The Car
UNIVERSAL HOME VIDEO - 611035003

STATS




VISUAL
Colors are extremely vivid and yet not over saturated. Skin tones remain true, even in darker scenes. There is a small amount of edge enhancement, but not that bad. Otherwise the quality is striking, and at times eye-popping.

NOTE: This IS a different transfer from the ANCHOR BAY one released year ago. The most notable difference are deeper blacks and an sharper picture.

AUDIO
The films mix was originally 4-track. Although not a Dolby sound mix it does decode, and is compatible with Dolby Surround. It has the front three locations, Left, Center, and Right, along with a surround channel that is MONO. It derives bass from the front Left and Right and will deliver the lower frequencies into sub-woofer nicely. The mix is extremely active with good separation amongst the front channels and very noticeably into the surrounds. If the viewer has a Dolby Pro-Logic II setting it will matrix a split surround and widen the rear frequencies enough to make it seem like 5.1.
Dialog is extremely clear, but was originally recorded with a kind of thinness to the tone. There are distortions, and no background noise.

NOTE: The previous ANCHOR BAY release from years ago offered a 5.1 mix, however, that was synthetically achieved by CHASE SURROUND – it was NOT re-mixed to 5.1.

EXTRAS
THEATICAL TRAILER – 1.33.1, Color, MONO – UNIVERSAL seems to have released a few films with what they call theatrical trailers, but in 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Can’t they find the widescreen versions of these?! This one has certainly seen better days looking at the condition of it.


Disc

PRESENTATION
A black plastic Amaray has a foil insert with a horrible cover art which unless seen under extremely bright lights just doesn’t work. Although culled from both a publicity photo and original theatrical artwork this layout/foil combination fail utterly.
This is one of UNIVERSAL’S throw away titles shown by their complete lack of features and terrible presentation. The main menu is silent and non-animated. There’s isn’t even a sub-menu for chapters. They are there if the view clicks the “next” button on the remote, but they are not listed within the menu. Even the disc is lackluster.



SIGHTS AND INSIGHTS
SPOILER -
It’s is very starling that at the end of the movie when it is revealed THE CAR is of a demonic nature by way of revealing claws and a mouth with tongue within the flames how much this visage has in common with a real life explosion during the filming of the 007 film LICENCE TO KILL. According to the MGM ULTIMATE EDITION of that film there is a segment in the “Inside License to Kill” that tells of a road in Mexico which is said to be haunted. Among other strange things that occurred during filming the most interesting and un-nerving was what was picked by a photographer’s camera while filming an explosion.

REVIEW by Scott Michael Bosco©
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On LEFT, the demonic presence of THE CAR REVEALED. MIDDLE and RIGHT are twos shots taken on the haunted highway during the filming of an explosion of the 007 film LICENCE TO KILL.