Watcher
08-05-2002, 09:44 PM
<I><B>TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT </I></b>
<center><b>
<h2>DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS</h2>
Release Date: Out now
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Rating: PG
RRP: $36.95
<UL>SPECIAL FEATURES AND SPECS</b></center>
<LI>Theatrical Trailer
<LI>English language in Dolby Digital 4.0
<LI> Subtitles: Czech, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish.
English for the Hearing Impaired
<LI>Aspect: 2.55:1 widescreen 16:9 enhanced
<LI>Dual Layer/single sided
<LI>Running Time: 97.01 Mins.</UL>
<center><b>CAST:</b></center>
Victor Mature,Susan Haywood, Jay Robinson, Ernest Borgnine.
DIRECTED BY: Delmer Daves
<center><B>SYNOPSIS:</b></center>
Demetrius And The Gladiators is the sequel to the 1953 movie The Robe and could be described as a movie of "epic proportions" with its realistic sets, fight sequences and costumes that are faithful to the era.
The story continues on from the previous movie and Roman Emperor Caligula seeks "The Robe" that belonged to Jesus Christ so he can benefit from its power. Demetrius (Victor Mature), a former slave, tries his best to keep it safe but finds himself captured and forced to become a Gladiator.
However, Demetrius is a faithful Christian and because of this, he will not kill another human being.
This of course, cannot last if he wants to survive.
Due to a tragic circumstance, Demetrius is faced with turning his back on his faith to become a killer and seek revenge and maybe his freedom.
<center><b>AUDIO/VISUAL:</b></center>
AUDIO
The main feature has just the one audio option, which is Dolby Digital 4.0
To say that the front sound stage is very dominant would be an understatement.
Just about all of the sound comes from the mains and centre speakers, with absolute bare minimum sound coming from the rears.
The audio in the front sound stage is very spread out at times with some very obvious use of speaker separation which has mixed results at times.
Speech is clear and easy to understand and there are no issues with sync.
The music suits the movie perfectly and really does help with the "epic" feel to it.
Having said all this, I still found the overall audio to be quite adequate and to be quite serviceable for the movies needs.
VIDEO
Demetrius And The Gladiators has an aspect ratio of 2.55:1 widescreen and is 16:9 enhanced.
Colours can be a bit hit or miss in quality throughout the film. They appear to be slightly dull and this is understandable when considering the age of the film, but then there are moments where the red in the Roman uniforms look bold and have a nice, deep pigmentation to them.
The image is mostly sharp and only on a few occasions did the image become noticeably soft.
It comes as no surprise that there are specs and scratches that randomly flash onscreen, but they are in no way distracting enough to frustrate viewers. Grain is apparent during the film, but it's also not enough to distract and frustrate.
The layer change takes place at the 42.24 mark of the movie and happens while the screen has faded to black between scenes.
This movie really does look a lot better than most would expect for a movie that was made back in 1954.
<center><B>EXTRA FEATURES:</b></center>
Theatrical Trailer -
This is very much in the style of trailers from the old epic movie days where bold text sweeps at you on screen as scenes are set to strong music This goes on for about the first half of the trailer, then a voice tells you of things such as...."life and limb against sword...net, trident and devouring beasts!" while being accompanied by scenes from the movie.
The trailer is shown in widescreen, with stereo sound and a running time of 3.06
<center><B>OVERALL:</b></center>
Demetrius And The Gladiators is an enjoyable 1950's movie that has the look and feel of an old epic and is maybe one for the fans of this genre only. Victor Mature and Susan Haywood are very good in their respective roles and the chemistry on screen between them works well for the movie.
The DVD version of this movie contains nice looking video content when taking into account the age of the movie and the audio is dominated by the front, but as with the video, the age of the film must be taken into account here.
The extra features consist of just the single Theatrical Trailer.
Demetrius And The Gladiators is out now and has a RRP of $36.95
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" ALIGN="center" BORDER="1">
<tr><td><B><center>Rating out of 5</b></center> </b> </td>
<tr><td><B>VIDEO QUALITY</b> </td><td><B>3.5</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>AUDIO QUALITY</b> </td><td><B>3</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>EXTRAS</b> </td><td><B>1</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>THE MOVIE</b> </td><td><B>4 </b></td></tr>
<tr><td><B>OVERALL</B> </td><td><B>3 </b></td></tr></table>
<center><b>
<h2>DEMETRIUS AND THE GLADIATORS</h2>
Release Date: Out now
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
Rating: PG
RRP: $36.95
<UL>SPECIAL FEATURES AND SPECS</b></center>
<LI>Theatrical Trailer
<LI>English language in Dolby Digital 4.0
<LI> Subtitles: Czech, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish.
