See No Evil, Hear No Evil
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Cast: Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Kevin Spacey, Joan Severance
Extras: Trailers
Rating:
One of the best movies the repeated collaboration of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor brought forth is without a doubt, the 1989 comedy ’See No Evil, Hear No Evil.’ Inspired and absolutely hilarious, the movie, directed by Arthur Hiller, is a physical comedy that takes the main premise – a deaf man and a blind man team up to solve a murder mystery despite the innate stigma that they can’s see or hear each other respectively. The story the evolves from the setting is incredibly intelligent and well thought out, creating riotous scenes that border on the absurd, yet always feel natural as a result of Wilder’s and Pryor’s incredibly convincing performances. This film may be zany and maybe even offensive to some, but the bottom line is, that this is one of the best comedies, the duo has produced… and it is funny. Laugh out loud funny!
Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment is bringing us ’See No Evil, Hear No Evil’ in both an anamorphic widescreen presentation in the movie’s original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, as well as an open matte fullframe transfer. For the most part, this is a great presentation, although image detail could be improved in a number of shots. Nonetheless, the disc presents us with a detailed image that is sharp and never overly grainy. Colors are naturally rendered and always well balanced. Blacks are solid and deep, never breaking up, while highlights are nicely restored without blooming. A hint of edged-enhancement is evident in the transfer but it’s never distracting. The compression has been handled well, and is free of distracting compression artifacts.
The DVD contains Dolby Surround channel in English and French, which are well produced, although not overly aggressive. Given the nature of the film, it is a good track with good fidelity and no distortion, while surrounds are used occasionally and to good effect. The lack of split surrounds is hardly noticeable given the fact that the majority of the audio is front loaded anyway.
As extras, the disc also contains a selection of trailers, including the one for ’See No Evil, Hear No Evil.’
It is great to finally have this incredibly hilarious comedy accessible on DVD and Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment’s treatment of the film makes it even more enjoyable this time around. If you’ve never seen this film, go get it. If on the other hand you’re familiar with it, you should definitely, go and get it.
