Dick
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This review is made possible with the help of www.DaaVeeDee.comNotes on my reviews: I do not offer plot summaries in most cases, as these can be found on a million other sites, but rather focus instead on what people want to know: the image and sound presentation, default playback settings, subtitles, audio choices, etc. My equipment: Panasonic TC-P55UT50 Plasma monitor (3-D capable); Panasonic DMP-BDT220 3-D Blu-ray player; LG BD-360 all-region Blu-ray player; Denon AVE-E200 5.1 Surround receiver. All aspect ratios are physically measured on the Panasonic screen, which has been set to eliminate overscan.THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (2004) (COMBO)LABEL: DFW (Dutch Filmworks)COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: NetherlandsREGION: A,B,CASPECT RATIO: 2.35:1C/BW: COLORSOUND: Dolby Digital 5.1, dts 5.1 BONUS MATERIAL: InterviewsCHAPTERS: 20Al Pacino as Shylock? Yes, and he acquits himself very nicely, toning his usual histrionics down to only appropriate moments. Jeremy Irons is his usual superb self as Antonio, and Lynn Collins as Portia is a delight. This is a quite beautiful rendering of the Shakespeare play, not a comedy but not a tragedy either, that deals with racial prejudice and the desire for revenge. For anyone who is not familiar with the play/film, you are going to love the end-story twist. Costumes, sets, acting, camera work and musical score all contribute to the thick Elizabethan era atmosphere. This could have been directed by Franco Zeffirelli, but is in fact from Michael Radford, who also gave us WHITE MISCHIEF, IL POSTINO and 1984 (1984).The movie looks decent on Blu-ray, although the color tends toward green. I did not see this film theatrically, and have not seen the domestic DVD, so perhaps this is as was intended. It is a nice sharp image with good blacks and shadow detail. Grain is pretty much gone and looks to have been DNR’d, but detail remains strong. The sound is 5.1. The rear channels kick in during crowd scenes and when music underscoring is heard, but the bulk of the sound is from the front, as it should be, with dialog from center channel.The supplements consist of twelve short interviews with members of the cast and crew. There are also five unrelated trailers (none for MERCHANT) that have removable English subtitles.Dutch subtitles are default. You will need to remove them using your remote.
This is a combo release and contains the PAL DVD version.This review was made possible with the help of www.DaaVeeDee.com
This is a combo release and contains the PAL DVD version.This review was made possible with the help of www.DaaVeeDee.com