Video
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
German: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
... (more) Note: All DD=192 kbps...
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 German: Dolby Digital 2.0 Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0 Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0(less) Note: All DD=192 kbps
Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German SDH
English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German SDH (less)
Dave Blu-ray offers decent video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
An affable temp agency owner with an uncanny resemblance to the President is asked to impersonate the Chief Executive after the real President suffers a near-fatal stroke.
For more about Dave and the Dave Blu-ray release, see the Dave Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on November 30, 2012 where this Blu-ray release scored 4.0 out of 5.
Kevin Kline is known throughout the entertainment industry by the nickname "Kevin DeKline"
for his habit of turning down roles. Fortunately for movie viewers, though, Kline said yes to the
part of Dave Kovic, the optimistic working stiff who gets lifted from obscurity because of his
remarkable resemblance to the President of the United States (also played by Kline in what
amounts to an extended cameo). The result is a Capra-esque fairy tale that still holds up, in large
part because of Kline's delicate touch. Neither Warren Beatty nor Kevin Costner, both of whom
were reportedly considered, could have maintained the light tone that this political fantasy
required.
"Capra-esque" is a much abused term, and I've previously disputed its facile application to
stories that don't deserve it. But Dave earns the description by cleverly recreating Capra's
version of small town America right in the heart of contemporary Washington, where old-fashioned virtues of decency and kindness need only be
given a chance and they'll prevail. In
Dave, Mr. Smith doesn't need to come to Washington, because he already lives there. Nor have
the issues much changed between then and now. The signature program that Dave Kovic
promotes in his role as "acting" President is job creation. The scandal he has to confront involves
banking and secret campaign contributions. Plus ça change . . .
Dave began as an original script by Gary Ross, who is best known today as the man who adapted
and directed the hugely successful film version of The Hunger Games, then walked away from
the franchise because he wanted to do something different. But before becoming a director, Ross
wrote or co-wrote two of the most durable comic fantasies of the last quarter century, Big and
Dave, both of which reflect the same sure instinct for stirring in just enough realism to give the
story substance, but stopping short before the souffle collapses from too much weight . Big never
confronted the real challenges that a child would face if he suddenly had to assume adult
responsibilities, and Dave never seriously undertakes an examination of genuine political and
economic issues. It does, however, ask a few reasonable questions about how the most basic
moral values can remain uncorrupted in the corridors of power, and, thanks to Kline, it does so
while provoking laughter.
President Bill Mitchell (Klein) is a career politician with a polished public persona, a tough chief
of staff, Bob Alexander (Frank Langella, quietly menacing), and an efficient communications
director, Alan Reed (Kevin Dunn). Outwardly, Mitchell maintains the appearance of a happy
marriage to his wife, First Lady Ellen Mitchell (Sigourney Weaver), but privately the marriage is
dead and the couple can barely stand to be in the same room. Like the marriage, everything about
Mitchell is a sham. He despises the common people he celebrates in his speeches; he's entirely
beholden to special interests; and he's mired in a scandal involving a savings and loan.
Alexander and Reed are his hatchet men. They take out the trash and bury the bodies.
Dave Kovik (also Klein) runs a small D.C. temp agency populated by hopeless cases for which
Dave somehow always manages to find a job. Much of the temp work seems to come from
Dave's put-upon accountant friend, Murray (Charles Grodin, who is funny with just a roll of the
eyes). Dave loves baseball, is great friends with his office assistant, Alice (Faith Prince), and is
generally one of the happiest guys around. He also has a sideline appearing as a lookalike
because of his resemblance to President Mitchell.
After one of his lookalike gigs promoting a local car dealership, Dave is recruited by a Secret Service Agent, Duane Stevenson
(Ving Rhames at his deadpan best), to serve as the President's double in a security detail. That's
how Dave comes to be available when President Mitchell collapses from a massive stroke during
a tryst with one of his secretaries (Laura Linney). Chief of Staff Alexander is dead set against
turning over the Oval Office to Vice President Nance (Ben Kingsley), whom he dismisses as "a
Boy Scout". Why let a little thing like the Constitution stand in your way? So Bob Alexander and
Alan Reed hide away a comatose President Mitchell in a secluded White House treatment
facility, while they install Dave in his place. Behind the scenes, Alexander continues running the
country.
