7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.6 |
Volunteering to drive his girl friend's son home for Thanksgiving to Chicago from his boarding school in Georgia, little does Dutch expect the picaresque adventures in store for him. When a blunt, down-to-earth construction worker takes to the road with an insufferable twelve-year-old snob (desperately insecure under the surface) who doesn't approve of him in the least, quite a bit must happen before they can reach their destination as friends-- or, for that matter, get home at all.
Starring: Ed O'Neill, JoBeth Williams, Christopher McDonald, Ari Meyers, Elizabeth DailyHoliday | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
You’re like a great big demented child!
It's hard to imagine that John Hughes had a hand in something as bland as Dutch, a 1991 Comedy that's so devoid of both humor and heart
-- quite the opposite of the typical Hughes film -- that one can only surmise that some other "John Hughes" penned this one, and not
that John Hughes. At best, Dutch plays like a rejected and very early first draft of Hughes' vastly superior classic Planes, Trains & Automobiles; both share the same basic plot structure
-- two people who don't really get along travel together and experience a series of misadventures -- but the similarities end there. Dutch is
absent that film's inescapable energy, witty dialogue, first-rate performances, lovable characters, and underlying tenderness, replaced in Dutch
by poor pacing, bland dialogue, routine acting, forgettable characters, and no passion from the script. Dutch is definitely Hughes' dud, the big
red stain on his resumé, but considering the sheer greatness that flowed from his mind to his scripts on a routine basis, this one can just be called an
anomaly, a movie from which fans can simply move on: no harm, no foul.
Bratnapped.
Dutch features a serviceable 1080p transfer. Flesh tones can be a touch warm and blacks a hair too overwhelming. The color palette is certainly never vibrant, but it's also never too dim. There's a fair balance throughout, whether seen in the warm boarding school interiors or a few snowy exteriors. Fine detail is fair, but never striking. Human faces sometimes look a bit soft, the same of which may be said for clothes, building façades, and the like. The transfer retains a light grain structure, but also present are random pops and scratches, appearing frequently but never to any truly destructive level. The image is also relatively free of background blocking and banding. Dutch won't really impress anyone but the first time Blu-ray viewer. Still, this is a passable transfer from Anchor Bay, especially for an older catalogue title of a rather poorly-received movie.
Dutch arrives on Blu-ray with a fair but sonically uninteresting Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This presentation yields fair clarity and moderate energy, though keep in mind that Dutch isn't a rock 'em, sock 'em sonic extravaganza to begin with. Music is adequately spaced and plays with evident, but not breathtaking, clarity. Some of the music is smooth and some plays with a slight artificial tinge, the latter particularly evident anytime it tends to get louder. The same may be said of sound effects; the heavier ones -- car crashes, the sound of a meat cleaver slamming into chicken on a cutting board -- play loudly but with little distinction and realism. Ambiance is minimal, but effective. For instance, a cold gusty wind blows through the listening area in one scene. Dialogue is generally crisp and well defined as it plays exclusively through the center channel, but there are a few moments when it sounds a hair detached and plays with a slightly unnatural pitch. Altogether, this is an adequate track, no more, no less.
All that's included is the Dutch trailer (480p, 1:58).
Movies simply don't come any more routine than Dutch. Sadly, it's a mess from top to bottom. There's no spirit, no energy, no reason to care, particularly considering it follows convention so precisely that the outcome is obvious from the moment the conflict is put into motion in the film's first minutes. That's certainly true even of many of Hughes' other films, but Dutch is absent the tenderness, characterization, and rhythm that make the others so successful. Better to just watch Planes, Trains & Automobiles again than to suffer through Dutch. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Dutch features fair video and audio and no substantive extras. Skip it.
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