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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer ( )
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • Czech: Dolby Digital Stereo
  • Hungarian: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
    English, Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic, Turkish, Romanian
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer

Reality Bites

Universal/Universal . R4 . COLOR . 94 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Perpetual whiner and alleged shoplifter Winona Ryder plays Lelaina, valedictorian of her college and disillusioned modern girl. Throw in a bunch of other whiners, some slackers and two sets of hokey folks and you have Leilana’s life. Add Ben Stiller as the love interest who takes her beloved pet project and commercialises it, causing all manner of trouble. Particularly as she also fancies smart-arse layabout Ethan Hawke (playing a wanna-be Jim Morrison to unintentionally comic effect). Poor Winona! If only she’d stayed with our beloved Johnny.

This is a whiney tale riding high on the back of Generation X and exploiting that slacker attitude all the way. The characters aren’t exactly people you’ll like, but that’s probably because they’re people you know. Acting is okay, but there are moments where we are wondering why the awkward silences aren’t being filled. Ben Stiller’s amazing comic abilities are wasted, though Winona’s whininess is utilised to its annoying maximum. However, the film is still quite watchable, though some characters seem to be trying too hard to be cool (Ethan, we’re looking at you).

"He’s a master of time-suckage!"

With early roles from Steve Zahn, Janeane Garofalo and even a brief appearance by Renée Zellweger, this is a good first direction from Stiller, though it has aged dramatically in the ten years since it graced cinema screens. This being said, the music is still great, probably because it was mostly selected from the ’70s and ’80s, rather than featuring like, Vanilla Ice or Sir Mixalot. Those early ’90s, you gotta love ‘em!

  Video
Contract

The transfer has been accomplished quite well and has only limited film artefacts, considering the film is ten years old. With the 16:9 enhanced, 1.85:1 widescreen transfer, the film looks as it looked on the big screen, however some of the blacks suffer abuse from the green party. In direct opposition to this, the shadows don’t appear to hide any details. The videotape sections are appropriately grainy without being unclear, so happily they didn’t get lazy on that bit. The colour levels here are mostly okay as well, though they do get a little blurred. Still, this is intentional I imagine, so we must give it the benefit of the doubt. The colour for the rest of the film is just fine though and well balanced throughout.

Flesh tones are fine even in the videotape bits, though Winona comes through as quite pale a lot of the time... what? Oh.

  Audio
Contract

The music in this film was such a huge drawcard when it was released that they dodged bullets from the diehard fans by delivering it in Dolby Digital 5.1. It comes across excellently with no static and no noise, although the balances and levels are slightly askew. This leaves the dialogue a little low and dominated by the music, but we can live with that because the soundtrack is usually preferable to listening to the slackers whine on. Sound effects and such are also well delivered, although they are relatively limited. Winona’s phone conversations with the psychic hotline were a new thing for me. Video had deprived me of the conversation over the years, so it was nice to finally hear that. A nice audio transfer, particularly when we notice that the Hungarians and Czechs in languages only got DD 2.0.

  Extras
Contract

One shitty Trailer delivered in 4:3 and grainy for its entire two minutes.

Sigh. An audio commentary would have been great from Stiller as his are always so entertaining (see Zoolander or Keeping The Faith). Oh well.

  Overall  
Contract

I still remember going to see this film at the movies with a girl I ended up being very serious about for a long time. She’s gone now, but this movie will remain and I will get it out and watch it again every so often for the slice of early ’90s life it presents so well. Stiller was still finding his feet as a director here, and it’s nice to be able to see him in these earlier roles where he’s also finding his feet as an actor. The soundtrack is as good today as it ever was, if you can look past Hawke’s absolute butchery of the Violent Femmes’ classic, Add It Up. A few more extras or even an isolated soundtrack might have been a nice touch, but we so rarely get what we want.

Fans of the film will enjoy it, but with the distinct lack of anything else on the disc it may find trouble being a mover and shaker.


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      And I quote...
    "The Reality of no extras Bites."
    - Jules Faber
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Nintaus DVD-N9901
    • TV:
          Sony 51cm
    • Receiver:
          Diamond
    • Speakers:
          Diamond
    • Surrounds:
          No Name
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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