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Now Available |
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"Get
Ready for a Second Rush!" |
 DVD EXTRAS |
- Audio
Commentary
- Featurettes x 8
- Multi-Angle FX Deconstruction
- Cast and Crew Listings
- Hidden Trailers x 2 |
- Theatrical
Trailer
- Teaser Trailers x 2
- Dolby Digital TRAIN trailer
- DTS Flying Disc Trailer
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CAST & CREW Director Brett Ratner / Cast
Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker, John Lone, Alan King, Roselyn Sanchez Harris Yullin & Zhang
Ziyi/ Music Lalo Schifrin |
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If it's not Eddie and Nick, it's Mel and Danny, and
if it's not Mel and Danny, it's Jackie and Chris.
Somehow I don't think the Buddy cop movies are ever gonna die, and now that the Lethal
Weapon Series has come to an end, it's Rush Hour to the rescue.
The one thing Rush Has over Lethal is the presence of Jackie Chan, who is wihout a
doubt the gutsiest actor alive. While Jackie's Antics in his "american"
movies" aren't a patch on some of his mindblowing Hong Ventures (Police Story, and my
personal Favourite, Who Am I). His latest bunch of films still offer a few gasps and
wows as he scales tall buildings in a single bound.
In their second teaming (of what is possibly turning into 3 or 4) Inspector Lee (Jackie
Chan) and Detective Carter (Chris Tucker), begin their latest venture in Hong Kong.
Carter is on vacation and of course they get interrupted when an American Consulate
Builidng is bombed (by Crouching Tiger's Zhang Ziyi in her first American movie).
But of course the food chain goes a little higher up and it turns out to be head Mafia man
Ricky Tan (Jonh Lone), the man who killed Lee's Father all those years ago.
With the wheels set in motion Lee and Carter go after Tang, and end up back in the US
of A, in ...Vegas for the final showdown. |
So how does this transfer hold up?
... . |
VIDEO
On offer is a very nice Anamorphic Widescreen Transfer (the DVD is also
flagged with the 4x3 Pan and Scan Mode, so if your DVD player is set to this mode the DVD
player will stretch out the Anamorphic image so as it plays back at about 1.85:1 on your
4x3 TV)
While the source material is nothing short of immaculate
(RH2 was sourced from an Interpositive) and it's a bit heavy looking with the image being
too dark overall for my liking. Colours are strong and bold, but look a tad off
kilter.
Just for a comparision, have a loook at the difference between colour, depth and black
levels of Theatrical Trailer #1 and see how much more oomph it has compared to the actual
movie. (The Image isn't quite as clean but it shows so much more of the piccy and
looks more natural)
Sharpness is pretty good and quite consistent, but wide shots with lots of detail and
movement are a little softer looking than those of closeups and the like.
RH2 maker's, New Line Cinema, also made 15 Minutes. When comparing these two DVD
transfers 15 Minutes really shows RH2 up. (The 15 minutes DVD is the RIGHT way to go
about delivering the best in picture qaulity)
There is the odd bit of MPEG artifacting throughout (but none are anywhere near as obvious
as in the opening New Line Cinema logo bit..check out that solarization :)
Spread over 2 layers of an RSDL DVD, the layer change
occurs very late in the movie at 74:14 (start of chapter 14), just as Carter runs out
of frame to the right. There's a noticable pause, but it's not overly disruptive as
it's at the end of the sequence. |
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AUDIO
RH2 was Theatrically released in mere 5.1 surround sound :( BUT for the
DVD release, it was remixed not only into Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX,
BUT also DTS ES Discrete 6.1.
(the EX track needs to be manually engaged for full decoding, but those equiped with DTS
ES will be happy with it's auto-detection mode :)
Overall, the DTS track is the winner. The sound has more body, tighter bass (of
which there is quite a lot in the soundtrack in general), and a sweeter top end (the Dolby
track showed to be a little bit raspy, while the DTS was a little more layed back, but
with a stronger feel about it)
Something i found MOST unusual is that the DOLBY track
plays back +4dB louder than the DTS (the dolby track also has a +2 normalisation level
boost).
Being so use to DTS tracks coming across a little louder, this was a little bit of a shock
to the system :))
Quality wise, the DTS is first rate with crystal clear
Dialogue that's very well in sync (unlike some slippage that occurred in the original Rush
Hour).
Musically it's very sweet sounding, with an nicely understated presence (even in the big
action sequences the music never really takes over, for a change).
The front soundstage goes nice and wide and very deep, with great imaging all around.
The Dolby track is really all that, but the end result is that it simply sounds a little
thinner.. Both however are good very good quality mixes.
I was quite excited to hear this was getting remixed, as i
love the "6.1" extended sound formats so much, but in this case, it really
wasn't quite as EX-y or ES-y as I'd hoped for. Or at least in terms of
"6.1" there wasn't a whole lot of that "we've utilising an extra channel
and we were going to make it stand out now and then to make you feel better about the huge
expense you went to in order to gain a fuller sound field" :)
Granted, there are a few moments where the Back Surround kicks in (like the plane flying
over head and the casino sequence with coins clinking all over ), but the back surround is
mostly used for a little more emphasis in the music score. Direct comparision
between the EX "matrix" and ES "discrete" reveal the ES track is much
fuller sounding with added directionality. (listening up close to the surround back
speakers, the EX version actually sounds quite hollow compared to it's superior ES mix).
