THE MOVIE

This story begins in East Germany at historical talks aimed at eliminating the nuclear arms of the U.S and Soviet arsenals. It is here that we meet army sergeant Johnny Gallagher a veteran with combat experience who is at the talks with his squad to ensure the safety of the participants. An incident occurs in which an American general is killed. Johnny and his squad attempt to save the General but are unsuccessful and the gunmen escape. Johnny is questioned and then released and given a new assignment.

Johnny is to escort, "a package", a military prisoner, Walter Henke, back to America. Upon arrival in the U.S, Johnny is attacked and the prisoner escapes. Gallagher, suspicious of the professionalism of the escape, decides to investigate. He approaches Eileen Gallagher, his ex-wife and now a Colonel, to help. She in turn approaches Ruth Butler for information about Henke. The information she obtains doesn't match the man that Gallagher escorted and so they investigate further. Ruth provides them with additional information that proves that the man Johnny escorted was not Henke. He is in fact Thomas Boyette a highly decorated and experienced Special Forces operative. Each person they question is killed, including Ruth, as the conspirators rush to cover-up any loose ends. Johnny, with help, stops Eileen from being murdered and in the melee an assassin is killed. On him they find information that points to Chicago as the key to the mystery and it is here that they travel in search of an answer.

Upon arrival in Chicago Johnny looks up an ex colleague Milan Delich who has since become a police officer and asks him for help. He agrees and together they continue the search for the truth. Their search also attracts the attention of others and Johnny and Milan are led into a trap. Milan is injured and Johnny taken prisoners by the conspirators. Will Johnny escape and uncover the identity of his package and the shocking secret mission that he has been sent to perform? Watch the movie and find out!

In Victoria, an old AFL football identity coined the phrase "a good ordinary player" which was his concise definition for a player that was never going to be a star but was always reliable. I'm going to adapt this saying to describe "The Package" as a good ordinary movie. It's solid entertainment and the quality cast deliver workman like performances. The story is solid and suspension of belief is only required in a few passages of the film. I'd suggest you rent this film first and see if you like it before considering it as an addition to your collection.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

Wobble, wobble wobble! This film has more wobbles than Homer Simpson's belly! Telecine wobble is the single greatest flaw in this transfer and while it's subtle it also occurs frequently. Check out chapter 4 (around 18:12), the scene in the prison where Whitacre and the real Henke talk, for an example. It's a shame because this transfer, especially when you consider its' age, is otherwise remarkably competent.

The transfer is 16x9 enhanced and is claimed to have and aspect ratio of 1.85:1. I'm not convinced that this is correct, as on my display it was more like 1.78:1. If someone can confirm this with me I'd be grateful.

You will see some examples of alaising such as when Johnny and Whitacre discuss his competence but considering the number of scenes involving fences, cars and the like it is well controlled. The sharpness and detail level is good and only limited by the original source material. Remember that this film is over 11 years old. The colour palette is quite good. The only real problem colour is red which goes perilously close to "blowing out" at times. Again, this is likely to be a problem with the original print as red often gives film a hard time. Visible film grain is not a problem and film artefacts, while present, aren't particularly noticeable.

Audio:

This remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is very good ***. The score by James Newton Howard matches the film well and is nicely mixed into all of the channels. The surrounds are also used throughout for ambient sounds. You will hear bullets ricochet into the rear channels during the ambush at the disarmament talks and cars transition from one channel to the next as they pass. Dialogue is usually clear but there were times where it wasn't and I had to consult the subtitles to understand what was being said. There are examples of dialogue originating from the left or right channel, which was nice, as it occurred when the character was not in the frame. Overall a good audio track let down by the dialogue.

*** Update 2/9/2000

Michael over at Michael D's Guide to Region 4... has given me some information that his guys detected when reviewing this disc. It is their belief that this disc has a surround encoded track that is not flagged correctly which can confuse your receiver. I'm trying to get a hold of the disc again to investigate this further. Stay tuned!

THE EXTRAS

Well, there aren't any really. We have a booklet and the original theatrical trailer.

Booklet

The booklet contains snippets of information about the film, the director and some of the actors. It is quite readable but limited in what it presents. Interestingly, the booklet shows 30 chapters but only 16 are available from the scene selection menu.

Theatrical Trailer

The trailer is presented with an aspect ratio of 4:3 and is not 16x9 enhanced. The quality is adequate.

SUMMARY

I enjoyed this film and as I said earlier it is "a good ordinary" movie that would make a fine rental. It is has a good cast and a fine story. It has a solid 6.2 rating on the Internet Movie Database that would seem to support my opinion. Shame about the wobble.