GOOD ADVICE

Artisan Home Entertainment
Special Features DVD, $19.98

When Wall Street stockbroker Ryan Turner takes a high-risk chance on a bad stock tip, his entire world comes crashing down.  The self-centered, insensitive Ryan loses his beautiful girlfriend, career, money, and luxury apartment.  Looking to make ends meet, he secretly begins writing the newspaper advice column his ex-girlfriend abandoned.  Ryan quickly learns that this job is not easy and it profoundly affects the lives of those who read it.  Ultimately, the column transforms Ryan's life as well.      

Good Advice stars Charlie Sheen, Angie Harmon, Denise Richards, Rosanna Arquette, Barry Newman, Estelle Harris, and Jon Lovitz.  The movie was written by Daniel Margosis and Robert Horn, directed by Steve Rash, and features music by Teddy Castellucci.  Originally debuting on cable television, the movie is rated R and features an approximate running time of 93 minutes.           

The movie is presented in a choice of a fullscreen (4:3) or an anamorphic widescreen version (1.85:1).  The widescreen version is the basis for this review.  The overall quality of the transfer is very good.  Images are clean and colors are rich with fully saturated hues.  There is a high degree of contrast and very dark black levels.  Picture defect mastering is excellent with no major flaws or compression artifacts.

Video Rating: 8 out of 10

The following spoken language options are available for the movie: English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 channel surround.  The following written language tracks are available: Spanish subtitles and English closed captions.  The English Dolby Digital 5.1 track is the basis for this review. The overall soundtrack mix heavily favors the forward channels.  Dialogue is crisp and natural sounding.  The surround channels are very subdued and are used for both ambient sound effects and music.  The LFE channel provides smooth, mellow bass to the soundtrack but is used infrequently.

Audio Rating: 5 out of 10

The tactile sound effects are average and are present in about one-third of the DVD's chapters.  Subtle impacts are the only type of tactile effect that can be experienced on this disc.  These impacts originate exclusively from the music soundtrack.

Tactile Sound Effects Rating: 5 out of 10

Bonus features include an audio commentary with director Steve Rash; theatrical trailer; 6-trailer gallery; cast & crew bios; production notes; scene access and interactive menus.

Bonus Features Rating: 5 out of 10

Reference equipment used for this review: [DVD player- Pioneer Elite DV-37; HDTV Monitor- Pioneer SD532HD5; A/V Receiver- Pioneer Elite VSX33TX; Speakers- BIC America V636 5.1 Channel Configuration; Tactile Transducers- Clark Synthesis TST329F]