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Review added April 1, 2004.                           The Blob (1988) :: DVD Review  

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Studio: Columbia TriStar >> Review Equipment
Video: 1.85:1 (Enhanced for 16:9) Length: 91 Minutes
Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 (192kbps) En/Fr/It/Esp/De Subtitles: En/Gr/Esp/It/Fr/De/Bul/Arb/Ic
Video Format: PAL Subtitles: Cz/Da/Du/Fin/Hun/Nor/Pol/Por/
Layer Change: NA Subtitles: Sv/Tur/Hin/Heb
Average Bit-Rate (A+V): 5.37Mbps Disc Format: DVD-5
Disc Capacity Utilised: 3.83GB
Region Coding: 4/2
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:: The Film ::

 
 

>> Skip to Audio/Video Details

Chuck Russell's 1988 update of the original 1958 The Blob was one of my favourite films back in high school, but it had been a while since I saw it last, so I was a little nervous re-visiting a relic from my youth (more often than not an underwhelming, if not cringe-inducing, experience).

I was happy to discover that the film was as entertaining as I remembered, although time hasn't been kind to it from a technical perspective.

A meteor falls to earth in a forest just outside the small rural town of Arborville; onboard is a shapeless blob that attaches itself to a homeless man who arrives to investigate the crash. A local high school football player and his cheerleader girlfriend, played by Donovan Leitch and Shawnee Smith, run across the panicked man moments later and rush him to the local hospital.
 



While in the hospital waiting room, the blob has the opportunity to finish off a large chunk of the man, growing in size as it does so, and make its exit. Shortly thereafter the blob begins to snack its way through the town's locals, growing in size with every victim. With the town in complete panic and the arrival of some sinister government types who know more about the blob than they're letting on, it's up to the cheerleader and the town's local bad boy (played by Kevin Dillon) to save the town.

For their time, and considering the film's low budget, The Blob's practical special effects aren't too bad, although they have certainly dated. The script (from Frank Darabont, believe it or not) is pretty average, as is the acting. In fact, the whole film is archetypal B movie material, and all the better for it. Any movie with a giant ball of goo whacking people like a fly swatter can't be bad after all.
 

  :: Video ::
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The Blob is presented here in anamorphically-enhanced 1.85:1, and shows every bit of its age and low-budget heritage. The print ranges from slightly noisy to "get out your parker, there's a snow storm a comin'" territory, with hairs and nicks present in abundance.

To be fair, much of the film has little in the way of artefacting (although the film is never completely free of print noise), but when it's there it's really very intrusive. Grain and print artefacts are especially noticeable during the film's optical composite special effects shots, when the print looks to be in need of a good shave. Colour saturation is pretty good on the other hand, with some nicely presented primary colours and natural looking skin tones.

The image is noticeably soft with little in the way of low-level detail, and with a fair amount of visible grain, but doesn't suffer from excessive edge enhancement or any aliasing or shimmer. There were no significant compression artefacts, but some grain-induced digital noise was visible. Black levels were generally good, although blacks sometimes seemed a little gray, which is almost certainly attributable to the generally poor condition of the print. Shadow detail was poor. This is a pretty disappointing transfer given the fairly recent vintage of The Blob. 
 

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  :: Audio ::
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The Blob was shown theatrically with a cheapy Ultra Stereo soundtrack (a Dolby Stereo soundalike) which is presented on the DVD via a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at the typical 192kbps.

The first thing I noticed about the soundtrack is that it's very quiet, requiring a liberal twist of the volume knob to attain reference levels. After upping the volume, it should come as no surprise that there's very little here to tax anyone's audio system. Fidelity isn't particularly high, and the soundtrack's dynamic range is very limited. The front soundstage isn't wide by any means, but I was pleasantly surprised by the number of cues and effects heard when required from the front channels.

The soundstage does collapse into the centre channel during quieter scenes, but this was inevitable given the film's budgetary restrictions; the fact that it doesn't do so all the time came as more of a surprise. The surround channel is used effectively, but a little inconsistently, sometimes disappearing when its presence would seem appropriate. Dialogue is always intelligible but slightly harsh and ADR inserts are obvious and poorly integrated. Deep bass is non-existent, and there's little in the way of mid or upper bass.

A pretty average soundtrack, and inevitably a disappointment for those used to recent discrete products, but still better than I expected.
 

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