Side Surround Usage is really quite good, with the music really taking control for a great
ambience at a very pleasing level. General sound FX all around the place, though
again, quite subtly placed throughout. ('cept for in a few spots, like the The
Climax of the film. This is absolute Demo Material for EX and ES with every speaker
going right OFF! it's really kicks some serious butt :)
A Dolby 2.0 Surround track has also been
included, and is actually pretty damn good.
Audio is also changable on the Fly with this DVD. |
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EXTRAS
RH2 has been loaded with extras (lotsa little featurettes
actually) but it really seems to be a case of quanity and not quality, for there was
nothing overly exciting about anything here (well actually there were 2 VERY COOL extras,
but we'll get to them in a minute)
All extras on this DVD are presented in Anaorphic Widescreen...nice
- Audio Commentary – Director Brett Ratner and Writer Jeff nathanson have
leant their voices to a comm track. Overall it's rather layed back, but they mention
a few movie goodies.
- Jackie Chan Hong Kong Intro - a 2 minute look around Hong Kong with JC
voice layover
- Culture Clash West Meets East - With RH2 being shot partly in Hong
Kong, there was something of a shock to the systems of many crew members. runs about
5 minutes.
- Language Barrier - all the stars of RH2 were of different nationalities
and Actress Zhang Ziyi doesn't speak a word of english, so not only did she have a
personal translator, but good 'ol Jackie stepped in whenever possible. 5 minutes
also
- Attaining International Stardom - goes thru the sucess Jackie has
finally seen in teh USA after many many years of trying
- Kung Fu Choreographgy - HA! After seeing Crouching Tiger I really
though Ziyi was a kick-arse kung fu master..(turns out she's just a damn fine dancer who
can fake it really well :)
- Lady Luck - Brettt Ratner's short film from Film School
- Making Magic Out of Mire - Jeez, from the looks of this, you get the
impression everybody love
raymond director
Brett Ratner.
- Evolution of a Scene - There are 3 sequences of the movie discussed
here, in the form of featuettes. They're all just a behind the scenes look at how
they went about prepping and shooting said sequences (all are quite interesting)
- Fashion of RH2 - Mostly a montage of RH2 fashion, with some rather
funny moments from Jeremy Piven's Cameo (he was in Ratner's previous Film The Family Man)
- Visual FX Deconstruction - this one used the multiangle feature to show
4 difference processes in shooting the buildiing blast sequence
- Deleted Scenes & Outtakes - 9 deleted/extended sequences from the
film with 5 minutes of outtakes. (the end credit's are funnier though). (the
PLAY ALL option has THANKFULLY Been included here [by Roadshow] and to top it off there's
a selectable Brett Ratner comm track here..nice)
- Trailers - 1 Theatrical and 2 Teaser Trailers (dolby 5.1 and dolby
2.0), Dolby Digital Train, and DTS Flying Disc.
- Cast and Crew Listings
- Hidden Trailers - NOW. This is the BEST feature you find on the
disc. There are TWO trailers hidden in the menus for.. LORD OF THE RINGS (the encoding of
the trailers is a but naff, but the audio is Glorious Dolby 5.1, and dolby 2.0)
You'll also find that the main menu background changes when you navigate around the
sub-menus (oh and on the negative side, i found the selection of options in the submenus
to show quite a lot of inconsistency. Once a featurette, etc is played and you are
returned to the menu, depending on which option you had selected, also depends on whether
the option below it is then selected for your next choice (or whether the cursor is
returned to the SAME option again). (One the "evolution of the scene" menu
the cursor correctly moves down to the next after you play a sequence, but on the main
Special Features page it doesn't) (it's just a minor gripe from someone being fussy,
but i do like consistency with DVD Menus...Just like how Options that when selected are
OBVIOSULY selected, none of this "let's have yellow option buttons and the selected
option colour as orange" ..most annoying).
Two Levels of subtitles have also been included. #1 is the English for hearing
Impaired track, and #2 contains english subtitles only when dialogue spoken on screen is
non-english. (Track #2 is turned ON by default)
Just like the first film, they've found an appealing formula and they've stuck to it.
As a DVD RH2 looks quite nice and sounds pretty darn good, and is loaded with extras.
The added bonus of DTS-ES discrete and EX is a little more tempting as well.
(plus you get 2 LOTR trailers to watch, and watch, and watch, and watch........ :) |
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| DVD Ratings |
PICTURE_QUALITY |
8/10 incredibly
clean print, but is a bit heavy looking |
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SOUND_Quality Dolby |
9/10 clean and
clear, but thinner than the DTS |
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Dolby "6.1" WOW_Factor |
8/10 good use overall,
Surround Back feels underused |
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SOUND_Quality DTS |
10/10 very crisp and
clear sounding |
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DTS "6.1" WOW_Factor |
8.5/10 discrete back
surround certainly enhanced soundfield |
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| EXTRAS |
7/10 a lot of
extras, but nothing overally exciting |
REVIEW_DATE
21st February 2002 |
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Review Equipment |
| Monitor |
Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV) |
Speakers |
Mains: Quadral Gold Amun |
| Amplifier |
Denon AVC-A1SE THX Ultra(EX/ES) |
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Centre: B&W CDMC-SE |
| DVD_Player |
Pioneer DV717 (using RGB outputs) |
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Surrounds Side: M&K SS500 |
| Interconnects |
QED SQART & QED Optical |
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Surrounds Back : Polk RT/fx |
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Subby: M&K V125 |
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| * jpeg
files for internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by
Roadshow |
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