Nick Chavez Beverly Hills
Stunt Coordinator
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2006
- Messages
- 78
- Real Name
- Nicholas Chavez
Just some thoughts on this newly-released edition of the classic holiday caper, released just this past Tuesday....while Fox did not go back to the vault and make any changes to the visual and audio elements (or so it seems), there is the addition of a nice slipcase and some heartfelt extras for those fans of the title who reach a bit above and beyond the "everyday enthusiast" who revisits this title each Christmas season. There is a commentary track by director Chris Columbus (no, no pun intended, nor am I kidding) and Culkin himself.
The 1:85:1 anamorphic transfer is clean in every sense of the word -- and I mean "clean;" there is a brief moment of grain, from what I recall, and the remainder of the print is free of any distracting blemishes. The biggest complaint with this widescreen presentation has to be the softness the picture exhibits -- it is quite soft, and fleshtones are on the "pinkish" side, for lack of a better descriptive outlet...and so while clean, the transfer on this single-sided dual layer disc from Fox is soft and fails to render colors that really leap off the screen and cause retina burning -- of course, this is a holiday season comedy from 1990, so what can be expected is pretty much here. Still, it is nice to have this title in such a clean presentation, free of broadcast TV static noise or the murkyness of a VHS tape (although admittingly, the VHS version looked pretty impressive).
The audio, rendered in an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track or Dolby 2.0 (English) via Dolby Surround, was about in the same leauge as the video transfer. Surrounds, on the 5.1 track which I auditioned, were surprisingly active and called attention to themselves considering the source material, yet were no way aggressive or immersive in an extreme sense. The surround channels were used in a very subtle fashion -- the gentle presence of ambient noise of an airport during Christmas, the traffic on a snowy Chicago street, etc.; where the track kicked in quite aggressively was during a few sequences where airplanes were taking off and the deafening roar of the engines went straight into my surrounds and LOUDLY.....very impressive for such a title, considering the age as well. Also noteworthy was a sequence where Caulkin is sitting in a church during midnight mass (I believe, I could be mistaken) and the bass from the organs in the church was extremely deep and rattled my walls; now, of course, this is not Jurassic Park or Haunting levels of LFE, but the effect was extremely attention-grabbing and made me sit up and take notice -- very impressive. The biggest problem with the Dolby 5.1 mix? Dialogue seemed unnaturally low and difficult to make out, as if the actors had screens over their mouths, and then suddenly when action or score accompanied a scene, the audio would become blaringly attentive -- at the EXACT same volume levels. So dialogue clarity was the only real issue here.
Recommended for fans of the title.
The 1:85:1 anamorphic transfer is clean in every sense of the word -- and I mean "clean;" there is a brief moment of grain, from what I recall, and the remainder of the print is free of any distracting blemishes. The biggest complaint with this widescreen presentation has to be the softness the picture exhibits -- it is quite soft, and fleshtones are on the "pinkish" side, for lack of a better descriptive outlet...and so while clean, the transfer on this single-sided dual layer disc from Fox is soft and fails to render colors that really leap off the screen and cause retina burning -- of course, this is a holiday season comedy from 1990, so what can be expected is pretty much here. Still, it is nice to have this title in such a clean presentation, free of broadcast TV static noise or the murkyness of a VHS tape (although admittingly, the VHS version looked pretty impressive).
The audio, rendered in an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track or Dolby 2.0 (English) via Dolby Surround, was about in the same leauge as the video transfer. Surrounds, on the 5.1 track which I auditioned, were surprisingly active and called attention to themselves considering the source material, yet were no way aggressive or immersive in an extreme sense. The surround channels were used in a very subtle fashion -- the gentle presence of ambient noise of an airport during Christmas, the traffic on a snowy Chicago street, etc.; where the track kicked in quite aggressively was during a few sequences where airplanes were taking off and the deafening roar of the engines went straight into my surrounds and LOUDLY.....very impressive for such a title, considering the age as well. Also noteworthy was a sequence where Caulkin is sitting in a church during midnight mass (I believe, I could be mistaken) and the bass from the organs in the church was extremely deep and rattled my walls; now, of course, this is not Jurassic Park or Haunting levels of LFE, but the effect was extremely attention-grabbing and made me sit up and take notice -- very impressive. The biggest problem with the Dolby 5.1 mix? Dialogue seemed unnaturally low and difficult to make out, as if the actors had screens over their mouths, and then suddenly when action or score accompanied a scene, the audio would become blaringly attentive -- at the EXACT same volume levels. So dialogue clarity was the only real issue here.
Recommended for fans of the title.
