Detroit Rock City

I was actually pleasantly surprised by this film. I have to admit I was expecting a much more forceful content of KISS but alas only a little tid bit here and there seemed to pop through.

The film is based on four teenagers Hawk, Jam , Lex and Trip who are all aspiring to their idols KISS.

After many a failed effort they finally manage to get their hands on four tickets to a huge KISS concert in Detroit. However all does not go according to plan when Jam’s mother finds the tickets. Lin Shaye plays a self righteous preaching wanna be who is dead against the evil of the rock world. As a leader in the group, Mothers against the music of KISS she makes it almost impossible for the boys dream to come true when she burns their tickets, and carts Jam off to a strict boarding school.

Trip manages to (apparently) win 4 premier tickets to the event on the radio and the boys come upwith a master plan to bust Jam out of boarding school and drive to Detroit for the concert of their lives.

When they arrive everything starts to go horribly wrong and the 4 are faced with only an hour to obtain tickets to the event. The trials they face in this hour are quite entertaining.

Leave your brain at the door as this is certainly not the sort of thing that requires any form of concentration, just let your hair down and enjoy the almost stupidity of the film.

So how does this transfer hold up?

Video Transfer

The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer was at times a little disappointing. The transfer was predominatly sharp and had quite a bit of detail there was often a lifeless and soft feeling to the transfer. The shadow detail suffers because of this and since the bulk of the film is shot in dark surroundings this could have been improved imensly. Similarly the colour pallette fluctuates from nice suble natural tones to sharp and bright colours. The colours are inconsistent and should have leaned either way not trying to consume each other.

Their were no MPEG artefacts, film artefacts, and only some very minor shimmering.

Audio Transfer

The DD 5.1 audio track is a little more impressive but still falls behind it’s potential. The entire audio track had a lifeless fel to it and aside from the occassional surround support could have been entirely front sound stage based.

The only real time the audio kicks in with a bit of grunt is in the final concert scene which in itself is eally quite short.

The score from J. Peter Robinson could have been left out really for the basis of any sound track comes from the collection 70’s hits which bring back some memories for a lot of us.

Features

Cast and Crew Bio’s

Dolby Canyon Trailer

Theatrical Trailer

Music Video’s – Strutter and The boys are back in town.

4 Deleted Scenes – certainly not anything that should have been included.

Featurette – Behind the Scenes- not much of a collection here, unexplained bits and pieces from behind the scene’s which really are just a waste of time.

Featurette – Detroit Rock City KISS concert – basically a clip of the song from the concert but amazingly enough able to be viewed from four different angles using the multi angle feature on your remote.

Audio Commentary- Adam Rfkin (director) – this is a snoozer.

Audio Commentary- KISS- also a snoozer,  basically no insight into the film at all.

Overall this is an entertainly brain numbing kind of film but the features are actually poor in any kind of relevant content.

Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Samsung DVD909 (via S-Video)
Receiver: Yamaha DTS RX-V595a (Sweeeeet)
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfdale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf

-          Reviewed