Meet Joe Black

Meet Joe Black (1998)
Universal Home Video
Cast: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Claire Forlani, Jake Weber, Marci Gay Hardenm Jeffrey Tambor
Extras: Production Notes, Cast&Crew Bios, Theatrical Trailer, Spotlight on Location
Rating:

“Meet Joe Black” features a good 16×9 enhanced widescreen aspect transfer in the film’s original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The transfer is very clean but I found it to be a bit soft at times. The compression of the film is flawless. There are no compression artifacts evident and color reproduction is very faithful. The film boasts very warm and rich colors and the disc nicely reproduces these color schemes. Fleshtones are absolutely natural and the overall color balance is superb.

The disc contains an English 5.1 Dolby Digital and a French Dolby Surround soundtrack. Both are very good, although the 5.1 channel mix is wider, creating a clearly better soundfield overall. Thomas Newman created a “big” orchestral score for this romance and it is well transferred to this DVD. The soundtrack does not make very aggressive use of the surrounds but nevertheless uses them effectively to create a very natural ambiance throughout.

This is another smashing Universal release. For fans of the film and Brad Pitt, this is an excellent, absolutely immaculate release and as good as it can get.