The Wedding Singer : Re-Mastered

If you've heard of Adam Sandler, well then you just might already be a fan of his comedy work. If not, well this film just might convert you.

It's 1985 again, and we're into a romantic comedy with a bit of a difference (aren't they all like that now?)

Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) gets dumped in the first 20 minutes and we spend the rest of the film going on a roller-coaster ride where he falls for Julia (Drew Barrymore) and she in turn falls for him.

Throughout the entire movie, the video quality does not faulter. This sort of quality is the reason I bought a DVD player. You aren't sitting thinking 'jeez I wish the tape wasn't so worn out' or anything similar. There were no obvious artifacts that I noticed, and the image was 16:9 enhanced, which seems to becoming the norm for region 4 releases from all companies doing business here. There is certainly none of the garbage transfer quality of Die Hard 3 here, Roadshow have definately been made aware of their mistake and are trying hard not to repeat it.

This sort of quality is right up there with the best from Columbia Tri-Star and it's almost getting to the point where excellent transfers are 'normal' and no longer warrant special mention.

That said, there is still more that can be done. It lacks the "3-D" look of quality I've seen from movies such as 5th Element, but these seem to be exceptions.

Steve's Take 2: Ok, the picture seems alot better than the first. Either they upped the bit-rate or re-did the compression entirely but right from the outset you see richer blues and purples. Yet, there was a slight appearance of aliasing in some scenes. Other than that, a great transfer indeed.

Strange mix. I never saw this movie at the theatre so I can only guess that it is the same mix used there. There is definately an over-abundance of surround use. Nearly even song sung by our Wedding Singer comes at you from all 5 channels, with a little sub thrown in for good measure.

The sound is very well engineered with clear vocals from the centre channel and good dancy music from the other channels. A very few effects use the split surrounds, but this is not really a movie that could benefit from their increased use.

Thankfully, this disc defaults to Dobly Digital 5.1 track, although there is a MPEG 5.1 channel on the disc also, I did not listen to it.

Steve's Take 2: Ok, I'll leave the worst til last. Basically, VR have dropped the MPEG audio track and have produced a great sounding disc. It's not the greatest surround fest but you'll get some ambience in the rears and when the soundtrack opens up, so do the rears too, slightly.

The bad part of this disc, for pioneer owners, is audio synch. It's not the fault of the disc, it's the pioneer hardware. Listening to it on a friends Sony shows a perfect disc. I think it's time to upgrade my review player.

Theatrical trailer, cast bios, making of featurette and cut scenes make up the extras.

All these are presented in enhanced 16:9 video with 2-ch MPEG sound. (I didn't notice this at first because my DVD player turns the MPEG into PCM)

The cut scenes are the most bizarre. No commentary, no text, just a bunch of behind-the-scenes shots of various scenes in the movie clued together and called "cut scenes". (even though I remember seeing all of them in the movie, just different takes of the same scenes)

The extras are pretty good fare and add a bit of value to an already good disc.

The menu's look very simple, but they are extremely effective. A different song accompanies each different menu selection and is a welcome added touch. They work and they work well.

Steve's Take 2: We get ourselves a few more extras on this release:

• Music Video
  PUSA (Presidents of the USA) show off the film clip to "Video Killed the Radio Star" presented in an aspect raiot of 1.85:1. Not your greatest visual transfer but decent enough.
• Cast & Crew Biographies
  Standard stuff here that appeared on the first release with some more members added.
• Interviews
  Very short interviews here with cast members. The usual VR stuff. These seem to be intermingled with footage from their featurettes.

Well, I rented this one from Video Ezy here in Perth for $6 overnight - the same price as the VHS, so I think it was GREAT value. Even at the sell thru price of $34.95 it makes a good addition to anyones collection.

If you've got Pretty Woman, My Best Friends Wedding or Dave, then you could probably live without this disc, otherwise, if you enjoy the film, go buy it and support Region 4 day-and-date releases with this excellent example.

Steve's Take 2: I enjoy this movie. It's got some great scenes to it and is a little more than your average comedy. Probably Adam Sandlers best and yes I have seen Big Daddy and wasn't that impressed.