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    • BLU-RAY REVIEW

    Amateurs, The

    Featured In Issue 130, April 2008

    Picture3
    SoundNR
    WSR Score3
    Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
    (Studio/Distributor):
    First Look Studios
    (Catalog Number):
    FLP-12151
    (MPAA Rating):
    R
    (Rating Reason):
    For sexual content and language
    (Retail Price):
    $34.98
    (Disc Type):
    Single Side, Dual Layer (HD-30)
    (Widescreen Edition):
    Yes
    (Full Screen Edition):
    No
    (Running Time In Minutes):
    99
    (Color Type):
    Color
    (Chaptered/Scene Access):
    Yes
    (Closed Captioned):
    Yes
    (Regional Coding):
    1
    (Theatrical Year):
    2005
    (Theatrical Release):
    Yes
    (Direct-To-Video Release):
    No
    (Disc Release Date):
    02/12/08
    (THX® Digitally Mastered):
    No
    (Director):
    Michael Traeger
    (Screenplay/Written By):
    (Story):
    (Music):
    (Director Of Photography):
    (Production Designer):
    (Visual Effects):
    (Costume Designer):
    (Editor):
    (Supervising Sound Editors):
    (Re-Recording Mixers):
    (Executive Producers):
    (Co-Producers):
    (Producers):
    (Academy Awards):
    (Principal Photography):
    (Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
    (Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
    (Disc Soundtrack):
    Dolby Digital+ 5.1, Dolby Digital+ 2.0 Stereo, DTS 5.1
    (Theatrical Sound):
    (Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
    (DTS Bit Rate):
    (Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
    (Additional Languages):
    (French Language):
    (Spanish Language):
    (Chinese Language):
    (Subtitles):
    (Cantonese Language):
    (Mandarin Language):
    (Japanese Language):
    (Italian Language):
    (German Language):
    (Portuguese Language):

    Every time Andy Sargentee (Bridges) starts thinking, the entire population in his hometown of Butterface Fields gets a bit nervous. In this small town where anything at all involves everybody, Andy has come up with a genius idea to make all of their dreams come true. With the support of five close friends as the crew, and the townspeople as the stars, Andy hatches a plot to produce a feature-length porno film, in order to make them all rich and famous. It is not long until The Amateurs making the film find that it is more difficult to do than they originally anticipated, threatening the production of the movie. (Stacey Pendry)

    Special features include a making-of featurette Behind The Scenes With The Amateurs (26 minutes), a commentary track by cast and crew, a photo gallery, the original theatrical trailers, and previews.

    The anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 DVD can look overly soft, with generally poor resolution. Black levels are fairly milky, but shadow delineation is nicely rendered. Color balance is somewhat washed-out, which flattens the image. Fleshtones are too reddish. The brightest whites bloom as well, which can be somewhat distracting. Some pixel breakup can be recognized, and edge enhancement is also noticeable. The VC-1-encoded HD DVD shows poor resolution as well, with images looking soft. Black levels are still milky, and whites bloom. The picture looks flat without much sense of depth. (Danny Richelieu)

    The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack is fairly basic, dominated by the center channel with the corner full-range channels used for delivering low-level effects. Still, the soundfield that is created can be somewhat engrossing, with decently mixed pans and phantom imaged effects at times. Dialogue generally sounds good, but there are many times when it is obviously recorded on an ADR looping stage, with relatively poor spatial integration. The HD DVD's Dolby Digital Plus encoding sounds very similar to the DVD's encoding, with a limited mix and an obvious use of ADR. A high-pitched ringing can also be heard throughout. The HD DVD's DTS® Digital Surround™ encoding sounds almost identical to the Dolby encoding. (Danny Richelieu)

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