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| Special Features: |
• Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
• Color, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Widescreen
• Commentary by director Steven Soderbergh with Neil LeBute
• Theatrical trailer(s)
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| Video Format: |
Anamorphic
Widescreen (1.85:1)
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| Languages: |
English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 4.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
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| Captions: |
English, Spanish, French
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| Casing: |
1-Disc Keep Case
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Selfish lovers make lonely people.
Ann Bishop Melaney (Andie MacDowell) has no need for sex and she thinks that masturbation is just stupid. She has lost interest in her husband too, she has no need for him either, but she doesn't know that, at least, not yet. Ann is married to John Melaney (Peter Gallagher) an attorney who knows exactly what he wants, how to get it, but not how to keep it. His life cannot be as easily juggled as his daily appointment book--scheduling afternoon sexathons with a person other than his wife around meetings with wealthy firm clients.
Graham Dalton (James Spader) is a college friend of John's who has just come back into town. Graham has just one key, to his car, and he likes it that way. Graham is impotent, he cannot get an erection in the presence of another person. Of course, his impotence is not his problem, or is it?
There is a scene in "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" that I will never forget: John Melaney stands in his wonderful corner office as a junior law partner in a big city law firm and he is dressed so dandily, so perfectly for the tragedy of his situation. You see, his juggling act has ended and the balls are resting motionless on the floor.
"Sex, Lies and Videotape" is frank and real. The characters displayed exist in our lives. These characters speak the same way we speak to one another daily. You know what is most amazing? What these characters have to say is actually interesting--sex or no sex.
Only thing special here is the fact that Neil LeBute is featured with Steven Soderbergh on the commentary track. The commentary track is terrific. We learn things like that Steven wrote the Ann Bishop Melaney role for Elizabeth McGovern who turned it down. Her loss and Andie's gain, and you just gotta love her sweet Southern drawl.
Picture Quality: 8/10
Although I read that some of the background images may have show chroma noise, I watched the film twice, once with the commentary and once without, and I did not notice anything significant. Funny thing was that I had to stop the disc due to pixelation, but after cleaning, it went away. A quality transfer job appears to be done here. Remember, I saw this film on video in 1990 or so--my "duped" video copy is no longer watchable.
Sound Quality: 4/10
I was forced to play with the settings on my amp from beginning to end. This film is very talky but that does not excuse the need for consistent loudness levels.
Menu: 5/10
Nothing special to look at and nothing to do, very standard.
Extra Features: 0/10
The commentary track is wonderful but I don't consider it anything extra on this disc. The teaming of Mr. LeBute and Mr. Soderbergh is intriguing because these two guys could make an NC-17 movie without one Showgirl and it would actually be worth watching.
The Final Word:
The Commentary Track make this worth the rent. We got "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" from Netflix.com,
easy to use with a great selection.
Jonathan W. Hickman
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