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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 1.78:1
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital Surround
  • French: Dolby Digital Surround
  • Spanish: Dolby Digital Surround
  • German: Dolby Digital Surround
  • Italian: Dolby Digital Surround
  Subtitles
    English, French, German, Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, Turkish, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Bulgarian
  Extras
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Cast/crew biographies
  • Production notes
  • Web access
The Secret of My Success
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment/Sony Pictures Home Entertainment . R4 . COLOR . 105 mins . M15+ . PAL

  Feature
Contract

Brantley is a young, idealistic Kansas farm boy who has recently completed college and is about to move to New York to take on a junior executive position there. Upon arrival in New York Brantley reports to work, only to find that his employer has been taken over and all of the current staff have been retrenched, himself included.

Brantley immediately begins the search for another job, but finds that he is either not experienced enough or over educated for all of the positions he applies for. He is about to use his emergency ticket home when he remembers that he has an uncle living and working in New York. His uncle, Howard Prescott, is the Managing Director of the Pemrose Corporation, a very large multi-national employing tens of thousands of people. Brantley manages to get an appointment with Howard and impresses his uncle who organises a job for Brantley in the mail room.

Brantley can handle the mail room job standing on his head and longs to be a part of the action at the senior levels where the real decisions are made. He also dreams of having a relationship with a lovely senior executive named Christy Wills. Alas Christy and Brantley haven't even met as his junior position ensures that he isn't even noticed by her.

Things change for Brantley while day dreaming in the office of a recently sacked manager. The phone rings and he answers. The party at the other end wants to discuss a problem and Brantley comes up with an acceptable solution. Brantley decides that he likes the way that this feels and so decides to masquerade as an executive by using his mail room access to forge appropriate documents. He invents a new employee and begins to play the part of a senior executive named Carlton Whitfield.

However, fate will make this much more complicated for Brantley than he hopes. One of these complications is the wife of Howard Prescott, Vera, who takes a shine to Brantley and seduces him. Then there is the problem of working two jobs. How can he perform as a senior manager while still meeting his mail room responsibilities? Watch and find out!

  Video
  Audio
  Extras
Contract

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Universal what have you done?!? This transfer is not 16x9 enhanced and while close shots reveal a pretty good level of detail and sharpness, middle to longer shots are disappointing.

Film-to-video artefacts are quite prominent at times. The biggest offenders being aliasing and moiré effects. Aliasing is seen in many scenes, and in some cases becomes very obvious indeed. Moiré effects occur infrequently but are very obvious in a couple of places. Thankfully film artefacts are rarely seen and are only minor when they do occur.

This is an RSDL disc with the layer change taking place at 57:10. This is a pretty good one as it is barely noticeable.

The audio presented on this disc is Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround and while not reference quality is still perfectly acceptable. It lacks a little in fidelity, particularly in the bass department, but is always clear and makes good use of the surround channels when supporting the score and providing ambient sounds.

The following extras are available on this disc:

Biographies and Filmographies for the main cast and director

Biographies and filmographies for Michael J. Fox, Helen Slater, Richard Jordan, Margaret Whitton and director, Herbert Ross can be found in this section.

Theatrical Trailer

Hmm, not 16x9 enhanced, grainy, marred by a good dose of film artefacts and suffering from a bad case of telecine wobble, this trailer is merely adequate.

Production Notes

Basic notes about the production of the film are found in this section. Short quotes from Michael J. Fox and director Herbert Ross can also be read.

Universal Web-links

Ho hum. Explore the contents of this disc and you will find an HTML file called Uni_links. Open this in your web browser, click the Universal button and you will be taken to the Universal Home Video and DVD web site which has information about recent and upcoming releases.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=903
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  •   And I quote...
    "A star vehicle for Michael J. Fox that his fans will enjoy. What a bummer then that the video transfer is not 16x9 enhanced."
    - Michael Chappell
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Loewe Xenix 5006DD
    • DVD Rom:
          Pioneer 105(s)
    • MPEG Card:
          RealMagic Hollywood Plus
    • TV:
          Grundig MW82-50/8 IDTV 16:9
    • Receiver:
          Denon AVR-2801
    • Speakers:
          Tannoy Mercury M4
    • Centre Speaker:
          Tannoy Mercury MC
    • Surrounds:
          Tannoy Mercury M1
    • Subwoofer:
          Aaron SUB-120
    • Audio Cables:
          Monster Lightspeed 100
    • Video Cables:
          ConCord SCART
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