Twilight Zone: The Movie (HD DVD)
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Brian Wortz on December 21st, 2007
The premise of Twilight Zone the Movie wasn’t a bad one. Steven Spielberg, John Landis, Joe Dante, and George Miller would give their own takes on the Twilight Zone mythos in several short featurettes. Unfortunately, the tragic events surrounding the making of this film only exacerbated the film’s failure. The death of star Vic Morrow and two other actors during John Landis’ segment of the film placed a dark cloud over this movie that still remains to this day. Even Spielberg’s lighthearted “Kick the Can” and John Lithgow’s great performance of George Miller’s reworking of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” can’t save this film from the weight of uneasiness that still remains. The HD DVD presentation does make for a better viewing experience than the standard cable TV presentation I’ve been accustomed to, but I’ll have to leave this disc for the die hard fans only.
I won’t attempt to rehash Gino’s already excellent review of Twilight Zone the Movie on DVD, (OK, OK I’m just lazy) but I will give my own 2 cents on a few of the segments. Landis’s segment should have really been excised from the picture as it feels both overlong and unfinished (which it was) at the same time, and feels shamelessly included. Spielberg’s segment is only saved by Scatman Crothers and at least brings a lighter air to the film after Landis’ debacle. Joe Dante’s segment is entertaining but overcooked. Miller’s 20,000 Feet is really the only thing worth watching, and fans of the original will get a kick out of it.
Video
As I mentioned, I’ve seen this movie several times on cable TV. Up until now it was only released on VHS; we’re not even in double-dip territory here. So we’ve got a much better version than ever before. That being said, much better than standard definition cable, in this case, translates to a mediocre HD DVD. I can forgive the inconsistencies in the picture, as each director’s segment has it’s own style, but despite the added detail present, the transfer looks mostly flat. While I will agree that this does look very good for a movie of its age, I was really put of with the black levels which showed some noise especially during “20,000 Feet”. Good but not great.
Audio
Despite the fact that I wasn’t thrilled with the picture, I do believe Warner was making a nice attempt at the release of this film as we do get a decent TrueHD 5.1 track. Yeah! The fidelity of the track was very good, although I did feel there were a few times the mostly nice surround effects overtook the rest of the audio. Overall I was very pleased with the track and it was fairly consistently impressive despite the differences in the styles of the various segments of the film. Dialog was generally clearly audible, and LFE was utilized appropriately during some of the action sequences.
Extras
Nothing. I really think this would have been a great time to revisit the tragedy surrounding the film, and give some people a chance to discuss things in honor of those lost during production. It could have classed thing up in my mind tremendously.
Overall
Despite all the inconsistencies, I don’t hate this movie by any means. It’s just OK in my mind, never matching the pure entertainment of the original series. But I do give Warner Bros. credit for continuing to support their back catalog of titles and I think the presentation will still be acceptable if not appreciated by fans.
December 22nd, 2007 at 5:45 am
Thanks for the compliment, Brian.
Your doing a pretty good job yourself,
Gino
October 18th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Twilight is simply the best movie and i am so much addicted to it. Kirsten Stewart is very pretty and Robery Pattinson is so handsome