Of the most recent crop of remasters from Columbia/Tristar, this is easily one of the best looking. 'Real Genius' is a suprisingly well written comedy about a group of young geniuses whos's college professor exploits their gifts for the benefit of his secret military benefactors. When the students, led by Val Kilmer in only his second feature, find out what their project is being used for, they don't get mad, they get even. The film was directed by Martha Coolidge ('Rambling Rose') and, interestingly, photographed by Vilmos Zsigmond ('Close Encounters Of The Third Kind', 'The Deer Hunter'). Filmed in Panavision, it was Zsigmond's widescreen compositions that immediately caught my eye. This film was definitely NOT composed for TV. The wide Panavision frame is used to it's fullest and this new letterboxed transfer preserves the cinematography with a perfect 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Though I'm fairly certain 'Real Genius' found it's largest audience on video, a scanned and cropped video transfer will certainly diminish this very entertainly film.
Overall, the transfer on this new disc is not just good, but suprisingly good. The worst thing I can say about it is that in some scenes the colors appear to be slightly faded, however, they are also very accurate without a trace of choma noise. Contrast and brightness are very good and sharpness is near perfect giving the image a very detailed, natural look.
The Dolby Stereo soundtrack has nothing to make it stand out, but on the other hand, there is nothing to detract from the film either. The audio is clear and sounds free of distortion. Dialog is clean and well balanced. Use of the surround channel is somewhat limited, though it does provide some additional depth and atmosphere to the soundtrack.
The film runs 106 minutes and the disc contains 47 chapters. No extras, but with a terrific script and a near flawless transfer, 'Real Genius' is just the ticket for a popcorn-munching good time. At $34.95, a big 'thumbs up'.
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