Say Anything… – Blu-ray Disc Review
November 10, 2009 – 2:28 AM - Posted by: Danielle ByingtonTags: Amy Brooks, Cameron Crowe, FOX, Ione Skye, John Cusack, John Mahoney, Lili Taylor
has an average rating of 7.5 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
with new HD content & DVD ports
– 
– 1989
– 100 minutes
– FOX
– 
This uses 22.3GB for the movie out of 33.0GB total.
Overall Verdict – Hold Up Your Boombox for This!
Buy it for $19.49 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Danielle Byington —
The Movie Itself was both written and directed by Cameron Crowe who would go on to direct films such as “Jerry Maguire“. This comes to Blu-ray Disc now in a “20th Anniversary Edition” release. The film itself stars John Cusack as Lloyd, a teenager not who is not exactly on a known academic path. We are first introduced to this character on his graduation day, as he attends the morning of the ceremony casting him off into an undefined direction in life; with the exception that he has plans to let his interest in a particular classmate be known. The girl’s name is Diane (Ione Skye), and she is much different compared to Lloyd. Diane is actually the valedictorian of her class on this graduation day, and she is nervously reciting her speech in the car to her father (John Mahoney) on the way to the ceremony. She has attempts a few comical bits in the dialogue, and though her father laughs at the quirky jokes, the speech does not exactly win over the audience when it goes into real play. In fact, Diane‘s father is the only one in the crowd cracking a laugh; as well as Lloyd, who perhaps sees her words as an introduction to who she is as a person, being that he does not know her.
Following the ceremony, after stealthily snagging a picture of himself walking by her, Lloyd simply calls Diane to invite her to a graduation party. Her father answers the phone, and tends to be pleased with Lloyd‘s politeness, taking a message for her daughter. Diane‘s father, James, also has some very important news to bestow to his daughter besides her missed phone call, and so he visits her at her job. Diane has been honored with a fellowship to attend college in England, which is very huge news to the valedictorian, and her father also informs her of her missed call. Upon returning home, she returns the call to Lloyd, and he casually invites her to the said party. As odd as it may seem, she agrees, and he arrives to pick her up.
Through out the party’s duration, Lloyd is very gentleman-like to Diane, letting her roam free and socialize, though checks on her every now then, since this is not exactly a casual thing for her. Diane meets and socializes with a number of people who really never knew the bookworm until now, after graduation, and she is truly a hit at the party. A majority of party-goers are also baffled at how the two ended up arriving together, and when asked, Lloyd simply relies, “I called her”. While attending the party, it has become Lloyd‘s responsibility to be the “Keymaster”, collecting and holding keys for attendees, and not returning them to their rightful owners unless the driver is sober enough to drive. This exhibit of responsibility is also another quality that perhaps makes him seem yet more charming to Diane.
After spending three hours attempting to find one last drunkard’s home, Lloyd and Diane drop-off the hungover teen, and head on their own way. Their night seems to have been enjoyed by both, and Lloyd returns her to her home, where her father is expecting her, though knowing her whereabouts is not angry. Though Diane wants to be cautious in her approach of a relationship, being that she is set to leave for England in a few weeks, she can not fight her feelings for Llloyd. However, their differences are brought-up once again, as Lloyd joins her for dinner at her house, along side a few friends of Diane‘s father. As they ask him about his ambitions for the future, his charm melts at the table, at least to those who inquired, and it seems to be a confusing, and more so awkward topic for Lloyd. All he can declare a certainty for his is love of kickboxing, “the sport of the future”. Time progresses, and the two teens have become quite serious, though Diane knows she must make a decision about her relationship, as her father does remind her about going to England often.
