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I Dreamed Of Africa
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Many seemed to skip "I Dreamed Of Africa" during it's theatrical run, although I suppose most audience members thought it looked a little too much like "I Dreamed Of Out Of Africa". Although it's certainly flawed, it does have a few small positives.
"Africa" stars Kim Basinger as Kuki Gallman, whose true story the film was based upon. After being injured in an auto accident, she decides to marry Paolo(Vincent Perez) and the two of them, along with her child Emanuele(Liam Atken, the bratty kid in "Stepmom") to Africa. Although the story attempts to make their relationship seem fully realized, it feels almost the opposite; the two have little chemistry and don't feel terribly right together.
Like the relationship between those two, "I Dreamed Of Africa" feels curiously flat; scenes of danger (of course, it's always the kid who's in danger) had me blinking in indifference, and the emotion on display wasn't terribly moving. This is not helped by the feeling that the movie is more a collection of scenes that play out on their own instead of a complete tale.
And yet, if Basinger doesn't redeem the movie, she at least makes it somewhat bearable with her enjoyable, if not remarkable, performance. Perez isn't too great, and he leaves for brief periods of time on little trips. Where "I Dreamed Of Africa" goes wrong really isn't the acting, but more the screenplay. It fails to make any of these characters really engaging, or to give them interesting dialogue or to even wrap all of the elements into a smooth story.
Again, "I Dreamed Of Africa" isn't quite as bad as some started it was, but it really does fail during a lot of opportunities to really tell us anything about who Kuki Gallman is, or what she did. Basinger doesn't succeed in the performance, but she at least tries. A "light" rental recommendation.
The DVD
VIDEO: With Tristar's releases, I find myself writing many similar remarks with almost all of their efforts; they usually offer fantastic image quality and "I Dreamed Of Africa", with few exceptions, doesn't dissapoint. There are some a few minor instances of shimmering to take away from an otherwise lovely presentation.
Sharpness is excellent throughout, and I never noticed instances where the picture slipped into softness even slightly. Detail is also very good, and clarity is never lacking even in darker sequences. The studio has done a fine job with a very consistent effort here. The only real problem appears only a couple of times; a slight amount of shimmering. Pixelation doesn't appear, and print flaws are limited to only a couple of minor marks.
The opening scenes have some nice visuals, but it's really when the picture picks itself up and moves to Africa that it really benefits from beautiful scenery and excellent cinematography from Bernard Lutic("My Life So Far"). Colors are well-saturated and natural looking, with a nice range of colors to be found throughout the scenes in Africa. Black level is solid and flesh tones are perfectly natural. This is a very strong presentation from Tristar, with only a few tiny bumps now and then. A pan&scan version is located on the flip-side.
SOUND: "I Dreamed Of Africa" is an example of a movie that could very well be mostly dialogue taking steps to use sound to bring the audience further into the film. Obviously, in any film taking place in the jungle or the outdoors in general, I would be dissapointed if the audio didn't place the viewer in the middle of that environment. The sound definitely lived up to my expectations, with quite a bit of convincing ambient sounds.
Surround use isn't particularly agressive, but offers enough background sounds of the environment to give a nice sense of space and dimension. The best scene in terms of sound is the windstorm, which takes place about an hour and 5 minutes into the movie, where the sounds of wind clearly envelop the listener from all sides; unfortunately, this is a pretty quick storm. Still, the film features a very enjoyable score which sounds rich and clear, and dialogue is always easily heard. Not a stunning soundtrack, but certainly a mildly above average one.
MENUS:: As with many Tristar discs, menus are made up of not much more than the cover art for the main menu and some film-themed images for the sub-menus.
EXTRAS: The isolated music score (strangely, only in Dolby 2.0), the trailer (Dolby Digital 5.1), talent files and also, the HBO "First Look" featurette. The featurette, which offers the usual interviews, clips and behind-the-scenes footage isn't too bad - slightly less promotional in nature than these things usually are.
Final Thoughts: Again, a "light" rental recommendation - mainly only if you're a fan of Basinger.
