Memoirs Of An Invisible Man (DVD)

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Video:
The movie's theatrical exhibition ratio, 2.35:1, has been reduced only a tad for this 2.09:1 anamorphic DVD presentation. Colors are especially natural and good-looking, and definition is reasonably good in patches as well. However, not all scenes fare so well. A check of the disc's bit rate indicates a rather ordinary transfer, resulting in some small degree of roughness, a fine grain, some jittery lines, and a few downright blurry shots. None of this should be much of a distraction in a movie that really doesn't get too engrossing anyway.

Audio:
The film was originally made in Dolby Surround Stereo, which is exactly the way it's presented here. While the rear channels are not delivered with pinpoint information right and left but with a single monaural signal, the surrounds open up with surprising vigor on occasion and are robustly effective. The front-channel stereo spread is also excellent, as are the general dynamics. About the only drawback to the sonics is the lack of frequency extremes: the bass is not particularly deep and the treble is not particularly high or airy. This results in the audio impact being somewhat less dramatic than it might have been.

Extras:
There is not a lot in the extras department to excite a person. The two main items include about three minutes of deleted scenes and a four-minute featurette, "How To Become Invisible." The deleted scenes are oddly mistermed "outtakes," an expression usually used to describe scenes or shots edited out of the final production because of technical errors; but these "outtakes" just seem to be additional or expanded scenes that were cut for other reasons. I don't know; I'd have to watch them again for goofs or errors I didn't notice the first time. Whatever, they're not of much interest. The featurette examines the early use of computer graphics to create the special effects, like rendering Chase sometimes only partially invisible. Then, there are thirty-one scene selections and a cast and crew list. English and French are the spoken language options, with English, French, and Spanish for subtitles.

Parting Shots:
"Memoirs of an Invisible Man" is a good example of what can happen when a film never makes up its mind what it wants to be. In attempting to be both a mystery thriller and a romantic comedy without knowing how to gracefully combine the two, the movie dilutes the elements of both genres into a lukewarm muddle. Chase, a consummate deadpan comedian, is wasted as the beleaguered hero, while Daryl Hannah, a beautiful and engaging actress, is used merely as a prop. Of course, being lukewarm is not entirely a bad thing. It beats dead cold. And there are moments in "Memoirs" that are admittedly funny and suspenseful. But they don't add up to much of a movie.

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