questions:

1) I've watched it with both tracks, and to me, the DTS is better. The voices were easier to make out than in the DD track.

2) I believe that the subtitles are burnt in.

3) The answer is here in the Official Discussion thread.

 

[RichardCrowther]

Thanks, Zachary.

 

[T r o y]

Well, I'm sure everyone has seen the Oscar Nominations and noticed that Collateral was not picked for Best Cinematography.

How'd this get overlooked ?

 

[JoshB]

Great to see it was at least nominated for something:

Best Supporting Actor: Jamie Foxx
Best Film Editing

I thought it at least deserved Cinematography, Sound, and Director, and maybe perhaps screenplay as well.

I'm not really suprised what was nominated for Cinematography, considering some of the filmsthat were released this year that looked stunning. But of the nominated films for that category, I've only seen one (Passion). Still, great news either way.

Michael Mann has nothing to worry about, since his Oscar for producer for "The Aviator" is pretty much locked. It's about time to since he has been widely overlooked, but I would have liked to have seen it for a film he wrote and/or directed himself.

 

[ZacharyTait]

I was pissed that Collateral didn't get a nomination for Cinematography. To me, it was the best shot movie of the year. Literally, at least half a dozen times, my breath was taken away by some of the shots of L.A.

I think it was Jeff Wells who said that Los Angeles Plays Itself feels incomplete without footage from Collateral. For those who don't know, LAPI is a 2:49 documentary that shows how L.A. has looked in the movies. It's played at a few festivals,and according to BoxOfficeMojo at 1 theater for 1 weekend, but I highly doubt it will ever get a DVD release because of the 200+ clips that need clearance.