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Universal Home Video
2.35:1/ Dolby 2.0
106 Minutes
Captions For The Hearing Impared
Dual Layer:Yes
Rated:R
Region:1

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The Movie:

"Gods and Monsters" is a look at a fictional friendship that famed filmmaker James Whale had in his final days with his gardener(played very well by Brendan Fraser).

The film starts off with Whale in poor health, suffering from strokes and looking as if his remaining days are few in number. What the film does so interestingly here is portray his declining health and the ties between that and the memories of his past. The film has an excellent structure here, showing these moments as memories that are slowly slipping away and although the budget on this film probably kept it from doing much more than slight moments, these moments, showing an unhappy childhood, are effective in their simplicity. Giant sets are not needed to portray the greater concepts and ideas such as the ones about life that this film tries to get across.

What the center of the film is though, are the conversations between Whale and Boone(Fraser). At first, there doesn't seem to be much to the intentions that Whale has for Boone, but as the story progresses, the relationship moves into Whale guiding the young man through his history and life. Gradually, Boone begins to appreciate Whale for who he is, as well.


Performances by Brendan Fraser and Ian McKellen are both outstanding, especially McKellen, who was nominated and also recieved many awards for his performance. Also on hand is Lynn Redgrave, in a wonderful performance as the housekeeper who takes care of Whale. "Gods and Monsters" is a riveting look at one of Hollywood's great filmmakers and I think that it's a well-done portrait, full of great performances and solid direction.

THE DVD:
VIDEO QUALITY: The anamorphic 2.35:1 image is of phenomenal quality. The colors(especially in the garden scenes, with all of the flowers) are stunningly rich and vibrant- color saturation is perfect throughout. The image is clear, wonderfully defined and very sharp. Universal has always done a very good job on the DVDs of even their smaller films and that tradition is continued here. The print quality is excellent with no visible scratches or problematic elements. In terms of artifacts, there is a short instance or two of shimmering, but other than that, there are no problems with the image quality here. The photography(done by Stephen Katz) is stunning and creative throughout and this disc is a great showcase for his work. There is an excellent and stunning amount of detail present in the picture. There are many scenes that look bright and colorful and on disc, they look fantastic. The disc is RSDL and the layer change is at about 44 minutes. A continued tradition of excellent work(well, except for "1941") by Universal.

SOUND: Clear and crisp, but there isn't terribly much to it. The film is all dialogue and what is present sounds fine. Dialogue sounds clear and rich. The sound does the job well for the kind of picture it is. What I didn't like was that you can't switch between the commentary and the film using the remote.

MENUS: Basic(but enjoyable) film-themed menus that are non-animated. They are a slightly hard to navigate, though: I originally didn't see the second screen of "extras" that included the theatrical trailer, which is accessable by clicking the "arrow" on the first "extras" screen.

EXTRAS:
COMMENTARY: A fantastic example of how great and fascinating a commentary track can be. Here, we get a rich, very smart commentary from writer/director Bill Condon. He starts off as talking about owning DVDs himself and what he wants to achieve by talking about this film on the commentary track. He then proceeds to talk intensely for the length of the film, piling every possible bit of information into the discussion, many times interrupting himself and at times, it seems as if Condon is having a roundtable discussion, all by himself.

Condon talks intensely and non-stop throughout, and amazingly enough, he rarely has to go to the basic "commentary" format of just talking about what is going on in the film. The commentary is a well-done mix of stories about the production, the history of the story and the actors and how they brought their performances to life.

It's a great thing that Condon has previously heard commentaries on other DVDs. I think that directors who have know what makes an interesting commentary. It seems like Condon has done a lot of work structuring the story that he wants to tell and knows what people want to hear. The production and history information is informative and frequently fascinating and I think that Condon has really done a great job talking about how he brought this independent film to life. There is literally so much in this commentary that you will likely have to listen to it more than once to catch all of the information.

DOCUMENTARY: "The World Of Gods and Monsters": A 30 minute look at the history of James Whale, narrated by horror director Clive Barker. This is a very interesting look at the history and production of the film that has interviews with the cast and crew of the film, along with friends of Whale.

ALSO:Production notes, biographies and the full-frame trailer.


GRADES:
The Film: 90/A- = (450/500 possible points)
Video: 92/A = (368/400 possible points)
Audio: 87/B = (348/400 possible points)
Extras: 95/A = (285/300 possible points)
Menus: 75/C = (150/200 possible points)
Value: 90/A- = (270/300 possible points)
Presentation:87.25/B = (87.25/100 possible points)

TOTAL POINTS:1958.25/2200
Overall:89.011%/B+
Final Thoughts: A very good film and an excellent transfer on DVD. Universal has also included some wonderful extras on this disc, which is well worth a look on DVD.

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