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A view on Blu-ray by Gary W. Tooze

Sleeping With the Enemy [Blu-ray]

 

(Joseph Ruben, 1991)

 

 

Review by Gary Tooze

 

Production:

Theatrical: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Video: 20th Century Fox

 

Disc:

Region: FREE! (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)

Runtime: 1:37:38.310

Disc Size: 32,659,224,361 bytes

Feature Size: 31,721,005,056 bytes

Video Bitrate: 30.29 Mbps

Chapters: 16

Case: Standard Blu-ray case

Release date: June 28th, 2011

 

Video:

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps

Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

 

Audio:

DTS-HD Master Audio English 3330 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3330 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
DTS Audio French 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit
DTS Audio German 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit
DTS Audio Italian 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit
DTS Audio Japanese 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit
DTS Audio Russian 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit
DTS Audio Spanish 768 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit
Dolby Digital Audio Portuguese 448 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 448 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / Dolby Surround
Dolby Digital Audio Czech 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Hungarian 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / Dolby Surround
Dolby Digital Audio Thai 224 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 224 kbps / Dolby Surround
Dolby Digital Audio Chinese 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps

 

Subtitles:

English (SDH), Chinese (traditional and simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, none

 

Extras:

Featurette (4:57- 1:33 in 480i)

Trailer (1:51 in 480i)

 

Bitrate:

 

 

Description: Hot off her success in Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts starred in this thriller about a battered wife stalked by her abusive... husband. Roberts plays Laura Burney, the wife of a rich investment counselor, Martin (Patrick Bergin). Martin appreciates his wife as a trophy, but at home he abuses her for not keeping the house as clean as he would like it. The verbal abuse descends into physical violence --so much so that Laura decides to disappear rather than live a life under Martin as a brutalized slave. Laura fakes her own death by drowning, and relocates to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she changes her name to Sara Waters. She starts a relationship with her friendly Iowa neighbor Ben Woodward (Kevin Anderson), but her happiness is short-lived. Martin has discovered that Laura has staged her drowning and is coming to Iowa to reclaim his possession.

~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

 

 

The Film:  

Julia Roberts' first starring role since Pretty Woman couldn't be more of a contrast, but there's a crucial link between the two. Sleeping With the Enemy (R) asks the question: What happens when a beautiful young woman finds and marries her Prince Charming — and he turns out to be a psychotic monster? The movie, a desperate-to-be-Hitchcockian thriller, casts Roberts as Laura Burney, whose husband, the suave and presentable Martin (Patrick Bergin), is actually a vicious, crazy, wife-beating slug.

Martin's true nature was revealed to Laura shortly after their honeymoon. That was three years and seven months ago, and she has thought of nothing but escape since. But Martin is so in love with his ''princess'' (as he calls her), so unable to imagine life without her, that if she applies for a restraining order or tries in any way to break free of the marriage, he'll kill her. His ''love'' is a form of terrorism. Still, as long as Laura acts the part of the adoring yuppie wife, cooking Martin exquisite meals, accompanying him (in sexy evening wear) to his business parties, and making sure that everything in their fabulous Cape Cod beach house, from the bathroom towels to the cans in the cupboard, is in absolute order, she can stay on his good side.

Excerpt from Entertainment Weekly located HERE

 

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Sleeping With the Enemy looks quite solid on Blu-ray from Fox. It's dual-layered with a high bitrate. Colors are fairly passive, skin tones a bit warm, but detail in close-ups is strong with a hint of depth at times. There is some even background grain but there is some noise in the darker scenes. This Blu-ray is consistent and clean without any notable flaws. I suspect it looks a lot like the film did 20-years ago.

 

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audio :

A flawless audio transfer with a DTS-HD Master 5.1 at a bountiful 3330 kbps supports Jerry Goldsmith's excellent score. The film itself has some effect subtleties without an abundance of aggression (some from the rocky sea and miniscule gun play at the end). It has some punchy bass and a nice higher end. There are a plethora of foreign language DUBs and subtitles options helping confirm that the disc is, indeed, region FREE.

 

 

Extras :

The supplements are pretty bare-bones with only a standard featurette lasting less than 5-minutes in 480i and a theatrical trailer also in SD. Both were probably on the DVD.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
I feel quite alone in enjoying this film - I don't know why I like it. Perhaps it is the 'restarting your life anew in a small town' that appeals to me. I mean, Sleeping With the Enemy is a simple popcorn thriller but I think Julia Roberts often gets short-shift from critics. Although, I know the late Robin Wood was also a fan. I was very partial to The Pelican Brief which is a far more polished film, starring her, than this. Patrick Bergin gives a fine performance in Sleeping as well. The Blu-ray is up to Fox's usual high standard but the extras are slim taking into account the price. Some may wish to consider who haven't yet seen the film which I think is certainly better than 'average' from Hollywood. 

Gary Tooze

June 21st, 2011

About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 3500 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.

Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction.

Gary's Home Theatre:

60-Inch Class (59.58” Diagonal) 1080p Pioneer KURO Plasma Flat Panel HDTV PDP6020-FD

Oppo Digital BDP-83 Universal Region FREE Blu-ray/SACD Player
Momitsu - BDP-899 Region FREE Blu-ray player
Marantz SA8001 Super Audio CD Player
Marantz SR7002 THX Select2 Surround Receiver
Tannoy DC6-T (fronts) + Energy (centre, rear, subwoofer) speakers (5.1)

APC AV 1.5 kVA H Type Power Conditioner 120V

Gary W. Tooze

 

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