Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!
Title: The Day After Tomorrow: Widescreen
Region: One
Genre: Science Fiction Disaster Drama
Stars:
Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ian Holm, Emmy Rossum, and Sela Ward
Writers:
Roland Emmerich and Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Based
On A Story By: Roland Emmerich
Director:
Roland Emmerich
Feature
length: 123 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentary With Director/Co-Writer Roland Emmerich and
Producer Mark Gordon, Feature Length Audio Commentary With Co-Writer Jeffrey
Nachmanoff, Director Of Photography Ueli Steiger, Editor David Brenner, and
Production Designer Barry Chusio, “Audio Anatomy” Interactive Sound Demo,
Deleted Scenes, DVD-ROM Behind-The-Scenes Content
Languages:
English DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Sound, and French and Spanish Language Dolby Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 32
Sound:
DTS Digital 5.1 Theatrical Surround Sound, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, and
Dolby Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2004/DVD Release: 2004
Theatrical
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Home
Video Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: PG-13
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Roland
Emmerich’s “The Day After Tomorrow” is one of the first summer flicks to
come to DVD just in time for the holiday gift-giving season. The film is not
unlike the previous sci-fi disaster films Emmerich has directed, but the
environmental message along with the cutting edge effects do make this an above
average popcorn film and a timely thriller that will provide hours of eye candy
for DVD users. Science fiction, fantasy, horror, and action pictures often make
the best DVD-Videos because the enhanced sound capability coupled with the sharp
picture that brings the home theater user’s system to life and “The Day
After Tomorrow” is no different. Released in both widescreen and full screen
editions with nearly identical extra value features, but sold separately, even
the packaging is eye catching with a holographic cardboard slip over the
traditional plastic DVD keep case.
The
premise has paleo-climatologist (Dennis Quaid) traveling to New York City to
rescue his son (Jake Gyllenhaal) in the wake of an ice age brought on by global
warming. The film features a few terrific nature run amuck sequences that
include Los Angeles being clobbered by tornadoes and New York being flooded only
to fall into a deep and deadly freeze. The picture quality on this Fox DVD
release is stunning with an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) aspect ratio
presentation that preserves the manner in which the film was exhibited
theatrically as close as possible for home video users. This is as sharp a
transfer as they come and the picture is greatly complemented by the English 5.1
Surround Soundtrack options, which feature both Dolby Digital and DTS Digital
Theatrical Surround Sound. The mix is truly exceptional and the DTS track offers
a higher fidelity and more aggressive tonality than the Dolby Digital Soundtrack
too. French and Spanish Language Dolby Surround Soundtrack options are encoded
onto the dual layered DVD as well along with English Captions and Closed
Captions for the hearing impaired and Spanish Language Subtitles. There are also
two feature length audio commentary tracks to listen to with track one featuring
Director/Co-Writer Roland Emmerich and Producer Mark Gordon and track two
features Co-Writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Director Of Photography Ueli Steiger,
Editor David Brenner, and Production Designer Barry Chusio. Both feature length
audio commentary tracks are screen specific and quite interesting. In some ways
I prefer the second audio commentary track over the first because the
participants seem more into what they are discussing and as a result more
sincere in tone.
The
picture and sound quality as well as the commentary tracks are the best elements
to this DVD release. Unfortunately the rest of the extra value features are
rather slim. The theatrical trailer for “The Day After Tomorrow” is simply
non-existent though there is a DVD promo (2:33) with clips from “Man On
Fire,” “I’ Robot,” and “Alien Vs. Predator” as well as a sneak peek
trailer for “Mr. And Mrs. Smith” (1:48), which stars Brad Pitt and Angelina
Jolie, looking as sexy as she ever has in a motion picture. Two
alternate/deleted scenes that clock in at (2:45) and (3:45) are also included
and are presented in anamorphic widescreen with equal picture quality to the
feature film’s presentation on disc itself as well as English Dolby Surround
Sound. There is also a multi-audio demonstration that allows the viewer to
switch between eight tracks while they watch a scene from the film (1:49) and
get a sense at how the layering of the various soundtracks produce what quite
honestly is easy for the average viewer to just take for granted. These choices
range from the final mix and include the dialogue, helicopter design, engine
sounds, ice and wind effects, sound effects, foley, and music tracks. They can
be listened to individually while viewing the scene or switched about during
playback too.
Microsoft
Windows based DVD-ROM users are supposed to get access to DVD-ROM features that
include over an hour a behind-the-scenes footage, a global watch, a city freeze
demonstration, and web link via the Hot Lama media player that automatically
downloads onto your hard drive as soon as the disc is placed into the DVD-ROM
drive. An Internet connection is also required to access these features, but
despite having all the necessary requirements on my PC, I could not get any of
the DVD-ROM extra value materials to work at all. Apple Macintosh users are out
of luck since none of these materials are designed to work on a Macintosh, but
considering how none of these features seem to work on my Windows based PC,
I’d say they are not missing much though I cannot offer a truthful judgment of
these ROM based features for consumers since they did not work on the PC I
tested it on.
The
DVD menus feature animated transitions to standard interactive still frame menus
and are all easy to navigate. Personally I wish they just released this as a
two-disc set and just dropped the DVD-ROM content all together since not all DVD-Video
users even have a computer with a DVD-ROM drive and despite the fact that they
are common in most new home personal computers, the reality is that I think most
users would rather access the content on their home theater system with a nice
big widescreen TV while sitting on a comfy couch rather than sitting in front of
a PC monitor. Still the picture and sound are top shelf and for me that is still
the most important part of screening any DVD. “The Day After Tomorrow” is
available in both Widescreen and Full Screen Editions sold separately at
retailers on and offline now from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2004 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!