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Dom Robinson reviews

Dancehall Queen

Distributed by
Palm Pictures

Cert:
Cat.no: PALM 7637
Running time: 97 minutes
Year: 1995
Pressing: 2000
Region(s): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 12 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo)
Languages: English
Subtitles: None
Fullscreen: 4:3
16:9-enhanced: No
Macrovision: No
Disc Format: DVD 5
Price: £15.99
Extras : Scene index, Trailers, DVD-ROM content

Directors:

Don Letts & Rick Elgood

Producer:

Gary Goetzman

Screenplay:

Suzanne Fenn, Ed Wallace & Don Letts

based on a story by Ed Wallace & Carl Bradshaw

Music:

Wally Baradou

Cast:

Marcia: Audrey Reid

Tanya: Cherine Anderson

Larry: Carl Davis

Priest: Paul Campbell

Junior: Mark Danvers

Dancehall Queen is what single mother Marcia (Audrey Reid) hopes to become as she spends her days as a street trader on the Kingston market in Jamaica, but her nights as the "mystery lady" on the dancehalls. She hasn't much else going for her other than this night-time extravagance.

The man in her life, Larry (Carl Davis), casts more of his desires in the direction of Marcia's eldest daughter Tanya (Cherine Anderson) and there's Priest (Paul Campbell), a man you wouldn't like to meet down a dark alley, who is determined to make life hell for her. After he offs Marcia's son's friend late at night, he proves that no-one is safe when he's around.

If she can win the upcoming dancehall contest, she'll win the money to buy her way out of her crappy life and rejoin a decent society.

Presented in a fullscreen 4:3 ratio, the print looks very good indeed. Free of artifacts and very colourful, even for scenes that you wouldn't expect to look so good, it's only failing is the occasional 'processed' look, like when something is shot on video but treated to look like film. I presume this was shot on film, but that's just the effect it gives. The average bitrate is a so-so 5.35Mb/s, varying around the 6Mb/s mark.

The sound is mostly fine, but there's not as much of the music as you'd have expected throughout most of the film and nothing to match the rousing theme tune. The soundtrack also keeps going out of sync with the film. I can restart my DVD-ROM drive and carry on from where I left off, but I've never had so many out-of-sync problems as I have had with this disc.

Extras :

Chapters & Trailers :

There are 12 chapters on the disc and it could use more over its 96-minute running period.

The trailers included are a theatrical trailer, plus three trailers for other Palm Pictures DVDs - Talking Heads: Stop Making Senses, Baaba Maal and Ghost in the Shell.

Languages & Subtitles :

All the dialogue is in English, but there are no subtitles. This is a shame as the Jamaican accents are incredibly strong and I can't always make out what they're saying, even though you can still follow the basic plot.

And there's more... :

The DVD-ROM content features music samples, info and rough-looking video clips of a range of Palm Pictures produce: Sly and Robbie, Baaba Maal, Mocean Worker, Ernest Ranglin and Kora Revolution.

Menu :

The menus are static but contain a brief bit of the film's theme tune.

Overall, the film's worth a look but not one I'd want to watch time and again. Given the sound and picture problems, coupled with scant extras, I'd only recommend a rental on this one. However, it's not the sort of disc the average Blockbuster store would carry.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

For more information, please visit PalmPictures.com

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