The Count of Monte Cristo DVD Review:


The Movie

When the dashing and guileless Edmond Dantes (Caviezel) is betrayed by his best friend (Pearce) and wrongly imprisoned, he becomes consumed by thoughts of vengeance. After a miraculous escape, he transforms himself into the mysterious and wealthy Count of Monte Cristo, insinuates himself into the French Nobility and puts his cunning plan of revenge into action. This swashbuckling thriller will have you sitting on the edge of your seat until the last ounce of revenge is exacted.

The Count of Monte Cristo is sharp, heartfelt, and sensational. I found the film to provide an exciting and enjoyable experience. The pace usually moved fast, the acting seemed solid and the film provided something different. After several remakes of this film Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney) gives us a reminiscent classic that is engaging, slick and enjoyable, this is a wonderful retelling adventure of wrongful persecution and revenge of Edmond Dantes.

The Video

The Count of Monte Cristo appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. As a whole, the movie looked nicely crisp and well defined most of the time. Sharpness was solid. I saw no problems related to edge enhancement or jagged edges. Colors looked remarkable with natural flesh tones.

Shadow detail was a little annoying. There were many dark scenes in this film, which gives us an overly deep black sequence; low-light scenes appeared excessively dim and difficult to make out, I found myself raising the volume of brightness several times. Despite the shadow detail being a bit too thick, the rest of the film maintained a first class visual presentation.

The Audio

The Count of Monte Cristo is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Music showed excellent active participation, as the score mixed nicely into all five channels and became quite captivating much of the time. The effects also moved around the room with unexpected depth.

Much of the audio remained anchored within the front channels, but those speakers showed good representation. The surrounds also came to life smoothly during many scenes, the rear channels didn’t overpower the action but they complimented it well. Audio quality was generally positive. Music worked best, as the score was resounding and vivacious, with good bass response. I thought The Count of Monte Cristo's audio track packed a very nice resonance.

The Extras

Extras:

-Audio Commentary with Director Kevin Reynolds
-"The Napoleonic World" Production Design Featurette
-"En Garde" Multi-Angle Sword-Fighting Feature
-"The Pen" Retrospective On Author Alexandre Dumas
-"Adapting a Classic" Screenwriting Segment
-"The Clash Of Steel" Stung Choreography Piece
-Layer By Layer Interactive Sound Design Feature
-4 Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Filmmakers
-THX-Certified with Optimizer

Overall

The Count of Monte Cristo is well paced and exciting, the film simply works nicely for the most part. Despite the shadow detail being a bit too thick the DVD includes a very solid picture and sound plus a terrific roster of extras. The Count of Monte Cristo probably won’t please everyone, however if your looking for suspense, action, romance and revenge this film will surely do the trick – Highly recommended.

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