However, unlike the first film, the restored footage really doesn t add any depth to the characterization, but the extra scenes do make for entertaining additions. Of course, no one is going to be blown away by the image on the DVD, but this 1989 release does have a relatively sharp and nicely defined picture. Colors are pretty strong, with natural looking flesh tones and no evidence of either chroma noise or smearing of the more intensely saturated hues. Blacks are accurately rendered, although shadow detail isn t as cleanly defined as one would find on a new film coming off theatrical release. Sound effects are effectively spread across the forward soundstage, with the helicopter gun battle sounding fairly impressive for an upgraded sound mix.
Dialogue is always intelligible and somewhat more natural sounding than it was on the first movie.
Strong bass reproduction gives the sound effects a solid foundation, allowing them to explode out into one s listening environment. The film s music by Eric Clapton, Michael Kamen and David Sanborn is especially well reproduced and nicely integrated into the sound mix. A French surround soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVD, as is a 5.1 channel DTS track running a very high bit rate. Subtitles are available on the DVD in English, French and Spanish. The interactive menus have a cool interface that makes use of full motion video, animation and sound.