Melinda & Melinda DVD Review

The picture on this disk was presented as an anamorphic widescreen 1.85:1 image and the transfer itself was as to be expected from a recent cinematic release. What I did find unusual however, was the overpowering red tint to the image, giving everything a soft but unnatural quality to it. Everything looked like it was shot on a hazy summers evening, which some of the time may be intentional but I got the feeling that this time it wasn't. Obviously we're expected to analyse this sort of thing more than a casual viewer so I wouldn't say that this colour palette should put off any potential buyers, but considering this is a new release of a new film, it was slightly disappointing. The other elements of the picture, such as detail and black levels were all good.

I was disappointed to discover that the only soundtrack on this disc was a Dolby Digital 2.0 track - it was functional and did not stand out as one of the discs main plus points. As is often the case with this kind of movie, there is little use made of the surround or LFE channels, but here even the stereo channels sounded slightly flat and compressed. It isn't a serious criticism considering the movie which it serves and the dialogue was always clear and crisp, but it added to the dated feeling of the movie.

Dissapointingly, there are no extras at all on this disc. There was one link from the main menu for Fox.co.uk and I thought perhaps it would launch some trailers, but it was just a static page referencing their website. The presentation of the DVD and the menus really had a dated feel to them. This seems like a budget release; however the price does not reflect this, which is a shame. The entire content of this disc fits on a DVD5, although the physical disc was obviously a DVD9 as there was a noticeable layer change (which was not best placed during a dialogue scene).
As a package, this DVD is obviously very disappointing - no extras, poor menus, strange colour palette throughout the movie and uninspiring sound. I agree that poor extras can be worse than none at all, but surely someone of Woody Allen's experience and fan-base must have something to offer? A commentary or documentary would have been a welcome addition. Having said all that, the film itself was enjoyable but repeat viewing seems unlikely to me - so perhaps one for rental rather than to add to your collection