5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Aliens with cone shaped craniums come to Earth to observe everyday life.
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Michael McKean, Laraine Newman, Jason AlexanderComedy | 100% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
1980’s “The Blues Brothers” is credited as the first “Saturday Night Live” movie, becoming a hit during the summer season, proving to Hollywood there was gold in them thar hills. However, it would take another 12 years before producer Lorne Michaels would permit another pass at a big screen adaptation of a sketch, eventually shepherding a cinematic spin for “Wayne’s World,” hitting the comedy zeitgeist with fresh, devastatingly hilarious offering that gracefully expanded the world of “Saturday Night Live” for a young audience newly hooked on the program. Bizarrely, for his follow-up, Michaels didn’t march forward in pop culture, he went back, all the way to the year 1977, selecting “Coneheads” as the next display of multiplex power from the “SNL” catalog. It’s not exactly clear what motivated this creative direction, but Michaels manages to assemble something with 1993’s “Coneheads,” offering co-writer/star Dan Aykroyd a shot at alien-based craziness with a feature-length showcase of his weirdest creation, transforming the family from “France” into a picture that periodically reminds the viewer that the concept only works in five-minute-long offerings of oddness.
The AVC encoded image (1.78.1 aspect ratio) presentation is sourced from an older master of "Coneheads." There's a fair amount of filtering applied here, smoothing out facial particulars and makeup effects, also softening frame details, losing a lot of texture with household interiors and alien ship and planet tours. Grain is mushy. Costuming is also missing fibrous qualities. Colors are mildly diluted but primaries remain acceptable, showcased during the brighter suburban hues and outfits. Exteriors also provide decent greenery and set decoration. Skintones are natural. Delineation encounters some solidification. Source is in decent shape, without any pronounced areas of damage.
The 5.1 DTS-HD MA supplies a basic sense of immersion, with neighborhood atmospherics and alien experiences delivering some surround activity. Dialogue exchanges are clear, helping to following the sometimes byzantine language of the screenplay, while performance intensity registers as expected, capturing creative choices. Scoring is distinct, with sharp instrumentation throughout. Soundtrack cuts lack the same power, dialed down some. Low-end isn't challenged, and some larger events, including a fireworks display and alien spacecraft movement, don't have much weight.
There are no supplementary materials on this disc.
"Coneheads" is brightly made and amazingly tasteful (earning only a PG rating), trying to offer 1970's silliness to audiences in the 1990s. It's never funny, only periodically amusing, but even that takes a break during the labored third act, where Aykroyd's fondness for craziness gets the best of him, sending the story to Remulak, meeting a world of Coneheads and the literal monsters they battle for social supremacy. It's a little too noisy to encourage laughs, and while Barron has fun dreaming up the alien realm and its inhabitants (using stop-motion animation to do so), it only adds overkill to a picture that's flooded with extraordinary emphasis and quirk. Surely Michaels could've gone anywhere after "Wayne's World," selecting a more relevant sketch to develop and offer the masses (there was a Hans and Franz script at the time that showed promise). Instead, he went for the "Coneheads," and to the production's credit, it tries to be the best "Coneheads" movie possible. Trouble is, it isn't really possible to do much with such a limited idea.
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