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  Directed by
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  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.85:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital Surround
  Subtitles
  • None
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Cast/crew biographies
  • Interviews

A Simple Plan

Universal/Universal . R4 . COLOR . 116 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Sam Raimi is known to most people either as the writer/director of the cult classic Evil Dead films or as producer on the lamentable Hercules and Xena TV series. Despite these credits, he does have an interest in more traditional drama, and A Simple Plan certainly showed the critics he was capable of more than jokey gorefests and so-bad-it's-bad television.

A Simple Plot might have been an appropriate title for the film, as the premise is as basic as they come. Bill 'Game Over' Paxton plays Hank Mitchell, your average Joe with a good education, a wife (Bridget Fonda) and a child on the way. Together with his 'one can short of a sixpack' brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) and Jacob's friend Lou (Brent Briscoe), Hank runs into a mishap out in the middle of nowhere and discovers a crashed plane with.. golly.. $4 million inside (that's about $25 billion in Australian dollars, give or take a few cents).

Of course, Hank wants to report this - obviously the money is stolen, and should be returned to the rightful owners, but unemployed Lou thinks otherwise. Jacob sides with Lou, and Hank finally agrees, but on one condition, that he looks after the money. Once spring comes and if nobody has come looking for the money, he says, they'll split it between them and leave town.

As the cliche goes, three can keep a secret if two of them are dead, and soon enough things are going slowly pear-shaped as their marvellous discovery starts turning sour. Tinged with black humour in much the same style as the Coen Brother's Fargo, A Simple Plan is well-crafted with impeccible acting, though it does take a while to finally get moving.

  Video
Contract

For a 1998 film, this transfer should be better. From the opening, minor film flecks and artefacts are apparent, and they simply shouldn't be there. In fact, I watched Casablanca just the other night - a film that's nearly 60 years old, and which has a cleaner image than A Simple Plan. Close eyeballing of the screen reveals more MPEG crawling on background images than I'd expect from a quality modern transfer as well.

This is a shame, because otherwise the picture has a lot going for it, nice sharpness, fully saturated colours and good shadow detail. It just falls short of what I expect from a major studio DVD release in 2000.

  Audio
Contract

The most notable feature missing from the Australian release is a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, which the R1 disc has. I know we're not popular with the local distributors when we point these things out, but it has to be done. The DVD-buying public are not stupid, and are quite capable of looking up information on R1 releases themselves. Not mentioning the lack of a 5.1 track on the R4 release would damage our credibility.

Okay, hopefully I've stopped any nasty phone calls from the studio, let's move on to what the soundtrack's like. The strongest aspect is probably Danny Elfman's score, which is genuinely quirky and bent, perfectly in sync with the subject matter. It's been well recorded as well, and stretches as wide across the soundstage as it can given the limitations of the Pro-Logic format.

Dynamics are decent too, with some good bangs and thuds where appropriate, and your subwoofer will get to make its presence known once or twice, but this is no demo disc. The focus is on the dialogue, which is clear and easy to understand. The surrounds keep out of the way of the plot, with only subtle envelopment for the majority of scenes.

  Extras
Contract

There's not a lot here, just a 16:9-enhanced trailer, some extremely scant bios and interviews with Paxton, Fonda, Thornton and Raimi. Raimi gets the most time of all, with nearly six minutes, but overall the questions asked are fairly bland and non-confrontational, you know, the public-relations kind.

  Overall  
Contract

The movie is decent, not exceptional, but certainly worth a viewing. Depriving Australians of a 5.1 soundtrack is simply wrong, and hopefully consumers will make it clear to local distributors and studios that if we're being forced to buy local discs due to a draconian region-encoding system, we should certainly get the same features for our dollar that the Americans enjoy.

Studios, the ball's in your court. If you build it, they will come.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=376
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      And I quote...
    ""
    - Paul Dossett
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Rom:
          Pioneer 103(s)
    • MPEG Card:
          RealMagic Hollywood Plus
    • TV:
          Mitsubishi Diva 33
    • Amplifier:
          Yamaha DSP-A1
    • Speakers:
          Richter Excalibur
    • Centre Speaker:
          Richter Unicorn
    • Surrounds:
          Richter Hydras
    • Audio Cables:
          Monster RCA
    • Video Cables:
          Monster s-video
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