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BLIND DATE
BLIND DATE is an enjoyable comedy that depicts everyone’s worst romantic nightmare- that horrifying first date from hell. Columbia TriStar’s DVD presentation looks quite nice, so if you are a fan of the movie, you’ll want check out the disc. |
This DVD review 
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DVD
reviews are Copyright © 2002 THE CINEMA LASER and may not be copied
or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher. |
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In
the 1980s, director Blake Edwards really hit the mark with the triumphant
musical/comedy VICTOR, VICTORIA- however; during that decade Edwards
also managed a number of misfires like A FINE MESS, SUNSET
and SKIN DEEP. During the 80s, Edwards also made a movie called
BLIND DATE ($25), and while not a complete bull’s-eye, this funny
little film has a lot more charm than the others combined. BLIND DATE
is the story of a workaholic junior executive named Walter Davis (Bruce
Willis) who needs a date for an all important business dinner. Walter’s
brother and sister-in-law set him up on a blind date with the very beautiful
Nadia Gates (Kim Basinger), giving him one caveat- don’t get her drunk.
At
first, Walter’s blind date with Nadia goes very well, and in the spirit
of romance he decides that a little champagne couldn’t hurt… Unfortunately,
Nadia suffers from a chemical imbalance that turns her naturally demure
personality into one that is wild and unpredictable whenever she imbibes
alcohol. Before you know it, Natalie ends up wrecking Walter’s important
business dinner and his entire career. And if this blind date from
hell wasn’t bad enough, Walter and Nadia cross paths with her insanely
jealous ex-boyfriend David Bedford (John Larroquette), who causes even
more chaos and destruction- ending with Walter in jail and facing serious
prison time. Although my description of BLIND DATE doesn’t sound
particularly pleasant, the film is actually a rather sweet romantic comedy
with a couple of genuinely hilarious moments. The cast of BLIND DATE
also features William Daniels, Phil Hartman, Stephanie Faracy, Graham
Stark and Joyce Van Patten.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made BLIND DATE available on DVD
in a 2.35:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for 16:9 displays.
A pan and scan presentation is available on a separate layer of the DVD,
but then again, no Blake Edwards movie is worth watch with half of its
wide screen image (and comedy) hacked away. The wide screen version looks
quite nice, but owing to the fact that BLIND DATE is a fifteen-year-old
movie, the image does look a little dated. Some shots appear a bit softer
than others, but for the most part BLIND DATE has a relatively
sharp and well-defined image. There is a bit of film grain here and there,
but the new transfer is cleaner and smoother than the old Laserdisc version
of the film. Colors are nicely saturated and flesh tones appear natural.
All of the hues are completely stable, with no signs of noise or smearing.
Blacks are accurately rendered and the level of shadow detail is just
fine. Digital compression artifacts are not an issue on this DVD.
BLIND
DATE includes a Dolby Digital 2.0
channel soundtrack that is supposed to decode to standard surround. While
the soundtrack doesn’t have any significant issues with fidelity, the
sound itself mix is rather uninspired. For the most part, the sound is
localized to the forward soundstage and rather stationary. Since this
is mid 80s comedy, directional sound effects are limited to barest minimum
for the material. Henry Mancini’s musical score does sound nice, with
the music managing some stereo separation. Dialogue is cleanly reproduced
with very good intelligibility. A French surround track is also encoded
onto the DVD, as are English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean,
and Thai subtitles. The basic interactive menus provide access to the
standard scene selection and set up features, as well as a theatrical
trailer.
