|
 Movie
B+ |
Video A | Audio A+
| Extras D
Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Dwight Yoakam, Jared
Leto,
and Kristen Stewart
director David Fincher | Columbia Pictures
2002 | Suspense - Thriller | R | 112 minutes
Region 1 | DVD-9
|
anamorphic
widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio
DTS 5.1 |
Dolby Digital 5.1
Summary: Jodie Foster is Meg Altman,
a single mother and student with a young teenage daughter Sarah who is
diabetic. They're moving into a new house in Manhattan to be closer
to their schools, thanks to the generous financial support from her
estranged husband. The house that they selected is quite large and was
formerly owned
by a wealthy man. It features a seemingly odd panic room, a
solid steel and concrete reinforced hiding room for taking refuge from unexpected
intruders and other threats, complete with its own telephone line, an array of
closed-circuit security cameras and monitors, independent air conditioning and
ventilation systems, an emergency supply of food, water, and other
provisions and necessities.
During the first night of
occupancy by the mother and daughter Altmans, three mysterious men
break into their new home. Upon realizing this, Meg quickly
pulls her daughter into the safety of the panic room and locks
themselves in. Will they be able to summon for help? Will Meg be able to overcome her
claustrophobia long enough to keep her diabetic
daughter calm and properly nourished to maintain her blood sugar
level? Panic Room will likely keep you on the edge of your
seat. It's amazing that the majority of this movie is set within the
confines of this house and its panic room. It's a chilling story
concept.
As Columbia TriStar's
first Superbit release of a
recent theatrical film, Panic Room under whelms me with its mediocre level
of visual details. Superbit DVDs typically exemplifies the best
possible picture quality that DVD has to offer, offering a more detailed
picture than typical DVD transfers. The film was shot with cinematic finesse and interesting
vertical pans
across the different floors of the house and fly-through shots that take
the viewers through wall and furniture, but the film intentionally exhibits a
considerable amount of grain. With most other Superbit releases, the bit
rate is usually maintained at 5-7 Mbits/sec (Mbps) consistently and rarely drops below 5
Mbps. However, the bit rate for Panic Room frequently drops below 5 Mbps to as
low as 4 Mbps. So the combination of a grainy film stock and lower
than typical Superbit bit rates result in a less than stellar picture
quality. The audio quality was more typical Superbit quality,
fortunately. The DTS soundtrack
sounded full and detailed.
Other than the detailed DTS
soundtrack, this Panic Room Superbit DVD release seems rather
substandard in comparison of other previous Superbit releases in terms
of picture detail. If you pick up this DVD for the movie, don't read
too much from the picture quality. Typical Superbit releases do
offer better picture quality than this.
Special Features: As a regular Superbit
DVD, there isn't much bonus materials here, by design: theatrical trailer
and filmographies
DVD released on 9/17/2002 | Reviewed 10/06/2002
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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.
Let us know what you think about this DVD review, write to us at
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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