English for the Hearing Impaired
<LI>Aspect: 2.55:1 widescreen 16:9 enhanced
<LI>Dual Layer/single sided
<LI>Running Time: 97.01 Mins.</UL>
<center><b>CAST:</b></center>
Victor Mature,Susan Haywood, Jay Robinson, Ernest Borgnine.
DIRECTED BY: Delmer Daves
<center><B>SYNOPSIS:</b></center>
Demetrius And The Gladiators is the sequel to the 1953 movie The Robe and could be described as a movie of "epic proportions" with its realistic sets, fight sequences and costumes that are faithful to the era.
The story continues on from the previous movie and Roman Emperor Caligula seeks "The Robe" that belonged to Jesus Christ so he can benefit from its power. Demetrius (Victor Mature), a former slave, tries his best to keep it safe but finds himself captured and forced to become a Gladiator.
However, Demetrius is a faithful Christian and because of this, he will not kill another human being.
This of course, cannot last if he wants to survive.
Due to a tragic circumstance, Demetrius is faced with turning his back on his faith to become a killer and seek revenge and maybe his freedom.
<center><b>AUDIO/VISUAL:</b></center>
AUDIO
The main feature has just the one audio option, which is Dolby Digital 4.0
To say that the front sound stage is very dominant would be an understatement.
Just about all of the sound comes from the mains and centre speakers, with absolute bare minimum sound coming from the rears.
The audio in the front sound stage is very spread out at times with some very obvious use of speaker separation which has mixed results at times.
Speech is clear and easy to understand and there are no issues with sync.
The music suits the movie perfectly and really does help with the "epic" feel to it.
Having said all this, I still found the overall audio to be quite adequate and to be quite serviceable for the movies needs.
VIDEO
Demetrius And The Gladiators has an aspect ratio of 2.55:1 widescreen and is 16:9 enhanced.
Colours can be a bit hit or miss in quality throughout the film. They appear to be slightly dull and this is understandable when considering the age of the film, but then there are moments where the red in the Roman uniforms look bold and have a nice, deep pigmentation to them.
The image is mostly sharp and only on a few occasions did the image become noticeably soft.
It comes as no surprise that there are specs and scratches that randomly flash onscreen, but they are in no way distracting enough to frustrate viewers. Grain is apparent during the film, but it's also not enough to distract and frustrate.
The layer change takes place at the 42.24 mark of the movie and happens while the screen has faded to black between scenes.
This movie really does look a lot better than most would expect for a movie that was made back in 1954.
<center><B>EXTRA FEATURES:</b></center>
Theatrical Trailer -
This is very much in the style of trailers from the old epic movie days where bold text sweeps at you on screen as scenes are set to strong music This goes on for about the first half of the trailer, then a voice tells you of things such as...."life and limb against sword...net, trident and devouring beasts!" while being accompanied by scenes from the movie.
The trailer is shown in widescreen, with stereo sound and a running time of 3.06
<center><B>OVERALL:</b></center>
Demetrius And The Gladiators is an enjoyable 1950's movie that has the look and feel of an old epic and is maybe one for the fans of this genre only. Victor Mature and Susan Haywood are very good in their respective roles and the chemistry on screen between them works well for the movie.
The DVD version of this movie contains nice looking video content when taking into account the age of the movie and the audio is dominated by the front, but as with the video, the age of the film must be taken into account here.
The extra features consist of just the single Theatrical Trailer.
Demetrius And The Gladiators is out now and has a RRP of $36.95
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" ALIGN="center" BORDER="1">
<tr><td><B><center>Rating out of 5</b></center> </b> </td>
<tr><td><B>VIDEO QUALITY</b> </td><td><B>3.5</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>AUDIO QUALITY</b> </td><td><B>3</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>EXTRAS</b> </td><td><B>1</b> </td></tr>
<tr><td><B>THE MOVIE</b> </td><td><B>4 </b></td></tr>
<tr><td><B>OVERALL</B> </td><td><B>3 </b></td></tr></table>