The Bodyguard is silly. Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner star this decade old thriller/romance. Houston plays Rachel Marron, a pop singer. Not much of stretch back then, these days…not so much. Costner plays Frank Farmer, bodyguard to the stars. It seems as though Marron is receiving death threats. Enter Frank Farmer. A romance eventually develops. This is this the stuff of high camp. Instead, we get low camp. The Bodyguard is not quite bad enough to be Showgirls, and not quite good …nough to be Basic Instinct. The Brit director, Mick Jackson, tries to add some intelligence to the precedings. But why bother. It’s The Bodyguard.
Audio
The mix is in Dolby Digital 5.1. The audio has been remastered for this edition. The mix is mostly front heavy. Surround speakers are reserved for music and action sequence sound effects. Rear speaker applause is also a nice touch, putting the viewer in Whitney Houston’s performances. Dialogue is crisp and clean.
Video
In this new “Special Edition”, we have a Widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio (as opposed to the previous full frame presentation). The colors are natural, but vivid. There is a “soft” look to the film, but it seems intentional. There is some mild speckling in darker scenes. But, overall, the new transfer is successful.
Special Features
There is a new 26 minute retrospective featurette called “Memories of The Bodyguard”. There are new interviews Costner, Lawrence Kasden (the writer), and archival footage from Whitney. Not a lot of behind-the-scenes footage though. This featurette is more of the “looking back” interview variety. There is also the music video for Whitney’s hit “And I Will Always Love You”. There’s also a theatrical trailer for the film.
Final Thoughts
In this Special Edition of The Bodyguard, we have fixed up sound and video. There are a few extras thrown in for good measure. Too bad nothing can be done to fix up the movie. It’s part thriller, part romance, and not sure which part it wants to be. The cheese factor is also very high. But it’s The Bodyguard. What do you expect?
Special Features List
- “Memories of The Bodyguard” featurette
- Whitney Houston video
- Theatrical Trailer
