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Abandon (Widescreen Edition)
Stars:
Katie Holmes, Benjamin Bratt, Charlie Hunnman, Zooey Deschanel, and Gabriel
Union
Writer:
Stephen Gaghan
Director:
Stephen Gaghan
Feature
length: 98 minutes
Extras:
Director and Cinematographer’s Commentary, Featurette, Deleted and Extended
Scenes With Optional Director’s Commentary, Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and English and French Language Dolby
Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 24
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2002/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: PG-13
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Katie
Burke (Katie Holmes) is a bright and attractive college senior with a promising
future. Detective Wade Handler (Benjamin Bratt) is a recovering alcoholic cop
assigned to a missing person’s case that leads him to Katie Burke, who has
been seeing her missing boyfriend (Charlie Hunnman) stalking her around the
campus. Coping with issues of abandonment stemming from her childhood, Katie
attempts to move on to the new possibilities in her life while Detective Handler
closes in on the truth behind her boyfriend’s whereabouts.
“Abandon”
is not likely to amuse anyone over age thirty. It really is a film for the
teenage and twentysomething crowd. It is not particularly thrilling and there
doesn’t seem to be any real chemistry between the leads. Perhaps the film
takes itself too seriously or I am too old to take it seriously, but to discuss
the film in any more depth might spoil what little surprises there are in the
film, though I am sure some will see the film’s conclusion coming from a mile
away.
Paramount
Home Entertainment presents “Abandon” in an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1)
aspect ratio. The picture quality is very solid and free of any visual
anomalies. The English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is also well mixed
and discrete. An English and a French Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack are
also encoded on to the DVD along with English Captions and Closed Captions and
French Language Subtitles for the featurette as options.
Director
Stephen Gaghan and Cinematographer Matthew Libatique participate in a somewhat
dry feature length audio commentary track. If anything that is worth comparing
is Gaghan’s view of the film on the commentary as compared to the somewhat
bloated view of the film that is included on the “A Look At The Dark Side”
featurette (21:52) that also features videotaped cast interviews speaking about
the film as if it were this grand Hitchcock type thriller, which it is not.
Gaghan also provides optional audio commentary for 6 deleted and extended scenes
(7:11) that are presented in a (2.35:1) aspect ratio with Stereo Sound with the
exception of scene six, which was shot on 16mm for the film and is presented in
a (1.33:1) aspect ratio. One can view the deleted and extended scenes
individually or as one reel.
The
(1.85:1) trailers for “Abandon” (2:15) with 5.1 Sound and “The Four
Feathers” (2:28) with Dolby Pro Logic Surround Sound wrap up the extra
features on this DVD release. The main menu is animated with scenes from the
film while the subsequent DVD menus are standard interactive still frames that
are easy to navigate. “Abandon” will debut on DVD-Video from Paramount Home
Entertainment in both a widescreen and a pan and scanned version with the same
extra features day and date, but sold separately on Tuesday March 18, 2003.
©
Copyright 2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Text Link Below!
Abandon (Widescreen Edition)