Support A Guide To Current Film By Clicking The Banner And Visiting Reel.com!
[ Jump to: Movie Review | Image Review | Audio Review |Extras Review | Menu Review | Final Grades | A List Of DVD For Sale In Association With Reel.com ]
THE FILM:
The Film:
"The Relic" is an effective and always creepy thriller directed by Peter Hyams. It's one of those films where you get the feeling that something is creeping around every corner, in every shadow. As we get to
the later half of the movie, everything is staged in shadow and darkness. The sounds of silence before something attacks never fails to scare. A lot of people didn't care for this film and it's certainly not a
flawless cinematic offering, but I think it's always effectively creepy.
It's one of those films where a beast is unleashed on a trapped crowd of people who must find a way out before the creature gets to them. Simple plot, but it works here. In this film, the beast is crawling around inside
a museum that's getting ready to host a gala event and unknown to them, it's not going to be a very enjoyable party. The main characters are Lt. D'Agosta(an intense, enjoyable performance by Tom Sizemore) and Margo Green(
Penelope Ann Miller), a scientist working at the museum who finds herself amongst the crowd being terrorized by the beast.
The most effective sequences, at least in my opinion, take place in a tunnel running under the museum(see notes on image quality for more information); the director captures the feeling that the creature could attack from any side and the sheer silence of the tunnel makes it all the more terrifying.
I enjoyed the Relic. The screenplay isn't always very strong, but I certainly liked the performances by Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller. What it lacks in dialogue, it certainly makes up for in tone as once the film begins to really get started, it's quite a fun horror film.
THE DVD:
VIDEO QUALITY:Image Quality: As some people know, the laserdisc release of the Relic was very poor, with images that were absolutely unclear and the disc was very hard to watch. It certainly didn't look as good as it did in theaters. I'm one of the few people I know who found this movie enjoyable and I still remember very vividly the time I saw it in the theater. This is a very dark looking movie, that's for sure. It seems as if it was the intention of director Peter Hyams to scare the audience with spooky shadows in the darkness as characters run through tunnels, etc. But you could definitely see details of the images and know what you were looking at. The video(VHS version) of the film was simply unwatchable. Images were hazy and you could barely make out any details.
Paramount has done an anamorphic transfer for the DVD release of the Relic and it looks slightly improved. I'll certainly admit that the images are a bit clearer and cleaner looking here than on any previous home video release. Some of the scenes are still not as sharp as I'd like to see them, though. The main problem is this image seems to be quite a bit darker than I remember seeing it in theaters. The image here looks slightly clearer at times than on the previous video releases, but the fact that the image is so dark for most of the running time robs the picture of detail, especially some of the great shadow detail that was apparent during the scenes in the tunnels. I certainly remember seeing this film in theaters and it was slightly brighter and more detailed than this image is.
In terms of other problems with the picture, there are small instances of artifacts throughout the disc. The picture quality, in my opinion, varies throughout. There were some instances where I was pleased with the general look of the picture. The darker and low-light scenes look darker than they should(and did in the theaters). The detail in the darkness of people or shadows were still very good when I saw this film in theaters; here, it simply doesn't have that same level of detail. There are a few places on this disc where I couldn't see much of anything on the DVD. There weren't any scenes that I remember where you couldn't see anything when I saw this film in the theater. There are a few bright or daylight scenes though that do begin to come close to looking fairly accurate, though.
Still, I was dissapointed with the overall image here. It may be the most watchable version I've seen in terms of a home video release, but it still definitely has some problems. It's certainly not a "bright" movie, but it didn't look this dark in theaters. Flesh tones are not as well rendered as I would have liked. I don't know what's wrong with this film, but Paramount doesn't seem to be able to get an accurate video transfer of it.
AUDIO QUALITY: Definitely an enjoyable scare. There are instances where the sound is quite agressive and full of effects and there are others where it effectively captures the sort of terrifying sounds of silence just before an attack. Small details like water dripping are rendered effectively, making for a very creepy experience overall. Dialogue sounds clear, but not quite as full as I would have liked. John Debney's score is clear and rich sounding.
MENUS: Very cool and very spooky, but no animation. I think this is a film where animation in the menus could be really effective and scary if done creatively. But, nothing here in the way of animation.
EXTRAS: The very cool trailer.
OVERALL: Really pretty dissapointing because I'm a big fan of this movie and was eagerly awaiting the DVD release. I didn't find it unwatchable, but I was certainly hoping for better on this release.
GRADES:
The Movie:82/B = (410/500 possible points)
Video Quality:76/C = (304/400 possible points)
Audio Quality:89/B+ = (356/400 possible points)
Extras:68/D+ = (204/300 possible points)
Value:74/C = (222/300 possible points)
Menus:72/C = (144/200 possible points)
Presentation: 76.25/C = (76.25/100 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1716.25/2200
Overall:78.01%/C
Final Thoughts: Maybe good for a rental, but I still haven't seen a version of this film at home where the image looks similar in clarity or accurate in regards to the image I saw in theaters. If you're considering a purchase, I suggest renting it first.
