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Ben
Elton has long been a favourite writer and comedian in my circles. Aside from the fact
that I love British Comedy he seems to have a raw and dry sense of humour which does take
some getting used to.
Maybe
Baby is based on his novel: Inconceivable, which I unfortunately haven’t read but
will be making an effort to in the near future.
The
story is supposedly based on the problems endured by Ben Elton himself in his life and
conceiving a child.
The
Film is based around two characters Sam (Hugh Laurie) a script writer for the BBC and his
wife Lucy (Joely Richardson). Lucy is a tad over maternal and is trying desperately to get
pregnant. The joy of sex soon becomes a chore with all the extra mythical additives to
help Lucy get pregnant. Some of the theories on offer here are quite funny and will keep
you laughing for the better part.
Sam
is having his own problems at work coming up with a fabulous script, and turns to his own
experience as a basis for this story. The script goes to production without Lucy knowing
and Sam then tries many devious ways to get more information for the producer.
Lucy
meanwhile is at the attention of another man which is needless to say straining the
relationship.
The
crunch comes when Lucy learns of this precious script already in production
So how does this transfer hold up?
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VIDEO
The 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is a little
disappointing considering this is a relatively new film. Only a couple of years old. The
entire transfer is dull and appears to either have an intentional softness to it or it is
a little out of focus. Shadow detail was acceptable but not great, and general image
detail seemed to be lost at times as well.
The
colour palette similarly was quite bland and didn’t seem to have any impact at all.
There were no bright and cathy colours and certainly not a theme to the colour which
compensated for this. You could almost tell from the cover image on the sae that the
colour was going to be dull.
AUDIO
The Dolby 2.0 track is nothing spectacular but then it
doesn’t really require a fabulous track here as the film is basically dialogue based.
The dialogue is always clear and easy to understand. There are no audio sync problems and
the front sound stage was used as best it could be.
The
score from Colin Towns was average and wasn’t something i would commend but it did
support the film and added some felling where required.
EXTRAS
Cast and Crew Interviews: Bits and pieces of interviews with ben Elton. Joely
Richardson, and Hugh Laurie. 16mins
Television
Spots: 1min short and uneventful television spots.
Novel
Notes: A nice promo for the book
Cast
Bios
Theatrical
Trailer
CD
Notes: another promo, this time for the soundtrack.
DVD
Credits
OVERALL
The film does have its merits as humorous and quite enjoyable but the transfer
quality certainly let it down.
| PICTURE
QUALITY |
7/10 flat and
lifeless |
| SOUND
Quality |
7/10 not much
room for anything great |
| EXTRAS |
5/10
a big effort not much content. |
| OVERALL |
6.5/10
good but no cigar. |
Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Pioneer DV737 (via S-Video)
Receiver: Yamaha DTS RX-V595a (Sweeeeet)
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfdale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf
Subby: M&K V75
- Reviewed 9th March 2001
* Maybe Baby jpeg files for
internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by Siren
Entertainment |