Or at least that's what Alexander intended. But after some false starts and pratfalls (and nobody
does pratfalls better than Kevin Kline), Dave starts to get ideas of his own. He's especially
moved by the First Lady and her charitable activities for the homeless. This, in turn, confuses
Ellen Mitchell, whose real husband hasn't noticed her in years. Before long, the abandoned
political wife and the accidental executive have made common cause against Alexander the
career politician, and their clashes echo across the nightly news. (It would be interesting to
reimagine Dave for the internet era.) We all know that Dave can't remain in the Oval Office, but
how he leaves and what he can accomplish before he goes remain in question until the end.
Ross's script and Ivan Reitman's direction neither rush nor linger over the denouement of Dave's
"term" as president. Everyone ends up exactly where they deserve, which, of course, never
happens in real life.
Dave's cinematographer Adam Greenberg (James Cameron's Terminator films, The Santa
Clause 2) struck an interesting balance between the cheery tones of light comedy and the dark,
serious and saturated blues, reds and browns usually found in films set in the world of politics.
The effective and accurate reproduction of these color choices is the strongest element on
Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. Where the Blu-ray is less impressive is in the area of
detail and definition. This does not appear to be a product of filtering or detail stripping, as the
image retains a natural-looking grain structure and suffers from none of the smearing or waxiness
associated with overly aggressive digital processing. Either the softness is inherent in the original
photography, or the transfer failed to capture the maximum detail possible, for one reason or
another. In any case, I note that the images reflected in the screen captures accompanying this
review do not fully reflect the quality of the Blu-ray image as it appeared in motion on my
display screen. This is one Blu-ray that definitely looked better as a moving image. (Obviously,
there were no compression or mastering errors to report.)
The DTS-HD MA 2.0 track adequately recreates Dave's theatrical stereo surround mix, which
was and remains front-centered with emphasis on voices and dialogue. Play it through a surround
decoder, and you'll get a nice sense of ambiance in busy scenes like the lawyers' convention that
President Mitchell addresses before heading off for his fateful encounter with his secretary or the
visit to the homeless shelter made by Dave and the First Lady. James Newton Howard's score is
particularly well-suited to the film, with its airy, upbeat optimism, and it sounds particularly good
in this presentation—indeed, better than I recall ever hearing it.
Two years after Dave, another presidential comedy explored similar themes of the President of
the United States as a regular guy with a duty to make people's lives better. The film was The
American President, and it's instructive to contrast the approach taken by writer Aaron Sorkin
and director Rob Reiner with that taken in Dave. There's much less physical comedy in the later
film and a lot more dialogue. As is often the case with a Sorkin script, vast amounts of
information are incorporated into the text, and at times it almost feels as if one stumbled into a
crash course in civics, much like what Dave has to undergo after he agrees to take President
Mitchell's place.
But Dave never stands at the podium and delivers a lecture to the press or the nation. Even in the
scene where he calls a press conference to announce a jobs program, Kline retains Dave's
innocence and ordinariness. You never feel that the character is a vehicle through which someone
is straining to deliver a message, as is so often the case with The American President. That's an
essential reason why Dave remains so durable. Like its perpetually optimistic protagonist, the
film bounces cheerfully along, with no greater aspiration than to make people's lives a little
better, even if it's only by singing an a cappella rendition of "Tomorrow" from Annie. (You'll
know the scene when you get there.) Despite the video shortcomings, recommended on the
strength of the film.
In the fall, Warner Home Entertainment will bring two politically-themed comedies to Blu-ray: Rob Reiner and Aaron Sorkin's The American President and Ivan Reitman's Dave. Both The American President and Dave are expected to street on September 25th.
