6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
When a woman learns of an immortality treatment, she sees it as a way to outdo her longtime rival.
Starring: Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rossellini, Ian OgilvyDark humor | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Robert Zemeckis has rightly or wrongly often been labeled as a director perhaps too obsessed with the world of special effects, and in looking over his undeniably impressive filmography, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Zemeckis is at least highly interested in the high tech world which has come to define much of modern cinema. As early as the first Back to the Future, Zemeckis started to display an almost startling facility with then nascent SFX techniques, and with the stunning advent of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, it became clear that Zemeckis was charting a really exciting new course for at least some aspects of modern motion pictures. The rest of the Back to the Future Trilogy only reaffirmed that tendency, and subsequent films as varied as Forrest Gump, The Polar Express , Beowulf and A Christmas Carol 3D only seemed to cement Zemeckis’ status as the director most likely to trot out shiny new toys (in a manner of speaking) to keep his audiences engaged. Death Becomes Her was a technical marvel back in its day (circa 1992), and went on to win a well deserved Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but despite its immense popularity at the time of its release, it’s often been relegated to ugly stepsister status in the Zemeckis canon. The film’s Faustian tale of female narcissism is an intentional snarkfest, and that may make it less of a “touchy feely” comfort blanket for audiences who may tend to prefer the schmaltzier side of Zemeckis’ work, as probably best exemplified by The Polar Express.
Death Becomes Her is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Culled from the Universal catalog, this transfer is generally decent looking, though things get off to a kind of rough start through the credits sequence where there's some noticeable image instability (watch as the camera pans down to the marquee proclaiming Madeline starring in Songbird!), as well as occasionally rough moments that are even more dupey looking than the rest of the opticals in the film (see screenshot 19). While elements don't have much actual damage, the palette seems skewed slightly, with flesh tones often tending toward the pinkish side of things. Though a lot of the nascent CGI is this film's special effects calling card, standard opticals are also in play at least some of the time, and the grain field understandably spikes in these moments, along with a resultant uptick in softness. In fact a lot of this transfer is on the gauzy side, though unlike many early Universal catalog releases, there is a healthy grain field here, though it's fairly variable throughout the presentation and flirts with compression anomalies at times (contrast screenshot 18 with a number of other ones for an indication of some of the issues on display). I have never seen the German release that has been the subject of some discussion in our Forum, but would simply state that this release is certainly watchable but just as certainly has room for improvement.
Death Becomes Her features both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. The surround iteration opens things up for occasional effects work and Alan Silvestri's enjoyable (and Danny Elfman-esque) score, but is otherwise fairly strongly anchored front and center. The 2.0 track provides excellent fidelity and clarity, if an understandably slightly less full sounding low end. Neither track has any problems in the form of distortion, dropouts or other damage.
Death Becomes Her is a lot of fun, at least for those who enjoy catfights between two well armed nemeses. All three of the principal players are wonderful, and the screenplay has some piquant observations about vanity and America's youth obsessed culture. Though it's a little rushed at times, Death Becomes Her may deserve a bit of a reassessment in terms of where it falls in the overall Zemeckis canon. Technical merits are decent to very good and the new featurette is quite enjoyable, though fans are understandably upset by the lack of deleted scenes. Recommended.
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