| Given half a chance, anyone would travel back
in time to make a change to something they wanted to do, or wish they hadn't done.
Imagine the possibilities. The biggest is of course money. You cold find out
the lotto numbers from the $13 Million Friday the 13th Draw, go back the day before the
event, give your younger self the numbers, and come back to your time very very
rich......mmmmmmmmm It's 1994 and the theory of time
travel has just been proven to be more than just a theory. The US Government is prompted
to establish a new security division designed solely to monitor suspicious events that
could have been the result of time travel tampering. Max Walker (JCVD) is offered a
job as a time travel enforcer, and on the night before he accepts, his wife Melissa (Mia
Sara) is killed in a total house explosion, when they are attacked by thugs.
Now 10 years later, Max is working for the agency run by his good friend Eugene Matuzack
(Bruce McGill) . Max has been alone for the past 10 years as he hasn't gotten over
the death of his wife.
During one of Max's trips in time, he arrests his ex partner who before dying, tells him
that Senator McComb (Ron Silver) is stealing money and the like all over the time line to
fund is presidential campaign in 2004.
Max then ends up travelling back to 1994 with his new partner Sarah Fielding (Gloria
Reuben), merely days before his wife is killed. During their investigation, Max
finds out a secret about his wife, and decides then and there to stop McComb from causing
more harm.
So How Does This Transfer Hold Up??
As Universal did with Liar Liar, we are treated to a new 16:9 Enhanced transfer (the
initial US release was a plain 'ol Pan and Scan jobbie in BOTH cases).
Though the print used must have been cleaned up well, there is a terrible amount of
aliasing, mostly minor, some not so minor at any rate I found it quite distracting at
times. Overall Sharpness was good, but should have been better, and the level of
detail was pretty high. Colour saturation was consistent throughout, and was never
really high in saturation, quite neutral in fact.....never a problem though, suited the
film fine. This is quite a dark film at times (after all Peter Hyams directed and
shot this, he has a tendency to go overboard with darkness...anyone seen The Relic??).
Thought this film only runs for 94 minutes, it's spread over an RSDL DVD, with the
layer change being at 60:56, right after the truck runs over head of
JCVD.
As a film of this length normally fits on a single layer disc (extras are minimal here, so
it would have been easy to justify), I took a look at the transfer data bit rate, and
found it to sit above 8 Mbps (Megabits per second) throughout!!!! the average bit
rate is suppose to be around 3.5 Megabits per seconds. (this is somewhat rough, but
essentially this movie has been encoded at more than twice the bitrate of the average DVD
bit rate)
Video Highlights
Ch 01 03:00 - 04:00 Standing in the rain
Ch 05 22:25 - 23:00 Convicted
Ch 07 35:49 - 35:52 Missed it by that much
Ch 15 89:25 - 89:45 I have something to tell you
Released theatrically in DTS, this DVD has been encoded
with 4 Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks, English, German French and Spanish, and a single
Dolby Digital 2.0 for Czech.
The 5.1 mix isn't too bad, but doesn't hold up as well as films of today (though it's
still better some some that comes out).
The front sound stage is the primary focus, with some surround activity when required, but
it being a sci-fi action film, a more engrossing sound mix would have been preferred.
Bass attack is there and it isn't. Ultimately it lacks ooomph, but
still has a bit of a kick now and then.
Audio Highlights
Ch 04 18:14 - 18:25 Bubble Boy
Ch 08 41:26 - 41:53 Thunderbirds are go!!!
Ch 08 53:26 - 53:28 Have a nice day
Ch 14 84:33 - 84:54 Split personality
Not much is on the card for Extras all that you get is a Letterboxed Theatrical
trailer Cast and Crew Bios, and Production notes
Time travel has always been my favourite sci-fi element, so
I quite enjoyed Timecop and it's connect the time travel dots. The DVD isn't bad
either, and going by the region 1 version, this one has it beat hands down.
| PICTURE QUALITY |
7/10 too much aliasing |
| SOUND QUALITY |
7/10 so so for 5.1 |
| FEATURES |
2/10 nothing to get excited about |
Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717 (using RGB outputs)
Receiver: Marantz SR870 & Sony SDP-EP9ES
Speakers:-
Fronts: B&W 602
Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
Rears: Jamo Magic 14
Subby: M&K V125
- Reviewed 27th December 1999
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