Many seemed to skip "I Dreamed Of Africa" during it's theatrical run, although I suppose most audience members thought it looked a little too much like "I Dreamed Of Out Of Africa". Although it's certainly flawed, it does have a few small positives.
"Africa" stars Kim Basinger as Kuki Gallman, whose true story the film was based upon. After being injured in an auto accident, she decides to marry Paolo(Vincent Perez) and the two of them, along with her child Emanuele(Liam Atken, the bratty kid in "Stepmom") to Africa. Although the story attempts to make their relationship seem fully realized, it feels almost the opposite; the two have little chemistry and don't feel terribly right together.
Like the relationship between those two, "I Dreamed Of Africa" feels curiously flat; scenes of danger (of course, it's always the kid who's in danger) had me blinking in indifference, and the emotion on display wasn't terribly moving. This is not helped by the feeling that the movie is more a collection of scenes that play out on their own instead of a complete tale.
And yet, if Basinger doesn't redeem the movie, she at least makes it somewhat bearable with her enjoyable, if not remarkable, performance. Perez isn't too great, and he leaves for brief periods of time on little trips. Where "I Dreamed Of Africa" goes wrong really isn't the acting, but more the screenplay. It fails to make any of these characters really engaging, or to give them interesting dialogue or to even wrap all of the elements into a smooth story.
Again, "I Dreamed Of Africa" isn't quite as bad as some started it was, but it really does fail during a lot of opportunities to really tell us anything about who Kuki Gallman is, or what she did. Basinger doesn't succeed in the performance, but she at least tries. A "light" rental recommendation.
The DVD
VIDEO: With Tristar's releases, I find myself writing many similar remarks with almost all of their efforts; they usually offer fantastic image quality and "I Dreamed Of Africa", with few exceptions, doesn't dissapoint. There are some a few minor instances of shimmering to take away from an otherwise lovely presentation.
Sharpness is excellent throughout, and I never noticed instances where the picture slipped into softness even slightly. Detail is also very good, and clarity is never lacking even in darker sequences. The studio has done a fine job with a very consistent effort here. The only real problem appears only a couple of times; a slight amount of shimmering. Pixelation doesn't appear, and print flaws are limited to only a couple of minor marks.
The opening scenes have some nice visuals, but it's really when the picture picks itself up and moves to Africa that it really benefits from beautiful scenery and excellent cinematography from Bernard Lutic("My Life So Far"). Colors are well-saturated and natural looking, with a nice range of colors to be found throughout the scenes in Africa. Black level is solid and flesh tones are perfectly natural. This is a very strong presentation from Tristar, with only a few tiny bumps now and then. A pan&scan version is located on the flip-side.
SOUND: "I Dreamed Of Africa" is an example of a movie that could very well be mostly dialogue taking steps to use sound to bring the audience further into the film. Obviously, in any film taking place in the jungle or the outdoors in general, I would be dissapointed if the audio didn't place the viewer in the middle of that environment. The sound definitely lived up to my expectations, with quite a bit of convincing ambient sounds.
Surround use isn't particularly agressive, but offers enough background sounds of the environment to give a nice sense of space and dimension. The best scene in terms of sound is the windstorm, which takes place about an hour and 5 minutes into the movie, where the sounds of wind clearly envelop the listener from all sides; unfortunately, this is a pretty quick storm. Still, the film features a very enjoyable score which sounds rich and clear, and dialogue is always easily heard. Not a stunning soundtrack, but certainly a mildly above average one.
MENUS:: As with many Tristar discs, menus are made up of not much more than the cover art for the main menu and some film-themed images for the sub-menus.
EXTRAS: The isolated music score (strangely, only in Dolby 2.0), the trailer (Dolby Digital 5.1), talent files and also, the HBO "First Look" featurette. The featurette, which offers the usual interviews, clips and behind-the-scenes footage isn't too bad - slightly less promotional in nature than these things usually are.
Final Thoughts: Again, a "light" rental recommendation - mainly only if you're a fan of Basinger.
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