Posted by Bill's News on 01/20/06 23:51

unclejr wrote:
> According to IMDB (and a friend of mine who saw the film
> theatrically), the OAR is 2.35:1. See:
>
> <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399295/technical>
>
> According to Best Buy and DDD, the 1-Disc WS release is 1.78:1.
> See:
>
> <http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7601179&type=product&id=1505329>
>
> and
>
> <http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=LGE018739>
>
> According to Best Buy and DDD, the 2-Disc SE release's aspect ratio
> is
> either not known or "unspecified."
>
> <http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7600679&type=product&id=1505329>
>
> and
>
> <http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemid=LGE018801&promotion=y>
>
> What's the probability that Lions Gate paid for THREE transfers of
> the
> film to DVD -- (hopefully) 2.35:1, 1.78:1, and 1.33:1? Gawd. I
> hope
> that at least the 2-Disc SE is OAR. Otherwise, I'm not buying it.
>
> -Junior

I did not see this film in theater, thankfully. I did, however, just
watch a Netflix of it last nite. It is clearly not 2:35. I did not
notice a single scene where the modified AR might have made a
difference tho (such as - just the noses of two actors confronting
each other, or one nose addressing another which is off screen)?

BTW, other than the pseudo-documentary treatment of the international
arms dealers' parts in the scheme of things (especially contemporary
Africa), this was an incredibly slow moving flick. Consider that the
wife is able to sum up, in a three sentence paragraph, everything we
might have learned about her in the preceding 2 hours but didn't! And
what do we ever learn of the anti-hero other than what he tells us in
voice-overs. The essence of his survival (rubbing elbows) is given no
development at all in lieu of more shtick about a choppy plane landing
and evidence disposal. Yet, in the end we're to believe he had magic
elbows!! Also, it might have been of cultural and survival
significance that his Ukrainian dad would rather have been Jewish,
after posing as such for the lives of his family. But somehow this is
trivialized in a vague attempt at humor at a point in the film where
none is needed!

What a lame flick!!

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