6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A New York detective/mama's boy loses his fiancee to a rich con man in las Vegas.
Starring: James Caan, Nicolas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker, Pat Morita, Johnny Williams (I)Comedy | 100% |
Romance | 64% |
Thriller | 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 2.0
French: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
English, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
I am immune to the charms of Elvis Presley. So sue me. I’m not fond of his singing, though I have a grudging admiration for his late 1960’s proto-soul output like “Suspicious Minds,” if only for the song craft and arrangements, neither of which is Elvis-centric. I find his persona grating, his films largely lamentable, and the fact that he was arguably his generation’s greatest music superstar more than a bit puzzling. Now the punchline is my eldest sister, who is older than I am by enough years that she can be considered in another generation, was President of Salt Lake City’s Elvis Fan Club for a while in the early 1960’s. That Utah-Elvis connection may be about the only thing I can relate to in 1992’s Honeymoon in Vegas, a film that tries hard—way too hard, in fact—for a sort of neo-screwball ethos, Utah Chapter of Flying Elvises and all, but which falls flat and seems more like an overly harried and frenetic comedian throwing stale joke after stale joke at his audience in a desperate attempt to elicit even a passing minor giggle. This putative comedy, oddly similar to 1993’s Indecent Proposal, a supposed drama which in its own way is a lot funnier than anything in Honeymoon in Vegas, is one of the worst examples of star Nicolas Cage’s inability to escape from manifold tics, spasms and other “actorly” moments, but the main problem with the film is simply that it's the victim of writer-director Andrew Bergman’s insistence on sitcom-esque situations, characters and storylines. Now, this is not to say there aren’t actual laughs in Honeymoon in Vegas, for there most certainly are, but they happen almost in spite of the film, not because of it.
Honeymoon in Vegas has one of the most oddly schizoid transfers in recent memory. Encoded via AVC in 1080p and 1.85:1 this is a Blu-ray that one moment looks at least reasonably sharp, but then in the next moment devolves into fuzzy softness. At another moment, there's the waxy cleanliness of ultra-DNR, and in the next the entire image is buried under a dirty cloud of digital noise. Contrasting the color of the original theatrical trailer with the main feature as presented on this Blu-ray, while the trailer looks considerably browner, flesh tones in the trailer may actually be preferable to the weirdly almost fluorescently bright pink-red tones in the movie itself. Color is often incredibly bright, even lurid, with blues and reds looking best and relatively most natural, and greens often being just this side of blooming. Somewhere in all of this mishmash of looks, large sequences of Honeymoon in Vegas actually look at least above average if not spectacular, and thankfully that includes a lot of the stunning Hawaii segments. Why this transfer is so on again, off again in so many different ways is perplexing, but fans of the film probably won't be paying as much attention to the image quality as those for whom the film offers no other interest than to pick holes in the transfer.
While it's a shame Honeymoon in Vegas wasn't granted a lossless surround mix, one which would have upped the enjoyment of the Presley-centric soundtrack considerably, as it stands the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix provided on this Blu-ray is certainly fine, at least as far it goes. Fidelity is excellent, with both dialogue and the ubiquitous song underscore offered with sparkling clarity and excellent dynamic range. Of course there's simply no directionality here, not even minor panning from left to right, but despite being resolutely anchored front and center, the mix is artfully handled, with excellent balance between the three major elements of the track, dialogue, music and effects.
Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:10)
There was a famous Elvis Presley album entitled 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong, to which I simply ask, "Who says?" The Elvis impersonator subplot that runs through Honeymoon in Vegas and which is highlighted in the crazy-goofy last act featuring an Elvis skydiving team shows Andrew Bergman at his best, skewering pop culture icons with a fair degree of abandon while catapulting his manic storyline forward. Unfortunately the rest of this film rarely rises to that level of enjoyable inanity and insanity, and too much of Honeymoon in Vegas is way too forced, especially within the absolutely improbable confines of the plot setup itself. Cage has rarely been more mannered (and that's saying a lot), and Parker is strangely somnambulant in this film. That leaves Caan to do the heavy lifting, and while he's game, there's simply too much for him to lift for this film to get off the ground. Fans of the film (and there are legions of them, I'm well aware) will probably enjoy this Blu-ray despite its less than stellar image quality, but others would do well to rent this title first to see if it's their cup of tea.
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