We’ve got twins upon twins in the Film at 11 podcast this week, as two real-life twins review the 1988 comedy blockbuster Twins! Will my 11-year-old sons like the movie, or will they hate it? Will they even have the same opinion as each other? How will actual twins rate Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito playing fictional twins? Watch the episode to find out!
For my own part, I’m pretty sure I saw Twins in the theater when I was 14-years-old. I remember liking it a lot and thinking it was a very funny movie. If you had a similar experience and, like me, hadn’t watched the film in ages, let me warn you against trying to revisit it for nostalgia’s sake. Frankly, I’m shocked that a product this lazy could have been such a big hit even at the time.
| Title: | Twins |
| Year of Release: | 1988 |
| Directors: | Ivan Reitman |
| Watched On: | Blu-ray |
| Also Available On: | Amazon Prime Video Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
The Blu-ray
I may not have enjoyed Twins nearly as much as I expected to in this viewing, but no movie that was as successful as this one should be treated so poorly in the high-definition age. The film was a blockbuster hit, the fifth highest-grossing title of 1988, and made considerably more money even than revered classics like Big and Die Hard! Yet the movie wasn’t released on Blu-ray until 2020, and the only available copy of it (from Shout! Factory under its Shout Select banner) has truly dreadful video and audio quality.
If technically 1080p in resolution, the video master looks like it must have been struck in the early days of DVD, and from a film element many generations away from the negative. The 1.85:1 image is extremely soft, hazy, and noisy. Detail is weak, and contrast and colors are flat. While I never expected Twins to be a visually sumptuous masterpiece of cinematography, it surely could look better than this.
Somehow, the audio is even worse. Encoded in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 format, the soundtrack is set extremely low in volume and requires considerable amplification above my normal levels just to hear the dialogue. Even doing so, the whole thing sounds incredibly dull. What should be a matrixed Dolby Stereo mix has negligible surround activity. Gunshots and explosions are laughably weak. It’s just awful.
Extras on the disc consist of interviews with director Ivan Reitman and writer Herschel Weingrod (both listed as new at the time of the Blu-ray’s release), a trailer, and a still gallery. None are interesting.
Related
- Ivan Reitman (director)
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Danny DeVito
- David Caruso
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