I Spy (2002)

·      Starring: Eddie Murphy, Owen Wilson, Famke Janssen, Malcolm McDowell
·      Directed by: Betty Thomas
·      Studio: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
·      Video: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.33:1 Fullscreen
·      Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 2.0
·      Subtitles: English, French, and English Closed Captions
·      Extras: Filmmaker’s audio commentary, “Cloak and Camouflage” featurette, “Gadgets and Gizmos” featurette, “Schematics and Blueprints” featurette, “The Slugafest” featurette, 5 theatrical trailers, scene selection
·      Length: 97 minutes
·      Rating: ***

When an experimental spy plane that can become invisible to the naked eye is stolen, the United States springs into action to retrieve the plane before it falls into the hands of an international terrorist.  In order to help good-natured yet clumsy U.S. government agent Alex Scott gain access to vital contacts needed to complete the crucial mission, egotistical boxing champion Kelly Robinson is recruited to provide assistance.  Scott and Robinson are immediately at odds with one another and continuously vie for control throughout the mission.  However, equipped with some high-tech gadgetry, the two become a formidable crime-fighting duo in spite of themselves.            

The video quality of this DVD is excellent.  Images are clean and finely detailed.  Blacks are dark throughout.  Colors are bright and vibrant with fully saturated hues.  Picture defect mastering is perfect with no major flaws or digital compression artifacts.  The overall audio quality is very good with the English Dolby Digital 5.1 track serving as the basis for this review.  The soundtrack mix actively utilizes all of the discrete channels.  Although the dialogue is at times difficult to hear amongst all of the action, it always remains properly anchored in the center channel.  The surround channels are often aggressive, used for both music and ambient sounds, and include multiple split rear effects.  The low frequency bass is deep and explosive.  Present in about one-half of the DVD’s chapters, tactile effects appear as light to heavy impacts and originate from the sound effects and music score.

Reference equipment used for this review: [Video projector- Studio Experience Cinema 17SF Projection screen- Da-Lite 106” Da-Snap; DVD player- Pioneer Elite DV-37; A/V Receiver- Sherwood Newcastle R-963T; Speakers- BIC DV62si mains, DV62CLRs center, Adatto DV52si rears, D1210R subwoofer; Tactile Transducers- Clark Synthesis Gold; Cables and Wires- Bettercables.com]