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Sydney: Story of a City (IMAX)
Slingshot // Unrated // January 29, 2002
List Price: $19.99 [Buy now and save at Dvdempire]
The Movie:
Director Bruce Beresford has been widely acclaimed for such films as "Driving Mrs. Daisy", but recent years have not provided the same deal of success. While "Double Jeopardy" cemented the star status of Ashley Judd, the picture did not recieve great reviews, nor did Beresford's recent "Bride of the Wind", a rather thin biopic of Alma Mahler. I hadn't been aware that, in 1999, the director had taken up IMAX cameras to celebrate the city of Sydney, in his native Australia.
Beresford's tale stars Lucy Bell and Paul Mercurio as two young folks who fall for one another while touring around the city. Thankfully, given the fact that Beresford has less than an hour's worth of running time, he doesn't focus on the already thin story of the two falling for one another while she searches for clues to her past. Instead, the director shows and discusses landmarks from the city while also discussing the city's history. Yet, even the existence of the fictional story tying together the non-fictional history does make the picture suffer slightly.
I'm not sure why IMAX filmmakers really attempt to add something so ordinary as a love story to an attempt to grandly and majestically show the history of an important city on the stories-tall IMAX screen. With the addition of the fictional story to the already short 36-minute running time, I felt as if the film was over before it began. It's certainly not a bad film, but I would have liked to have heard more about the city than what's offered here.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Sydney: Story of a City" is the second IMAX release from Slingshot this week and their work here fares noticably better than its counterpart, "Great North". Sharpness and detail are very good, as the picture appears crisp and clean throughout, with better depth to the image than "Great North" displayed.
"Great North" showed shimmering and print flaws on occasion; "Sydney" shows neither of those irritants, but there were a few very slight traces of pixelation. Edge enhancement and other problems do not appear. Colors looked terrific, as the scenery of the city provided a beautifully warm, rich color palette that was well-represented by this transfer.
SOUND: "Sydney" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Slingshot. As with "Great North", the film's soundtrack is quite good, although there are certainly other IMAX films that put 5.1 audio to more agressive use. "Sydney" did provide stronger ambience and also, richer and bolder presence for its strong and uplifting score, which really seemed to open further into the room. Surrounds picked up sound effects well during several stretches, but there's also a fair deal of this film that simply doesn't need audio fireworks. Audio quality remained superb throughout the program, as the score sounded crisp and quite realistic, as if the players who in the same room. Dialogue/narration and sound effects were also clear and crisp, as well.
MENUS: A nice, if unremarkable, main menu that offered some very basic animation in the backgrounds.
EXTRAS: Two featurettes focusing on Aboriginal stories: "The Emu and the Sun" and "The Greedy Frog", as well as two digeridoo performances from Phil Jones. Cast and crew bios round out the section.
Final Thoughts: "Sydney" is an enjoyable IMAX feature, but it would have been appreciated if the film had gone the standard documentary route instead of using precious time on the fictional romance at the heart of the film. Slingshot's DVD is priced nicely at $19.99 and offers solid audio/video, along with a few decent supplements. Recommended.
Director Bruce Beresford has been widely acclaimed for such films as "Driving Mrs. Daisy", but recent years have not provided the same deal of success. While "Double Jeopardy" cemented the star status of Ashley Judd, the picture did not recieve great reviews, nor did Beresford's recent "Bride of the Wind", a rather thin biopic of Alma Mahler. I hadn't been aware that, in 1999, the director had taken up IMAX cameras to celebrate the city of Sydney, in his native Australia.
Beresford's tale stars Lucy Bell and Paul Mercurio as two young folks who fall for one another while touring around the city. Thankfully, given the fact that Beresford has less than an hour's worth of running time, he doesn't focus on the already thin story of the two falling for one another while she searches for clues to her past. Instead, the director shows and discusses landmarks from the city while also discussing the city's history. Yet, even the existence of the fictional story tying together the non-fictional history does make the picture suffer slightly.
I'm not sure why IMAX filmmakers really attempt to add something so ordinary as a love story to an attempt to grandly and majestically show the history of an important city on the stories-tall IMAX screen. With the addition of the fictional story to the already short 36-minute running time, I felt as if the film was over before it began. It's certainly not a bad film, but I would have liked to have heard more about the city than what's offered here.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Sydney: Story of a City" is the second IMAX release from Slingshot this week and their work here fares noticably better than its counterpart, "Great North". Sharpness and detail are very good, as the picture appears crisp and clean throughout, with better depth to the image than "Great North" displayed.
"Great North" showed shimmering and print flaws on occasion; "Sydney" shows neither of those irritants, but there were a few very slight traces of pixelation. Edge enhancement and other problems do not appear. Colors looked terrific, as the scenery of the city provided a beautifully warm, rich color palette that was well-represented by this transfer.
SOUND: "Sydney" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Slingshot. As with "Great North", the film's soundtrack is quite good, although there are certainly other IMAX films that put 5.1 audio to more agressive use. "Sydney" did provide stronger ambience and also, richer and bolder presence for its strong and uplifting score, which really seemed to open further into the room. Surrounds picked up sound effects well during several stretches, but there's also a fair deal of this film that simply doesn't need audio fireworks. Audio quality remained superb throughout the program, as the score sounded crisp and quite realistic, as if the players who in the same room. Dialogue/narration and sound effects were also clear and crisp, as well.
MENUS: A nice, if unremarkable, main menu that offered some very basic animation in the backgrounds.
EXTRAS: Two featurettes focusing on Aboriginal stories: "The Emu and the Sun" and "The Greedy Frog", as well as two digeridoo performances from Phil Jones. Cast and crew bios round out the section.
Final Thoughts: "Sydney" is an enjoyable IMAX feature, but it would have been appreciated if the film had gone the standard documentary route instead of using precious time on the fictional romance at the heart of the film. Slingshot's DVD is priced nicely at $19.99 and offers solid audio/video, along with a few decent supplements. Recommended.
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