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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • Dual Layer (RSDL )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • French: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  Subtitles
    English, French
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Animated menus
  • Music video - Wild Women Do - Natalie Cole
  • Interviews

Pretty Woman: SE

Buena Vista/Buena Vista . R4 . COLOR . 119 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Julia Roberts and Richard Gere fire up the screen in the best romantic comedy of the year - even if that year was 1990. After a rocky start, Pretty Woman finally made it as one of the most popular films of that year, with audiences coming back for more. It is just a fairytale come to life – every little girl’s dream... wait. Which little girls dream of becoming a prostitute and falling in love with a rich grey-haired man? No one in sight, right? In 1990, Greater Union had to pick one of two movies for its Adelaide City cinema - Dick Tracy or Pretty Woman. Dick Tracy was chosen, with Pretty Woman going to Wallis Theatres’ Academy Cinema City. As the two films opened, Dick Tracy was big… a big fizzer. It was made evidently clear that Greater Union had chosen the wrong film, and the audience’s reaction to Pretty Woman reiterated this. In a similar fashion to last year’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Pretty Woman screened for months, with popular demand bringing the film back to the same cinemas again and again. One example of its popularity is with a local group in Adelaide who had a double feature on Sunday nights at the Chelsea Cinema, over three successive weekends. Each Sunday, the cinema was filled to capacity, which is just under 600 seats, exacerbating the money-making potential behind the film.

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"So what did happen with those gerbils?"

How good is the chemistry between Julia Roberts and Richard Gere? Now, it is said that the roles were originally considered for Molly Ringwald and Christopher Reeve – now is it just one opinion or is that a real pairing of the odd couple? (Editor's note - Hey! No dissing Molly, alright?) Roberts (Erin Brockovich, Sleeping With the Enemy, Flatliners, Ocean’s Eleven) and Gere (Unfaithful, Breathless, Chicago) team up for this romantic comedy which captured the hearts of audiences around the world. Nine years later, the pair teamed up again for The Runaway Bride, but sorry, lightning never hits in the same place twice. But anyway, without any further ado, on about Pretty Woman now...

Most of us have seen Pretty Woman at least once. Many more of us have seen Pretty Woman countless times, and we just keep on going back for more. It is the sort of film that you can stick in and just not worry about. There is nothing terribly deep or thought-provoking, but just two hours of light fluffy chick flick. Vivian (Roberts) is a prostitute working in Los Angeles, when Edward (Gere), a visiting businessman, picks her up for directions. By his lonesome self in the big city for one week, he requires a companion for various business gigs, and asks the luscious blonde - wait, brunette - to stay with him for the week. Can we all see where this is heading? Anyway, the story follows on predictably, but who cares – it’s fun, it’s different and it’s now available as a 'Director’s Cut' on DVD with an extra six minutes of footage thrown into the mix.

  Video
Contract

Originally released theatrically in 1990 in a 1.85:1 aspect, and then released on DVD in 1999 with a non-enhanced (god forbid) flipper, Pretty Woman is now given special treatment on its second DVD release. Wait, no it’s not. It’s still in the theatrical ratio, but there’s still no 16:9 enhancement – maybe it’s going to be third time lucky? Excluding this one major issue, the transfer looks relatively nice given its age, but as you would expect it looks a tad old and just reeks of the late ’80s. So colours are naturally bright, energetic and deliciously saturated with natural
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SNAP!
skin tones. However saying this, the darker tones and shadows appear a little muted, subdued if you like, and lack the punch that these ’80s effects give off. Easily the biggest visible problem comes in the form of aliasing, largely due to the smaller resolution given by the 4:3 transfer. Nearly every scene suffers from this broken lining effect, and some scenes do get by easily while others are clearly obvious. The level of clarity is remarkably high, with a sharp definition and beautiful appearance. And that’s just Julia Roberts. Film grain gently washes over the image, but not obtrusively like the film artefacts that scatter this re-release. Now what is more interesting is that the original release in 1999 had this same list of technical problems. Now just a show of hands here – who thinks that a re-release should fix these? Just what we thought – lots of hands. But oh well, with what we have it ironically does the dirty on Pretty Woman, but still, while it could be much better it could also be much, much worse.

  Audio
Contract

One change with this 'Director’s Cut' release on DVD is the dropping of the surround-encoded stereo tracks and the inclusion of some Dolby Digital 5.1-goodness. However, the remastered audio protrudes from the front end of the soundstage, it sounds just like a surround-encoded stereo track, just with a higher fidelity.
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"This, ma'am, is called c-u-t-l-e-r-y"
Surround usage is severely limited to the odd musical piece and very, very odd ambient effect. The subwoofer supports the score adequately, yet doesn’t rear its woofi-ness any other way.

Being a dialogue-driven film, this sounds great coming from the centre speaker, with a crisp and clear edge to the speech. Music comes through quite heavily in the soundtrack, with a heap of Top 40 stuff. Well Top 40 for those of us who can remember the 1990 charts. Natalie Cole (Wild Women Do), Go West (The King of Wishful Thinking), Prince (Kiss), Roxette (It Must Have Been Love) and the old classic from Roy Orbison, Pretty Woman. The music is rich, full of life and, best of all, in tune with the mood and tone of the film.

  Extras
Contract

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"I feel pretty... Oh so pretty"
Where is the logic in having 16:9-enhanced animated menus, and a 4:3 letterboxed transfer? But saying this, the menus do look great, and lead to a lovely page containing the extras. Oh no, still no extras and where is that damn R1 Audio Commentary? OK, reminds self the glass is half full...

What we do get is made up of the 2:38 theatrical trailer, which is constructed with a more traditional trailer style, rather than the wham bam thank you ma’am trailers that are released today. Still, this trailer really shows off the film’s age, as the quality of this trailer is astonishingly low.

Ooh a pretty featurette on Pretty Woman. Yeah, thought it was too good to be true, as 3:47 hardly counts. Given the age of the film, not too much is to be expected, but still a little effort never hurt anyone.

Finally (yes, finally already) we have a 4:11 music video of Natalie Cole’s Wild Women Do. Now if Pretty Woman doesn’t quench your ’80s tastebuds (and you don’t own Pretty In Pink on DVD), this video clip should help. A lot.

  Overall  
Contract

The 'Director’s Cut' of Pretty Woman has finally reached the R4 shores on DVD, with new 5.1-goodness, a small swarm of extras yet sadly it still misses out on 16:9 enhancement. But still, this is a great film to watch - one of the ultimate chick flicks - with a tight transfer that just falls shy of great.


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      And I quote...
    "Julia Roberts. Chick flick. DVD. Director’s Cut. Yahoo... wait, still no 16:9 enhancement..."
    - Martin Friedel
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Philips DVD 736K
    • TV:
          TEAC EU68-ST
    • Receiver:
          Sony HT-SL5
    • Speakers:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Centre Speaker:
          Sony SS-CNP2
    • Surrounds:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Subwoofer:
          Sony SA-WMSP3
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          standard s-video
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