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Big
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
In Short: Classic Tom Hanks comedy gets a DVD with pleasant audio/video quality, but nothing else.
The Movie:
Tom Hanks stars in this 1988 comedy about a boy who wishes that he was an adult. When he wakes up the next morning, he finds that his wish has come true. The plot may be fairly simple, but it's the performance of Tom Hanks that simply makes this film magical and certainly memorable. I still remember vividly the first time I saw this picture when I was 9.
Hanks is playing a 12 year-old in a grown up body and is perfection. His looks, his mannerisms, his sense of awe about the world around him and the sense of joy and fun that he brings to this character is really part of an amazing performance. Hanks lets go of everything here, and simply lets himself completely be lost in this character.
There are a number of scenes that lead the film along wonderfully and make for classic moments, most famously the scene where Hanks's character finds the piano while walking through FAO Schwartz. Written by "Pleasantville" director Gary Ross, "Big" is a magical and fun movie for the whole family, with a fantastic lead performance from Tom Hanks. It's unfortunate that Fox has chosen to put a minimal amount of effort into the making of this DVD.
The DVD VIDEO: We already know that this transfer would have looked better if it was anamorphic. So, let's look at what we are given: this is an above average 1.85:1 non-anamorphic transfer, with clear and clean images throughout. The shots of New York City actually come close to being what I would call pleasingly sharp, with natural and nicely saturated colors.
This is one of those discs where there's both nothing great about the image quality and nothing terribly awful about the image quality either. There really isn't any problems with pixelization and the print used seems fairly clean- the only problem that I spotted was an instance of aliasing on occasion. Noticable, but nothing that really was terribly distracting. It's unfortunate that this is not an anamorphic transfer, but as non-anamorphic transfers go(this was very likely the laserdisc transfer as well), it's not too bad.
SOUND: "Big" is simply a light comedy and as such, there really isn't anything agressive in terms of sound effects. There are some light ambient sounds used, but that's about it. The score/soundtrack, which is made up of 80's pop and rock, comes across really nicely- not with any sort of major energy or force, but simply sounds clear and natural. Dialogue is fair- sometimes it sounded a tad thin to me.
MENUS: Very basic main menus made from scenes from the movie.
EXTRAS:: The trailer.
Final Thoughts: Again, it's unfortunate that Fox chose not to put forth more effort into this DVD. The audio/video quality is okay, but there certainly could have been more than just a trailer.
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