The Good
An interesting choice for a UMD that could make it accessible to a new market.
The Bad
Did they transfer this to UMD from a videotape?
I have never been a fan of this movie. I didn’t like The Doors when I saw it in the movie theater, I didn’t like it when I bought it and watched it again on DVD (it was only $10) and I can’t say that I liked it any better in the UMD format. Still, I am impressed that such an arty and in-depth movie would find it’s way to the PSP player. At first glance one could see this movie about the rise and fall of Jim Morrison as something that will sit on the shelves of DVD stores indefinitely, but upon further speculation I think the folks at Lionsgate know what they are doing. The 1970s are here in a big way and this film, in this format, could certainly be seen as the bridge between to disparate generations.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
As a warning to the uninitiated, this is a movie in two parts. The first is a fairly straight forward biography picture. The second is an out of control spiral that literally never ends. Chose your side or revel in them both…
Features
No Extras came with this UMD.
Video
16:9 Letterbox Version (2.35:1 Ratio). This movie looks awful. It is the first UMD I have seen that seemed to have a layer of fuzz all the way through it. I have seen videotapes from the 1970s that looked worlds better than this. I kept blinking and wiping my PSP screen, hoping that it was something on my end that was causing this disc to look like this. I know that this is a 138 minute movie, and maybe something got lost in the compression, but to put DVD Picture Quality on the outside UMD case is very misleading.
Audio
The sound that has been employed on this disc was pretty good. To be honest, I expected this because this is a music heavy UMD, but I didn’t expect the audio to be this much better than the video. I didn’t think that there was anything that amazing about the sound, but Stone was certainly created another character within the film. He uses it to get us inside the head of all the characters and in doing so, creates a richer viewing experience because of it.
Package
The front cover photo is the one we have always seen with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison. Taking a good look at it now I realized that the colors employed are actually flames. Read the symbolism any way you want to, folks. The back features a shot of Morrison on stage in tight leather pants, as he jumps through the air with what looks like nothing around him. There is a very short description of this movie, a technical specs listing and a cast list.
Final Word
I can’t really pinpoint where this movie loses me. Unlike Oliver Stone’s politically charged films, this movie doesn’t have those black and white flashbacks which are supposed to insinuate what could have, might have or maybe never even came close to happening. I just think that like Jim Morrison himself, they tried to bring us too much into his drug world. This ends up being the kind of movie where we are beaten over the head by the use of narcotics. It becomes draining after awhile and on this small screen, it was almost debilitating.
The Doors isn’t a bad movie. It just isn’t one I highly recommend. However, I have found many more people that like it than don’t.
The Doors was released March 1, 1991.
