However, kudos must go to Ms. Cox for delivering the most surprising performance of her career. Gale Weathers is a shark and Courteney Cox plays her to a tee. These gifted performers turn their characters into real people, which only serves to heighten the film's level of horror. Craven's compositions are surprisingly assured for someone working in this aspect ratio for the first time, plus much of the film's camera work is utterly marvelous. The transfer itself is very sharp and well defined, and for looks alone, it cannot be faulted.
Colors are well saturated, while the black level is deep and true.
Motion artifacts were seldom apparent thanks to a superior compression job. The Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack had a great mix, filled with jarring sound effects that added to the fright inducing atmosphere of the film. Dialogue reproduction was natural, while the surround channels were used to add both atmosphere and emphasis to the soundtrack. The interactive menus completely lack imagination, and since this is a premium priced title, its producers could have done a lot better. The menus allow one to navigate their way through the DVD's supplemental features, but offer no entertainment value of their own.