Say Anything
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cast: John Cusack, Ione Sky, John Mahoney
Extras: Commentary Track, Featurette, Deleted Scenes, Trailer, TV SPots, Photo Gallery
Rating:
Cameron Crowe’s ’Almost Famous’ became one of the most inspired films of 2000 and ’Vanilla Sky’ stands out nicely as last year’s outing. Whether it’s the ’Show Me The Money!’ scene from Jerry Maguire or any other moment from his films, Crowe always manages to create palpable characters and films. ’Say Anything’ is his 1989 comedy drama starring John Cusack in one of his infamous high-school films – only this time with a lot of class.
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is presenting ’Say Anything’ in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio in a transfer that is enhanced for 16×9 television sets. The transfer is clean and free of blemishes, making it a very detailed and rich presentation. Colors are vibrant and bring to life the film’s carefully designed, very naturally looking, settings. Blacks are deep and never break up, giving the picture a lot of visual depth that firmly roots the picture. The presentation is free of edge-enhancement and the resulting ringing artifacts and the compression is also flawless, leaving every bit of detail fully intact. This presentation may appear unspectacular at first glimpse but it is this extremely natural look that ultimately makes it a remarkably good transfer.
The DVD contains a 5.1 channel Dolby Digital mix of the movie as well as a Dolby Surround mix in English and a French Dolby Stereo mix. The 5.1 mix is nicely engaging the surround channels but is for the most part restrained and never becomes obtrusive. The frequency response is wide creating a good bass response and clear high ends that are free of distortion. Dialogues are well integrated and always remain understandable.
Being a Special Edition release, the DVD also contains a commentary track featuring Cameron Crowe, John Cusack and Ione Sky. It is an informative track that covers a lot of background information about the production but also reveals the though process Crowe went through when writing this film. The disc also contains a large selection of deleted, alternate and extended scenes which add additional color to the scenes from the film. They are a great collection of footage that truly add to this release.
A promotional featurette can also be found on the release, offering interviews with the cast and crew as well as some behind the scenes footage. It is a fluff piece that nicely introduces the film to audiences and sells the story and characters. The disc is rounded out by trailers and TV spots and a photo gallery with pictures from Cameron Crowe’s personal photo collection of the film.
’Say anything’ is a nice and romantic comedy that touches quite a few nerves – something Cameron Crowe is really good at. Although funny on the surface, the film really has something to say while always maintaining a light-hearted note. Fox put in some great work in this DVD so make sure to give it a try some time.
