Review of Cool Runnings: The Reggae Movie

Introduction

This is a movie of the 6th Sunsplash reggae festival, held in 1983, not a film about Jamaican bobsleigh teams :)

This is the usual concert movie, lots of music, a little bit of poetry and some crowd interviews.

Video

Video quality is quite poor, there are lots of areas where the film is obviously dirty but overall contrast is decent. Colours are somewhat washed out in places and there is little detail in the blacks.

There is plenty to look at though and a nice energy running through everything. It`s quite possible they had to be somewhat conservative to make room for the audio.......

Audio

Depending on your set-up you can choose from a simple stereo soundtrack to either Dolby or DTS 5.1. The two multi-channel tracks take up a lot of room on the DVD but are worth it. This is after all, a music DVD!

The DTS track is better than the Dolby one but not by much and the stereo track is more than decent.

Surround is used well, to create a feeling of `being there` as well as beefing up the sound stage in general.

The music can get a little bogged down and muddy in places though but this is typical of live performances.

THe incidental dialogue isn`t so great but is more than adequate.

Features

There aren`t any extra features although the DVD menu is nice and bright and has a musical background.

The chapters are arranged by track which is nice, you can go straight to a favourite - however if you are browsing using the next/previous track buttons on your remote, you often have to wait a few moments for the subtitles to tell you which track you are about to see.

Conclusion

Considering this is a live video recording from 1983, it`s not bad. The video does leave a lot to be desired but the music is excellent. There is a great selection of artists here and they make all the right reggae noises.

An excellent reggae DVD.