The American President

"The American President" is a story about a recently widowed President who falls in love with an environmental lobbyist and the pitfalls and problems that occur from that relationship. This is a very well done "love story" with a few laughs along the way. The chemistry between Michael Douglas and Annette Bening is superb, and the supporting cast (mainly Martin Sheen) is spot on.

I'm somewhat undecided about the video quality on this one. For me, the colours seemed a little washed out and the image did not seem as sharp as some recent releases. The issue of the colours however is probably to do with the settings - The White House probably isn't the most colourful and vibrant place around.

Even though the DVD is in 5.1, this is a dialogue movie - don't expect anything much from your surrounds and sub. I did notice that on my system the sub (.1) dropped out in 2 or 3 places (for about 10-15 minutes) in the movie. Whether this is a mastering problem or I just have a bad DVD, I don't know.

Even though there are "extras" on this DVD, they are rather poor. The trailer is in 4:3 and mono (?) - and very poor quality. The cast notes are just that - notes. And the "making of" extras are just like the cast extras - notes. It is particularly annoying to have to "read" how they did certain scenes rather than to see footage of how they did it.