screamncream

Has anyone watched their Miracle Mile dvd yet? Although I am disappointed that MGM did not release this excellent movie in widescreen, the transfer looks pretty good (much better than my rental VHS tape). Miracle Mile must be oe of the most underrated movies from the 80s. I was wondering two things:

(1) Does the dvd come with an insert (with chapter titles), because my copy did not have one?

(2) I am curious how Anthony Edwards found Mare Winningham's character so attractive. I'm sorry to say, but she has to be the 80s least attractive female in a lead role.

Ginwen

Bummer, I didn't even notice that it fool screen; I probably wouldn't have ordered it if I had.

Mare Winningham definitely is not hot, but I suspect Anthony Edwards isn't, either (although this could be one of those cases where I'm clueless about a guys attractiveness or lack thereof). So they probably are a good match in that respect.

Still more off topic, some of the trivia on IMDB on Mare Winningham is kind of interesting/amusing, like that she went to High School with Val Kilmer and Kevin Spacey. Also these two: "She played a virgin in the movie St. Elmo's Fire (1985) while she was pregnant" & "Her TV debut at age 16 was on "The Gong Show."

Franchot

Opinions on this movie vary wildly. I watched it the other night with someone who had never seen it before. My unsuspecting victim was a forty-five year old female and she HATED it. She thought it was one of the worst movies she's seen in a long time.

I saw this film when it originally came out and liked it more in the movie theater. The transfer looks very good and I wasn't bothered too much by the lack of a wide-screen print. Having seen this movie years ago, I had forgotten large chunks of the film. I thought that most of the film was centered around the coffee shop and was surprised at how much it moves around. (I also used to live down the street from Park LaBrea so it was fun to see all that stuff again.) The "B" movie actors/actresses were even more cheesy than I recalled and several plot points still bothered me. Still, I enjoyed how the director/writer ran with his premise and what he squeezed out of his three million dollar budget.

To answer your questions:

1) No insert.

2) Yeah, we're in agreement there. With that haircut and lack of personality what in hell did he see in her? When I saw it originally, I didn't think she was that bad looking, but I guess that years of Maxim reading have had their toll on me! (With his looks and job, I thought he could have done much better.)

LiquidSky

She may not be "hot" but she is not ugly and she is a damn good actress! Her hair was really bad in this film....sort of an 1980s "new wave mullet". Odd.

darkflounder

I'm disappointed that this isn't a widescreen release. But since I've only ever seen it on full screen VHS, I probably won't notice it that much.

And I think Mare is cute in a special olympics kind of way.

Bitgod

That it's not WS is the suck, but I ended up getting anyway just because that makes one less video tape I need to watch.

HKFlix

I was under the impression it was an open matte, not a crop or a pan&scan. I didn't notice anything obviously cut off or panning weirdly when I watched it, I was very happy with it. And I'm SO GLAD this is finally on DVD! I'm also glad they put that music cue on the main DVD Menu, that's the best cue in the film, and it's a nice one to listen to over and over. Very reminiscent of parts of "Three O'Clock High"!

Piazza

I watched the dvd a few days ago. It is indeed open matte my only complaint is the soundtrack wasnt remastered in 5.1 it would have been great to hear the tangerine dream score like that. sure i would love it in oar aswell but the fact it is open matte you should buy it if you really care for the movie. The chances of this movie being released again in any format is slim to none. get it while you can cheap! heck it's $9 change at ddd and it's a terrific gem of a flick.

renaldow

I was also disappointed that it wasn't in widescreen, but what can you do? It's a good transfer with good A/V quality.

SergeantPinback

Having a widescreen TV, I decided to watch the film in the 'expanded' format with the top and bottom cropped. I wanted to check on the composition of the film. It looked very nice. No heads were cut off and nothing was missing from the bottom. So, if you have a WSTV, you can watch it in the OAR, or pretty close anyway. (Although an anamorphic transfer would have been nice!)

The only other thing was that the color saturation was a little high - had to turn the color down a few clicks to keep the reds from bleeding...

Still a fascinating film, although the best experience with it is the first time you see it, (for me that was in the theater). I like to find people who have never seen it before and watch it with them to see their reaction.