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Traveta reviews
they had no reason to meet….
until today.”
Paramount Home Entertainment
- Cert: R
- Cat.no: 33430
- Running time: 98 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 25
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 (Eng only)
- Languages: English, French
- Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $29.99
- Extras:Audio Commentary, Making of Changing Lanes, Deleted and ExtendedScenes, Theatrical Trailer.
Director:
- Roger Michell
Screenplay:
- Chap Taylor and Michael Tolkin
Cast:
- Gavin Banek: Ben Affleck
Doyle Gipson: Samuel L. Jackson
Valerie Gipson: Kim Staunton
Michelle: Toni Collette
Stephen Delano: Sidny Pollak
Cynthia Bannek: Amanda Peet
There you go. The tagline for this pile of Hollywood hype sums it up.They had no reason to meet, absolutely no reason for this movie to bemade, and no reason to buy the DVD.
Let’s clear something up before wego on. You probably recall that I like the remake ofRollerball.Well, I’ll just say that I didn’t like it too much after I thought about whatI said in the review so don’t throw it in my face for hating this movie.I’m sorry if I disgusted anyone with my 4-star review and it will neverhappen again. Let the slander begin!
Changing Lanes seems like a good concept on paper. On paper, not oncelluloid where this ended up. The story seems simple from the look ofthings but dive in and it gets deeper and deeper, and worse and worse.
A lawyer named Gavin (Affleck) and Doyle Gipson (Jackson) are bothrushing to reach their different appointments. Gavin is heading to animportant trial while Doyle is heading to a case over the custody of hischildren. Suddenly the two are caught in typical New York traffic and anaccident occurs. Doyle wants to do eveything right but Gavin has notime. Gavin gives Doyle a blank check and says “…Better luck nexttime…” (what a bad line).
Gavin reaches his trial and is about to pull out the devastatingevidence, a red folder, but it’s gone. And guess who has it? Doylepicked it up after Gavin rushes off. Gavin has until the end of the dayto retrieve the file or he and his law firm will be thrown in jail forfraud.
Doyle has reached his said trial too and because of Gavin he has lostcustody. Gavin reaches Doyle on the streets but he won’t give the fileback, not until after an intense game of “I Hit You, You Hit Me” isplayed. What ultimately results is a series of quite the opposite. Wehave Gavin trying to redeem himself and countless other moments thatruin the movie.
The only thing that saves this movie from total disaster is the goodacting. Ben Affleck will be reprising his role as a lawyer next Springin Daredevil so this was somewhat of a sneak peek. Samuel L. Jacksonshows he can play multiple roles well and comes off as believable. Butwhere this movie hits rock bottom is in a very contrived script thatnever seems to pay off. There were some scenes that I wanted to frameadvance through but that wouldn’t be fair to the review. And it’s only alittle over an hour and a half! I suffered through this flick to tellyou one thing… make sure you have a pillow nearby.
Changing Lanes is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen. Paramountmay be lacking in a lot of fields but their picture presentations aretaking a step up. Most of the movie takes place in dark enviroments asit’s a somber rainy day in New York City. Colors are well balanced andlook good in contrast to the dark scenes. Some compression artifactslike pixelization are seen on jackets sometimes and grain is sometimesapparent. That’s pretty much it for problems. But in the long run thisis not a very eventful transfer and certainly nothing to show off yourplayer with.
Like all Paramount discs, the audio is offered in English Dolby Digital5.1 and English and French Dolby 2.0. There’s not much that happens inthe movie but some scenes are pretty aggressive on the track. Like thecar accident in the beginning and Gavin’s brush with death. Better thanexpected.
Here’s where a lot of critics cite as Paramount’s main problem. Notenough extras to justify the high price! Here’s how it stacks up if youreally want to know:
That’s it. Paramount proves once again they do not handle the DVDmarket that seriously. I’ve been hearing reports of their upcoming DVDrelease of Grease being less than expected with minimal extras and anaverage video transfer. Let’s hope they don’t screw up the Indiana Jonestrilogy when it finally gets released.
The menus are standard fare but offer moving images in the backgroundand “suspenseful” music.
Overall, this is a bad movie not even worth a rental and hardly apurchase. This is clearly a love it or hate it movie. The concept isinteresting but the script just drags it down. Don’t bother.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLEmailTraveta
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.