Synopsis
Eddie Murphy is Pluto Nash, ex-smuggler, now owner of the Moon’s most successful nightclub. He refuses to sell his business to mysterious casino operator Rick Crater, with the resultthat his club is blown up, and various and sundry goons are after him. What follows is all sortsof barely motivated running around sets that appear to have waltzed off outtakes from TotalRecall. The film makes little sense, isn’t very funny, isn’t very exciting, and doesn’t have verygood special…effects. Terminally blah. Poor John Cleese and Pam Grier are badly wasted in theirnothing roles.
Audio
The sound is very clear and quite strong. The sound effects aren’t bad (a couple of very niceexplosions), but they don’t get much of a chance to shine. The music is so omnipresent that ittakes over the rear speakers almost completely. Apart from the fact that it seems that hip-hopwon’t change at all in the next hundred years, the music sounds fine.
Video
Yet another widescreen transfer that might be 1.85:1, but could also be 1.78:1. We’ll begenerous and say the former. The colours are okay, but the contrasts and blacks could bestronger. The picture sometimes has a slightly misty look, one that I associate with direct-to-video SF from the 80s and 90s. Otherwise the image is very sharp.
Special Features
You’ve got your cast and crew filmographies, your theatrical trailer, your DVD-ROMfeatures, your 4 deleted scenes, your music video (“Ain’t No Need” by IMx) and a making-offeaturette. Said featurette is not the making of the movie, but what must be a new benchmark inuseless promo featurettes: the making of the video. Please. The menu’s main page is scored.
Closing Thoughts
A pretty mediocre package all in all. While we’re not talking Battlefield: Earth or Rollerball,this is still far from Eddie Murphy’s finest hour.
Special Features List
- Deleted Scenes
- “Ain’t No Need” Video by IMx
- Making-of the Video Featurette
- Cast and Crew Filmographies
- Theatrical Trailer
- DVD-ROM Features
