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The Movie:
It's just weird. Peter Hyams's 1992 comedy starring John Ritter takes a look at the nightmare that the Knables(Ritter and Pam Dawber) are dropped into when they recieve their new satellite dish. Soon enough, the couple finds that they become more of the evil shows they've watched than they'd bargained for. When sucked into the dish, they find themselves in a series of weird, dark show parodies.
It's not quite as good as it could be, and the film mainly seems comfortable taking quick, light jabs as a soft satire of recent television shows. Performances from both Ritter and Dawber are entertaining, and really give the material an unexpectedly strong energy.
The DVD
VIDEO: If nothing else about his films, I always like director Peter Hyams's work as his own cinematographer(he also did the cinematography for his other films, like "End Of Days"). The 2.35:1 transfer for "Stay Tuned" is a little soft at times, but mainly stays adequately sharp and crisp throughout much of the movie. Colors are bold, bright and well-saturated, but never suffer from any problems. Flesh tones are natural, as well.
Aside from the occasional bit of softness, the majority of the picture remains problem-free. There's a mark or two on the print used, but these are slight distractions and don't really take away from the picture. All in all I was pleased with the overall quality of Warner's effort for this film.
SOUND: The audio for "Stay Tuned" is suprisingly active for a movie that's now eight years old. A lot of the film is simply dialogue driven, but there are quite a few more intense sequences that make good use of the surrounds. The sound seems a tiny bit bright at times, but it didn't bother me. Overall though, this is a very entertaining film in terms of the audio presentation.
MENUS:: Warner has really put some nice menus together for this movie - the main menu has a simple design of scenes showing on a TV in the background, but once you make a selection, you go through an animated "cable wire" looking thing that's pretty neat.
EXTRAS: A short featurette about the film; cast bios and trailers for "Stay Tuned" as well as "Ace Ventura", "Big Bully" and "Chill Factor".
Film Grade
The Film C
DVD Grades
Video 86/B = (344/400 possible points)
Audio: 85/B = (340/400 possible points)
Extras: 75/C = (225/300 possible points)
Menus: 85/B (170/200 possible points)
Value: 81/B = (243/300 possible points)
TOTAL: 1322/1600
DVD GRADE:B/82%
FILM GRADE: C
DVD GRADE: B
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