Hard Rain (UK) (DVD Details)
Sunday, 4th June 2000, 02:25

ChangesPosted by Zvi Josef on 16-5-2002 03:08

With enough water to drown the Titanic (twice!), this is not a movie for the aquaphobics among us.
While the plot is a bit too familiar and the performances aren't top notch, the movie still manages to keep you at the edge of your seat (at least as long as the water level doesn't reach your living room).
The video transfer is very good. Most of the movie takes place at night and the level of detail in each and every scene is quite high. No compression signs can be spotted, nor can any grain be detected. There's a LOT of rain in the movie (during about 95% of it, actually) and most of it seems real. The various CG in the movie (some rain and 2 scenes in the church, for example) is beautifully done and is pretty seamless with the other effects.
The soundtrack is an interesting issue. This movie is supposed to include a DD 5.1 soundtrack. However, my disk included 2 DD 2.0 (224 kbps) audio tracks (one in English and another one in Spanish), despite what's written on the cover. It seems Universal had a small glitch and a couple of DVDs were given the wrong soundtrack. For that reason, I wasn't charged for this disk.
Having said that, I've played the DD 2.0 soundtrack with a surround DSP effect on my receiver and got very nice results. The surrounds were used very nicely, but most of the action came from the 3 front speakers. The sub also got its share of action despite the soundtrack lacking the .1 channel.
The menus are all still and silent.
The disk did not offer any extras at all. What a shame.
Bottom line - a nice action thriller with a semi-problematic (and bare) disk. I think you'd find renting it enough. Still, quite enjoyable.