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In Short: Coen classic gets a pretty solid transfer from Fox.
The Movie:
Nicholas Cage stars in this hilarious Coen brothers comedy from 1987 with Holly Hunter. Cage plays "H.I", a small-time career criminal who falls in love with the local officer who he always meets on the way to jail, Ed(Hunter). When it turns out that the two aren't able to have a child together, they kidnap one of the many children that the local furniture salesman's just had. Everything goes right for a while, but soon after a pair of "H.I."'s friends break out of jail and arrive at his house, things quickly begin to go south.
Not only do H.I.'s friends want to keep the kid for themselves and get the ransom, but there's quite a mean-looking biker on his way to get the child back as well. The film's full of colorful characters and the plot is presented in the wa that makes everything not feel too over-the-top. It's a funny, good-natured film that's definitely one of the best from the Coen brothers.
The DVD
VIDEO: Although it isn't perfect and it isn't anamorphic, this is a pretty solid little transfer of the Coen classic by Fox. Images aren't razor sharp, but they are pleasingly adequate in the sharpness department. Images remain clean and clear throughout, with the colors of the sunsets and deserts looking still pleasantly vibrant after all these years since the movie was first released. Colors also look well-saturated and frequently quite excellent.
There are other positives as well: flesh tones look quite accurate and contrast as well as shadow detail are both quite good. What's really nice is how clean the print used is, with no distracting scars, scratches or blemishes. This is a clean, very nice image whose only fault is that it looks a tad soft at times. There's no instances of problems with shimmering or pixelization. Not a perfect effort from Fox, but certainly a pleasing one.
It also illustrates the sort of inconsistentcy of Fox's DVD work. One looks good, the next one looks fair, the next one looks great. No matter how new or old the film, it seems like you never know what to expect from Fox. Thankfully, they've done nice work with this particular disc.
SOUND: Not too much action, but but what we do get is quite nice anyways: a clean and clear version of the fantastic Carter Burwell score and clean, never compressed or thin sounding dialogue. Definitely nice.
MENUS:Basic film-themed menus based around the poster art.
EXTRAS:The trailers for "Raising Arizona", "Barton Fink", "Miller's Crossing" and 3 TV spots for this movie. A little more than the usual Fox effort, but I still would have liked to see a whole lot more in the way of extras on this DVD.
The Film: 90/A = (450/500 possible points)
Video: 89/A = (356/400 possible points)
Audio: 84/B = (336/400 possible points)
Extras: 75/C = (225/300 possible points)
Menus: 70/C- = (140/200 possible points)
Value: 83/B = (249/300 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1756/2100
Average:83.61%/B
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