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