Mike: "For some reason, i'm forgetting a German guy called Hans"

Scott: "Well, you were sleeping".

Before Gus Van Sant's made the bafflingly unnecessary, shot for shot remake of Psycho, he was indeed firing on all cylinders in the sleepy (no pun intended), melancholic comedy that is My Own Private Idaho.

Featuring what is arguably the finest performance of River Phoenix’s tragically short career and a remarkably non-dull turn by Keanu Reeves, My Own Private Idaho is the tale of narcolepsy sufferer Mike Waters (Phoenix) and Portland Mayor's son Scott Favour (Reeves); best of friends and indiscriminate street hustlers. Whilst Scott waits out his inevitable inheritance from his well-off father, with a carefree and degenerate lifestyle, it is the vulnerable Mike and his disjointed quest for his mother that remains the major focus of the film. It is Mike's severe case of narcolepsy that remains the crux in his quest, as he finds himself drifting off to sleep with alarming (and hilarious) frequency, leading to a permanently dreamy, half-alive, half-dead existence.

Admittedly, Van Sant's incorporation of dialogue from Shakespeare’s Henry IV is often clumsy and hard to follow, however, along with the magnificent cinematography, Phoenix and Reeves absolutely shine in their respective roles and make this film a must see.

Ewww. Excuse me while I quote Smithers in saying, "My mouth feels like an ashtray", except replace 'mouth' with ears and eyes. I can understand how many films released on DVD can be lacking in enough audience appeal to warrant giving them a decent treatment, but this is simply appalling.

Video wise, for all the effort that went into the cinematography, this presentation of My Own Private Idaho is a full-screen, arguably worse than VHS, travesty. Plagued by grain, flecks and extremely poor clarity, I’d be surprised if this transfer came from a legitimate source, looking suspiciously as though it's been dumped from video. Many of the scenes that take place in daylight, be it the sparse Idaho country-side, the beautiful locales of Italy or the streets of Portland, are literally half the images they used to be. However, whilst the transfer problems are evident in these scenes, they still hold much for the eye to enjoy and are comparatively stunning against the shadow plays that make up the remainder of the film. There is a clear intention in the cinematography to make the best use of playing light against dark, but when dark is detailed as poorly as it is in this transfer, this effort is tragically wasted.

Unfortunately, the audio has received no better treatment than the video. Presented in Dolby Digital Stereo, it is remarkably un-dynamic and flat, with much of the dialogue suffering from hissing and a lack of clarity.

To add insult to injury, all you're getting as extras here are two trailers presented in the same poor-quality, full-screen ratio as the film. One for Wim Wenders' “The End of Violence� and the other for Robert Altman's “Cookie's Fortune�. Again, these look like they've been dubbed straight from a VHS rental. On the plus side, being a single layer disc, there's no layer change.

This is simply a tragic presentation of a film that, at the very least, should have had its sublime cinematography presented with far more aplomb.