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HTF REVIEW: "A Beautiful Mind" <HIGHLY RECOMMENDED> (with screenshots) (1 Viewer)

Colin Jacobson

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One question: How were the feature-length commentaries? I've never heard a commentary by Ron Howard before. Were Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman forthcoming with interesting information throughout the length of the movie?
Both are good but unexceptional. Howard's is probably the better of the two, though it's not a great commentary. To quote myself: "Howard gives us enough useful information to make the track worth a listen, but it seems inconsistent." He also did tracks for Apollo 13, EdTV and I think that's it, though I'm not sure about that. Actually, his A13 discussion is really quite good, as is the whole DVD - you should give it a look.

As for Goldsman, here's another self-quote: "Although he seems chattier than Howard does – fewer empty spots occur – Goldsman also provide less useful information."
 

Cees Alons

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Great review, Ron.
I need to buy that one immediately, that's clear.

Cees
 

DanR

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Dec 27, 1998
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This movie does stand up to multiple viewings. I saw it in the theater, and knew I wanted to buy it on DVD. Then, recently, it was shown on my intercontintental plane trip, and I watched it twice on the plane, back to back.

I was in Best Buy this week buying a CD, and one of the clerks there said this DVD would be $17.99 on Tuesday. I'll be getting it on that day so I can watch it again.

Regards,
Dan
 

kevin_asai

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Am I the only one here who hates the color in the most of the scenes? I think the color is way too orangish and it is very distracting to me :frowning:
Before I bought the disc, I thought the colour would look terrible on the first half of the show but it looked terrible in the most of the scenes.
Flame away, .02 worth
 

Sanjay Gupta

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Sanjay Gupta
Am I the only one here who hates the color in the most of the scenes? I think the color is way too orangish and it is very distracting to me
Nope your not the only one since I myself found the colors quite off. Infact I spent the first 10 - 15 min of the film trying to adjust the colors and then finally gave up.

Anyhow I just saw the film last night and have to say I absolutely loved it. But I was dissapointed to not find a DTS track since with Universal it is something I have come to take for granted, well atleast with a major title such as this. Anyone have any ideas as to why Universal chose not to include a DTS track?

Sanjay
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It was probably a matter of data storage space. If Universal had included DTS, there wouldn't have been enough room for the audio commentary tracks by Director Ron Howard & Screenplay Writer Akiva Goldman.:frowning:
 

Gui A

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Dec 25, 2000
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The DVD-ROM features TOTAL AXESS which
through an internet connection, allows you to access
Universal's website to see exclusive interviews,
behind-the-scenes footage, and weekly updated news
about the film. A promo for this feature is included
on Disc One.
So who has used this? What was the quality like? What can be expected from this on the E.T. and Back to the Future releases?
My only DVD-Rom is in the iMac. Will it work on it?
:angry:
Thanks
 

Ronald Epstein

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From my review above...

What I am somewhat bothered by is the orange color
that is cast over the entire transfer for the first
25 minutes of the film. I would suspect that Ron
Howard used this color cast to convey a look for
the time period it represents. The only problem
is, even when the picture becomes more normalized
in color, flesh tones often remain a little more
on the orange side.
 

Eugene Hsieh

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Jun 30, 1997
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I never saw the movie in the theatres. I just saw it last night and while I think it isn't a bad film, the cleaned up Hollywoodishness (as Ron Epstein mentioned) of the movie bugged me, and now I'm quite surprised it has received the Oscar for best picture (although to be honest I really can't judge since I haven't seen some of the other nominated films). Crowe's performance is excellent however. Even though the DVD is excellent, I won't be buying it. Fortunately for me though, my girlfriend did.

A couple things that irked me about the technical aspects of the film/DVD:

1) Jarring layer change.
2) Orange colour cast (as previously mentioned) - I don't know if this was intentional or not (my TV is ISF calibrated) but I also did notice some minor colour shifts in the middle of one scene, as if a film reel was changed or something.

One thing that is interesting about this DVD is the subtitles. They aren't all centred. Somebody sat there and actually changed the location of subtitles for each scene as appropriate. This would not be at all hard to do technically, but of course it would be a lot of extra work. OTOH, the placement of some of the subtitles was too distracting. It was almost as if the person doing it was a little too enthusiastic in exploiting this feature. In a few spots, the subtitles actually ended up on an actor's face.
 

Martin Jeeves

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I have seen the Canadian release in my area. Is it the same as the U.S. version. Is the audio, video quality and specs the same? Please let me know thanks,
 

Chuck C

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Wow, what a great DVD. The second disc and the deleted scenes on the first disc make me appreciate the film even more. At first, I was dismayed that Moulin Rouge! didn't win best picture, but now I'm glad A Beautiful Mind won; it's a very well rounded picture. Russell Crowe was robbed by the academy..shame!
 

Dave H

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I finally got around to renting this movie. I thought it was pretty good. Worth a rental - something I wouldn't buy though. For a "Best Picture" movie, I thought it was weak, but last year was in general for movies.
 

Jenna

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Jeanette Howard
Ditto, Dave. This release just didn't "draw me in" -- probably the subject matter which was just depressing. I'm so glad I didn't buy it site unseen, despite all the salesmen's recommendations. While the actors submitted superb performances [even the smug, cocky Crowe], the movie just depressed me. Couldn't imagine watching it more than once. Actually, once was even too long for me.
Can't BELIEVE that this movie won "Best Picture" over Moulin Rouge. P-U!!!
:thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown: :thumbsdown:
Pass the Prozac!!!
 

Merconium

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Add me to the list of the unimpressed. I felt that the movie lacked true depth--the really interesting climactical section came far too early IMO. I think Howard kept building toward it (no spoiler,) continuing to mention that he cut scenes to keep the flow headed there.

Once you got there, it seemed to drag through to a few interesting parts that never fully matche what we already know. Maybe it is the movie/subject area itself. I dunno.

Worth seeing, but I thought there were better movies last year.
 

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