Great Movie, Lousy Sound

Rating: 10/10 (19 August 2002)

This is an excellent, if sometimes disgusting, movie. It is intense, scary, and thought provoking. I even imagine that the dialogue is excellent. I say "imagine" because only about one in every three lines spoken in this movie are audible. When I went to see this movie in the theatre, I was on the edge of my seat, not just out of tension, because I was straining to hear what everyone was saying. I know they didn't have the volume turned down to low, because the soundtrack, and all other sounds in the movie were LOUD, its just all the actors sounded like they were mumbling. OK, maybe it was just the accoustics of the theatre. I rented it once on VHS, and there was the same problem -- you could barely hear anything that anyone said. OK, I had a lousy VCR, I thought it would be different when I got in on DVD. I watched it last weekend, and it was still the exact same problem. The sound editting on this movie is horrible, which is REALLY frustrating, because its an amazing movie. You'd think that someone else would have mentioned this to the producers by now, and they would have re-editted it for the DVD.
Still, if you have strong ears, and a strong stomach, this movie is well worth watching.