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  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
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  • Theatrical trailer
After Sex
Universal/Universal . R4 . COLOR . 91 mins . MA15+ . PAL

  Feature
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There are two feelings after sex, one is all warm, happy and fuzzy, while the other is quite low and scungy. In this case, After Sex is the scungy one – low, cheap, dirty and nasty – everything you want to try to avoid. Ooh, a creepy shudder just went down my spine!

Sadly, the most memorable thing in this film is the language. Honestly, who calls their best friend a slut? After Sex is a Hollywoodised fable that is full of elements that traditional fables miss out on – sex, swearing, swinging, smoking and drunken decisions. The common part is the moral. After watching this film you should be able to pick up that cheating is bad. But what sort of moral human being doesn’t already know that?

It’s the one year anniversary of Kate’s (Shields) divorce and she’s feeling a bit blue so grabs three friends and heads off to Palm Springs for a wild weekend. Kate’s on a mission to snag some guy, and her friends share that mission, however there’s one problem – Kate’s friends are actually in relationships. By the end of the night they have all hooked up with some guy and, guilt-ridden, come back early. But then they get home and the shit really hits the fan when their suspicious other halves learn of their wild Palm Springs weekend. At times it tries to be funny, and then at others tries to be deep and meaningful, but the medium between just wanders too much to make the comedy funny and the drama credible.

  Video
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The video is presented in a full frame aspect, so is obviously not anamorphically enhanced. Strangely, the video transfer seems to mirror the image that this reviewer has built up about this film – dirty and murky. Shadow details are a little eekie with a dingy feel and rather dark tones. Colours are nicely saturated, yet lend themselves to a rather dry look. Film artefacts scoot past here and there but don’t lend themselves to an annoyance factor. Well, not too much anyway. The big bummer comes in the form of aliasing which, at times, jaggedly cuts up the image, yet this still isn’t too bad. The odd broken background of posterisation slinks past, but other compression-related artefacts are absent. The relatively short duration and lack of subtitles and audio options means that this film fits neatly on a single layer with no clunky disturbances during the film.

The solo Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is adequate, and has very little wrong with it. Now saying that there’s little wrong with it doesn’t make it fantastic either. For starters, it’s only a stereo soundtrack and dialogue is clear for the entire duration, however overall it’s just a boring soundtrack to listen to. Stereo effects are pretty much non-existent and the musical side is rather “eh” too with a forgettable score and unknown pop song backup, the only noticeable track being the overused Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer. Bass levels are reasonable, if a little shallow, with the surround and subwoofer channels getting the night off.

After the 1:27 piracy warning (hint, fast forward this at 20x to skip... eventually), the simple menus lead into the film, scene selections or a trailer. And just as a point of interest, the 16:9 fairy hasn’t been anywhere near this disc, as this 2:01 trailer as well as the menus, like the feature, are all presented in an un-enhanced format. So we’ve got one trailer, that converts to one point.

If you’re after a night’s entertainment, quite honestly there is so much else around that is much more enjoyable and pleasant. At least pick something with less of that f*cking swearing as it’s totally unnecessary. Really that’s all there is to say. Period.


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  •   And I quote...
    "A 92-minute reminder of that dirty feeling that can cling on after sex..."
    - 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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