Overall, looking back on Cameron Crowe‘s “Say Anything…” 20 years later, it fits right in with the “rat pack” titles, being a film of “coming of age” and all, conveying the emotions dealt with by teens, and having a reasonable decision committed by the characters, it is a an intelligent film that shows both sides of a young relationship, and may even take you back a bit. The reoccurring theme seems to be “what the future holds”, and when it comes that, there is no valedictorian who knows, hence the story following Diane‘s emotional decisions. The movie does hold its own as an iconic high school genre flick, with several scenes, notably the boombox scene, replicated through many other medians of entertainment over the years. Fans of the film should be pleased to see this classic 80′s film coming back for its 20th anniversary on Blu-ray, and most likely younger generations will pick up a favorable liking to it as well, as the movie itself earns a “4 Star Rating“.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte, dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. According to IMDb this film was shot on 35mm film using Panaflex cameras and lenses from Panavision. The general look of the picture here does bare an increased amount of clarity, but does simply so-so in the detail portion of visual offerings. On the positive side, a large majority of the scenes within this release have received an appropriate transfer, baring a clarity never before seen for this film, where as what is a handful of frames here and there through out the runtime, are displayed in a very raw mediocre quality; perhaps bits that have accumulated damage in the past two decades, but either or, do not display the increased video quality as the remainder of the release.
The color palette has been given balance, leaning more towards the neutral to cool side in hues, though still offering vibrancy in appropriate objects, such as Diane‘s golden yellow tassel at the graduation, the green lawns and various foliage in the backgrounds of settings, and often in wardrobe and props. Fleshtones coincide with this palette, and are much more accurate than on previous releases of this film, though do every once in a while display the tell-tale signs of an 80′s film, with subtle hints of pink flaring up in the complexions of the cast depending on the lighting sources of the scene. Definition is a bit on the smooth side in general, though definitely being a significant improvement to prior video quality of the film’s former presentations, it simply gives the typical subjects of high detail a semi-waxy appearance, such as the faces of the cast, though the hi-def quality is apparent from time to time, as seen in the textures of wardrobe, and even a few props. Overall, this release is a nice rendition, and the best you’ll find just yet for this film, as it earns a respectable “4 Star Rating“.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. The audio track provided with this release exhibits a rather intelligent mix for portraying the film’s content. The majority of the release is honestly dialogue-heavy, which is mostly conveyed from the center front channel, though various scenes of particular circumstances offer an interesting blend to the soundscape. For example, the scene of the graduation party provides an interesting use, with the first sincerely noticeable rear channel presence conveying the sound track, and further into this scenario as Lloyd is the “Keymaster”, the shots of his character collecting vehicle keys outside on the front lawn of the home exhibits dialogue and gentle clanking of keys in the front channels, and the house-subdued noises of wild teens and blaring music in the rear channels, just as it is visually portrayed on-screen. Another note about this scene involves the various interior and exterior shots following both Diane indoors, and Lloyd outdoors, as the party music moves from front to rear channels, respectively. There is no intensity presented from the subwoofer, with subtle presence conveyed at best as it coincides with the soundtrack. No audible flaws to report here, as the audio track on this release does the film and its content justice, receiving a “4 Star Rating“.
Bonus Materials are presented in a mix of both HD (High Definition) and SD (Standard Def) video quality with Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound.
- Audio Commentary
- “An Iconic Film Revisited: ‘Say Anything…‘ 20 Years Later” (22 minutes, HD)
- “A Conversation With Cameron Crowe” (10 minutes, HD)
- “I Love ‘Say Anything…‘” (8 minutes, HD)
- “To Know ‘Say Anything…‘ Is To Love It! Trivia Track“
- “Alternate Scenes” (11 minutes, SD) consists of 5 scenes.
- “Deleted Scenes” (13 minutes, SD) consists of 10 scenes.
- “Extended Scenes” (25 minutes, SD) consists of 13 scenes.
- “Vintage Featurette” (7 minutes, SD)
- “Trailers” (5 minutes, SD) consists of trailers “A” & “B”.
- “Photo Gallery” (6 minutes, HD)
- “TV Spots” (4 minutes, SD) consists of 8 television spots.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
