|
 Movie
B |
Video A- | Audio B+
| Extras C
Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin
director Jez Butterworth | Miramax Home Entertainment
2001 | Thriller | R | 90 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9
anamorphic
widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio
|
Dolby Digital 5.1
Summary: Ben Chaplin is John Buckingham, a bank teller with a
dry personality and no love life (no life whatsoever for that matter). After a few lonely years, he turns to
an internet Russian bride search service. There, he stumbles across Nadia,
a young woman played by Nicole Kidman. John's expectations
are let
down when he realizes that his Russian bride does not speak a word of
English (to be fair, she does know how to say "yes"). But
things start to turn around when Nadia seduces him and helps him live out
his wild fantasies, in order to avoid being sent back to Russia. One day,
she manages to tell John that it's her birthday and she wants a
party. Amazingly enough, two of her friends pop in for a surprise
visit. The two men stay over and eventually befriend John. But guess what? Things aren't that simple...
imagine you are a bank teller and some strangers start to be become your
best friends. Hmmmmm. Though Birthday Girl is not a big
budget thriller, it holds its own quite well, with a few surprise
twists. Nicole Kidman gives a good performance (though no where near
her best), along
with Ben Chaplin as the boring, lifeless bank teller. Birthday
Girl may be worth a rental if you're into thrillers. As far as
bonus materials go, the DVD is quite skimpy in that department.
Special Features: behind-the-scenes
featurette, "Somethin' Stupid" music video, sneak peeks
(theatrical trailers) of The Others, In the Bedroom, The
Shipping News, Amelie, and Gangs of New York
DVD released on 8/13/2002 | Reviewed 8/20/2002
List $29.99 | online $20.99 | order from Amazon.com,
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Additional Notes: Unless we specify otherwise, the
video and audio quality are very good when their grades are "A-"
or better. Only the highest number of channels of surround sound
format is listed (e.g., Dolby Digital 5.1). If there are both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks, then both are listed. All
DVD-Video discs are backwards compatible with stereo-only playback
systems.
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Staff@TimeForDVD.com.
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Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES STR-V444ES A/V receiver, four
B&W CDM 9NTs as left/right main speakers
and left/right surrounds, B&W CDM CNT center channel speaker, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable
Interlink 400 MKII interconnects, Monster Cable
Original speaker cables in bi-wire configuration with Monster Cable twist-on gold-plated banana plug
connectors, Lovan Sovereign T HiFi audio
rack, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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