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Practical Magic
Warner Brothers
2.35:1/Dolby Digital English and French 5.1/
16x9
Region:1
104 Minutes
Subtitles:English and French
Rated:PG-13
The Film:
I'm not a big fan of the current films that are coming out of the romantic comedy/genre drama. There's a rare gem like "My Best Friend's Wedding", but usually, I'm bored by these
films. I find them predictable and what is romance really? It's definitely not predictable.
That's why I was so suprised that I really enjoyed "Practical Magic". The story focuses on a family of witches cursed for ages to lose the man that they love to an accidental death.
The witches all avoid falling in love to avoid being heartbroken when the men in their lifes are taken away from them prematurely. There's two sisters in the family who've grown up
with the curse, Sally and Gillian. The story moves onward to when the girls have grown up into young women. Gillian has grown into a wild young women, living to have fun with whatever
and whoever. Sally has made a family of her own, with children and a husband that she loves dearly. One day, Sally hears the call of the beetle that signals the death of her husband.
Will she find the beetle in time? Well, I won't give that away.
All this time, though, Sally is missing one person more than anything: her sister. One day she recieves a distress call from her Sister; she's staying with Jimmy, an abusive man who she doesn't
truely love but can't leave. When the witches start trying out their magic which they aren't really too great at, the consequences are pretty dire. Soon, the two witches are trying to use
their magic to cover up not only his death, but the resulting spirit.
"Practical Magic" boasts two very good lead performances. Sandra Bullock is absolutely adorable and Nicole Kidman gives a lively, winning performance. Griffin Dune directs another very enjoyable
romantic comedy after his debut 2 years ago with Matt Broderick and Meg Ryan in "Addicted To Love". This isn't a flawless picture, but I found it quite enjoyable.
The DVD:
Picture: Just as enjoyable as the movie. "Practical Magic" is given a 16x9 enhanced 2.35:1 transfer that boasts excellent color saturation and contrast. Images are clear and razor sharp. Even though
the focus of the film is sometimes on the soft side, the picture still retains good detail and clarity. The brighter daytime images are especially strong in what's overall quite an excellently done
disc. There are no compression artifacts to speak of, just a very tiny bit of grain in some of the night scenes; an amount that's almost not worth mentioning. At least there's zero shimmering. Color saturation
is good as well as shadow detail and black level. It's a disc boasting a definitive and strong picture and quite a good transfer from Warner Brothers.
Sound: A beautiful sound mix that highlights the wonderful soundtrack; the soundtrack doesn't overpower the dialogue thankfully, which is what the film is all about. Not an agressive soundtrack, but there
are instances where it's fantastic. Look at chapter 4 and listen to the quality of the song "This Kiss"; it's not just the songs that sound wonderful; Dialogue is clear and razor sharp to the point
where the characters seem to be in the same room.
Extras:A whole lot of trailers. Besides the Practical Magic trailer, there are trailers for:
Demolition Man
A Time To Kill
Batman Forever
Dead Calm
Addicted To Love
Arthur
The Bodyguard
The Bridges Of Madison County
City Of Angels
Michael
And there's 3 TV trailers for "Practical Magic".
-Commentary: There's an enjoyable commentary from(at times): director Griffin Dune, Sandra Bullock, producer Denise Dinovi and composter Alan Silvestri.
I enjoyed Dunne's commentary quite a bit as well as Dinovi's, but it's Bullock who has the most fun with the commentary and in turn, she's definitely
the most enjoyable to listen to. Silvestri simply talks about what's onscreen a little too much.
-Documentaries: There are 2 documentaries(Making Magic, which runs about 6 minutes and Casting the Spell, which runs about 10 minutes). Unfortunately,
these documentaries can only be viewed after solving a puzzle where the clues are scattered throughout the menus. I couldn't figure out the puzzle(don't
laugh) and finally just got annoyed....until I realized the answer was on the inside cover of the disc. The documentaries are fun to watch and include
interviews with the cast and crew and some behind the scenes footage.
-Notes: There's very nice notes about the production as well as cast and crew.
Menus: Animated menus with scenes flying by on, I believe, tarot cards. As charming as the film.
The grades:
Film:B
Video Quality:A-
Audio Quality:A-
Extras:A
Menus:A
Disc Grade:A
