- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24
- Audio Codec: DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0;French Dolby Digital 1.0; Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0
- Subtitles: English,Spanish
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Rating: PG
- Running Time: 87 minutes
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: MGM
- Blu-ray Release Date: January 15, 2013
- List Price: $24.99
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:4/5]
From its opening credits, viewers will get the strong impression via a ragtime soundtrack that they are going to see a silent era film. However, very quickly, Woody Allen’s Sleeper transports us to 2173 as Miles Monroe (Allen), a clarinet-playing health food store proprietor, is released from cryogenic immersion after an anesthetic complication two centuries earlier. Right from the start, we get Allen’s homage to the great Chaplin himself, replete with the full gamut of slapstick, pie-in-the-face humor that immortalized the “little tramp.” The plot places Monroe in an America that is now being run by a dictator who is launching the “Aires” project to put down an incipient underground movement. Along the way we are treated to an endless series of great one-liners (mostly by Allen), and keystone kops sequences provided by the officers of the Federation Security. To blend into this brave new world, Woody disguises himself as a domestic robot with more delightfully silly results. He is ably abetted by Lula Schlosser played by Diane Keaton, another actor with great comedic skills. As matters progress, many funny scenes later (do not miss Allen in the “orgasmatron”), our hero is captured and reprogrammed to fit into society. Not to throw in a spoiler, Sleeper’s operating room scene is an absolutely hilarious tour de force.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
It is downright hard to believe that Sleeper just turned forty! The remastering is astonishingly good with excellent detail and just an occasional touch of grain. Granted some of the futuristic special effects such as the floating autos, the “modern” buildings and laboratories, now appear quite dated. The slapstick scenes are smartly executed with “speedup” photography that made the Chaplin films so funny.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
The DTS-HD Master Audio mono soundtrack is clear, but boxy, while the New Orleans jazz sounds freshly minted. The dialogue, critical to getting all the jokes across (and they are fast and furious), is well reproduced.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]
We are treated to a two-minute theatrical trailer, that’s all folks.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
Director/actor Woody Allen has had an illustrious career in both dramatic and comedic cinema that continues to the present time. While anyone with so many productions will have occasional hits and misses, Allen has many of the former and relatively few of the latter. Sleeper is most definitely a hit, and, like a number of Allen-directed films, pays tribute to the comedy forebears that made Hollywood an entertainment colossus. The supporting cast is spot-on, including John Beck (the revolutionary Erno Windt), Marya Small (Dr. Nero), Don Keefer (Dr. Tyron), Peter Hobbs (Dr. Dean), John McLiam (Dr. Aragon), and Bartlett Robinson (Dr. Orva), to name a few. What makes this film such an enjoyable watch is the perfect pacing so essential for comedy. Yes, some of the jokes are corny, but so what? Sleeper ends with some of the best lines ever when Woody is asked what he believes in: “Sex and death. Two things that come once in a lifetime. But at least after death you’re not nauseous.” So prepare to get your funny-bone repeatedly tickled for an hour and a half.
Additional Screen Captures
[amazon-product]B009UTX53Q[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Sleeper on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
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[amazon-product]B009UTX53Q[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Sleeper on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:4/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]
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