Fans of Sam Raimi's breakthrough hit from 1990, 'Darkman', should be pleased with MCA/Universal's new letterboxed laser disc edition. In addition to the matted widescreen framing, this new transfer improves upon what was an already fine looking disc. Most noticable is a marked improvement in the color. The new disc has beautifully saturated color, much closer to the original look of the film, making to older transfer look pale by comparison. This new transfer also has improved contrast and brightness. Blacks are deep and smooth with an excellent lighting balance. Sharpness and detail were alway quite good, though the improvement in contrast makes the new disc look a bit more detailed.
The transferred ratio looks to be spot on 1.85:1. Direct comparison with the full screen transfer shows the picture has been cropped at the top and bottom (more off the bottom) but there is also additional image area added to the sides. Personally, I find the wide framing more pleasing (suprise).
The audio on the new disc sounds pretty much the same, that is, very good. Danny Elfman's score sounds great, with good range and dynamics. Dialog is clear and natural with good balance amist the many effects sounds. Generally, an entertaining Dolby mix with good seperations and effective use of the surround channel.
The older MCA disc did not have chapter encoding so to make up for that, they made sure no one would complain about this one. This 96 minute film contains (now, pay attention Paramount) 38 chapters. Unfortunately, the theatrical trailer isn't on one of them. With a list price of $34.95, the same as it's 5 year old predecessor, a worthy replacement.
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