Search - D.O.A. on DVD

MPAA Rating: R Content Advisory: Violence, Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Not For Children, Adult Language, Profanity, Substance Abuse Movie Release: 1988 DVD Release: 10/14/2003 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 37 mins Studio: Walt Disney Video Members Wishing: 3 Genres: Mystery, Post-Noir (Modern Noir), Romantic Mystery

"They didn't kill me; I was dead already," is the statement uttered by Dexter Cornell (Dennis Quaid), an English professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has been poisoned by a slow-acting toxin and who has twenty-four hours to track down his killers before he ceases to exist. Remade from the 1949 Rudolph Mate thriller by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, the co-directors jazz up the old luridness with slap-up doggishness that boosts the intensity-level higher than it deserves to go. Cornell is a burned-out novelist trying to hold on to tenure at the university while seeing his marriage collapse around him. As if that weren't enough, he is receiving amorous come-ons from smart, young student Sydney Fuller (Meg Ryan) and being badgered by another student, Nick Lang (Robert Knepper), to read his brilliant first novel. Not long after Dex demurs to Nick to read his novel, Nick is killed in a fall. Only then does Dex find out that Nick has been having an affair with his wife. Things keep going from bad to worse when, after an all-night drinking binge, Dex discovers that he has been slipped a poison that will kill him within 24 hours. Teaming up with the adoring Sydney, Dex tries to track down the person who poisoned him while dodging the cops, since he happens to be a prime murder suspect. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Dennis Quaid - Dexter Cornell
Meg Ryan - Syndey Fuller
Charlotte Rampling - Mrs. Fitzwaring
Daniel Stern - Hal Petersham
Jane Kaczmarek - Gail Cornell

This updated remake of the classic 1950 thriller gets a sturdy presentation for its release on DVD. D.O.A. has been given a letterboxed transfer at its original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1, which has been enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16 x 9 monitors. Viewers have a choice of two mixes of the audio track, one in Dolby Digital 5.1, and the other in Dolby Digital Surround. The dialogue is in English, and the disc also includes optional Spanish subtitles. No bonus material appears on this edition. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide