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Playing God
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
"Playing God" generated some buzz due to the first major lead film role for "X-Files" star David Duchovny; it does make an attempt to build some characters and offer some decent dialogue, but in the end, it falls somewhat flat.Duchovny stars as former Doctor Eugene Sands, license taken away from him due to an incident where he lost a patient while under the influence of drugs. The movie opens with him still being addicted; only now he finds himself in deep when he becomes witness to a crime. Using his medical skills, he saves a life. The only problem is that a gangster(Timothy Hutton) is so thankful that he offers him a job healing wounded criminals.
Unfortunately for him, he begins to get a little too involved with the gangster's beautiful girlfriend Claire(Angelina Jolie). Suddenly, the two find themselves against one another. The film is almost redeemed by a couple of things; Duchovny's performance is engaging, almost a bit of an extention of his "X-Files" role. Hutton is a bit of a cartoon as the gangster, and Angelina Jolie isn't around enough as Claire. Still, the picture has sort of a sloppy, funky charm to go along with its noir-ish feel. Duchovny's narration also offers a few funny one-liners.
The film needs a few things - pacing could have been stronger, even if the film is only 93 minutes. Some sequences drag out a little too long. The performances by some of the supporting cast tend to be a little overdone, but I suppose that plays out as a decent opposite to Duchovny's usual fun underperforming. The writing is occasionally darkly funny, but the characters are not terribly well developed. It's not totally unwatchable, but it's not great, either.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Playing God" offers one of the better non-anamorphic transfers that Disney produced during the period before they decided to make improvements to their output. There are some flaws to be sure, but the image quality nicely shows off the style and tone of the movie. Sharpness is not quite as good as it could be, but it's very strong, and detail matches - looking solid, as well. Colors, such as during the opening club sequence, are rich and wonderfully deep. Flesh tones are accurate, and black level is solid as well. The picture looks a little dark on occasion, but I remember it as being that way in the theater, as well.
A couple of slight problems invade what's an otherwise very nice looking transfer. A bit of pixelation comes in once or twice, and there's some slight shimmering that's noticable. Aside from a couple of very minor marks, the print used is crystal clear. A nice but not remarkable early effort from Disney.
SOUND: "Playing God" misses opportunities to build a better soundstage; there really isn't much (if any) surround use that, and what surround use there is really isn't that memorable or noticable. Occasionally it opens up a bit, only to fold back to being mainly a dialogue-driven picture. The music score does sound good though, with a nice, solid presence. Dialogue sounds very natural and well-integrated. Not a very agressive soundtrack, it manages to passably get the job done - no more, no less.
MENUS:: Very basic, very non-animated main menus that aren't too interesting.
EXTRAS: Theatrical trailer (dolby 2.0).
Final Thoughts: A rental at most. Decent movie and DVD that offers decent audio/video quality, but no real extras to speak of.
"Playing God" generated some buzz due to the first major lead film role for "X-Files" star David Duchovny; it does make an attempt to build some characters and offer some decent dialogue, but in the end, it falls somewhat flat.Duchovny stars as former Doctor Eugene Sands, license taken away from him due to an incident where he lost a patient while under the influence of drugs. The movie opens with him still being addicted; only now he finds himself in deep when he becomes witness to a crime. Using his medical skills, he saves a life. The only problem is that a gangster(Timothy Hutton) is so thankful that he offers him a job healing wounded criminals.
Unfortunately for him, he begins to get a little too involved with the gangster's beautiful girlfriend Claire(Angelina Jolie). Suddenly, the two find themselves against one another. The film is almost redeemed by a couple of things; Duchovny's performance is engaging, almost a bit of an extention of his "X-Files" role. Hutton is a bit of a cartoon as the gangster, and Angelina Jolie isn't around enough as Claire. Still, the picture has sort of a sloppy, funky charm to go along with its noir-ish feel. Duchovny's narration also offers a few funny one-liners.
The film needs a few things - pacing could have been stronger, even if the film is only 93 minutes. Some sequences drag out a little too long. The performances by some of the supporting cast tend to be a little overdone, but I suppose that plays out as a decent opposite to Duchovny's usual fun underperforming. The writing is occasionally darkly funny, but the characters are not terribly well developed. It's not totally unwatchable, but it's not great, either.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Playing God" offers one of the better non-anamorphic transfers that Disney produced during the period before they decided to make improvements to their output. There are some flaws to be sure, but the image quality nicely shows off the style and tone of the movie. Sharpness is not quite as good as it could be, but it's very strong, and detail matches - looking solid, as well. Colors, such as during the opening club sequence, are rich and wonderfully deep. Flesh tones are accurate, and black level is solid as well. The picture looks a little dark on occasion, but I remember it as being that way in the theater, as well.
A couple of slight problems invade what's an otherwise very nice looking transfer. A bit of pixelation comes in once or twice, and there's some slight shimmering that's noticable. Aside from a couple of very minor marks, the print used is crystal clear. A nice but not remarkable early effort from Disney.
SOUND: "Playing God" misses opportunities to build a better soundstage; there really isn't much (if any) surround use that, and what surround use there is really isn't that memorable or noticable. Occasionally it opens up a bit, only to fold back to being mainly a dialogue-driven picture. The music score does sound good though, with a nice, solid presence. Dialogue sounds very natural and well-integrated. Not a very agressive soundtrack, it manages to passably get the job done - no more, no less.
MENUS:: Very basic, very non-animated main menus that aren't too interesting.
EXTRAS: Theatrical trailer (dolby 2.0).
Final Thoughts: A rental at most. Decent movie and DVD that offers decent audio/video quality, but no real extras to speak of.
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