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32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movie, Fair Disc, December 1, 1998
By A Customer
The Rainmaker 2.35:1/Dolby Digital 5.1 Paramount PicturesThe first adaptation of a John Grisham tale that I've really enjoyed, "The Rainmaker", directed by Francis Ford Coppola, looks at the life of a poor young Southern lawer, Rudy Baylor(Matt Damon, in a great performance) as he battles against an insurance company and it's staff of lawers(led by Jon Voight). Baylor is battling for Donny Ray Black, a young man who's insurance claims have been turned down time and time again; Kelly Riker(Claire Danes), who lives in continuing fear of her abusive husband and Miss Birdie, an older woman who simply wants to keep her money from her greedy offspring. This is really the best of the Grisham adaptations and I'm fairly positive it's the hand of director Coppola that has it rising above the rest; the film is crowd-pleasing sure, but it's also very smart and very well acted, with a lot of rich dialogue and some very interesting and entertaining characters. Danny Devito, as Damon's aid, has a lot of fun in a great performance; like in "LA Confidential", we're seeing Devito as his absolute peak lately. He's been picking bigger and especially, much better roles lately. Matt Damon's first major performance in this film is also very well done, yet another in his line of subtle, wonderful performances along with "Courage Under Fire" and "Good Will Hunting." Much like Damon's last film "Rounders", I also thought his narration in this film was well done and well written(by Michael Herr) Overall, it's an excellent film, well directed, acted and written. It's a well-told tale by Ford Coppola and it's highly entertaining. "The Rainmaker" was one of my picks for the top 10 films of 1997. The DVD: Picture: Well, where there's good, there's also bad. It's unfortunate that Paramount did an unsatisfactory job with this disc. Colors are not terribly well defined or vibrant; contrast is only fair; the whole disc looks, to my eyes, like an "okay" laserdisc would. There is definitely a noticeable amount of pixelization and some shimmering. It makes a point I was talking about with another person a couple of weeks ago all the more apparent to me. I said, "the best DVD material will absolutely blow your mind; at worst, it'll make you shrug your shoulders and say, 'well, that's sort of okay' ". "The Rainmaker" simply made me shrug my shoulders in dissapointment. It's probably the least impressive picture transfer in my collection of discs, and that's too bad since this is really a great film that deserves a great disc. In a time where Tristar is making discs that look as good as "Godzilla", there's no excuse for a film that's not terribly old like "The Rainmaker" to look like this. It looked this way on my Panasonic A110. Hopefully, although I highly doubt it, people will have better luck on other players. Audio:Pretty good. It's definitely a dialogue film, backed by a nice, subtle score. Both are well recorded and pleasant to listen to. Nothing terribly mind-blowing. Again, the annoying problem is still there; you can not switch the audio during the film, only from the menu. Try during the film and you're out of luck. Menus: Very weak. The picture on the front of the box with some simplistic bordering and big, dull buttons. Extras:Nothing. No 16x9, No Trailer, Not A Thing. Absolutely zero. Overall: It's a great film and if you liked the film as much as I did, it's worth a purchase at some of the very low prices found on the internet, but after watching this disc, I would *definitely* not pay full price for it. If you're considering it, I'd highly suggest a rental first, unless you like the movie itself as much as I did. Film:**** Picture:* 1/2 Audio:** 1/2 Extras:Zero Menus:Zero Overall Disc Quality:**
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