A Civil Action
OVERALL:
ASPECT RATIO(S)
Widescreen (1.85:1)
FEATURES
STUDIO
RECOMMENDATION
- Production Featurette
- Theatrical Trailer
Touchstone
Buy it!
GRADING SCALE
Film 
Features 
Audio 
Video
The best thing about A CIVIL ACTION is not the big preachy dramatic speeches that you find in every other courtroom movie, it's about the lead characters. Travolta and Robert Duvall, who plays one of the defense lawyers for the chemical companies, are excellent on screen.
Travolta gives his character a little savvy. He doesn't have that stone look on his face that other lawyers have in other court movies. He has a personality that we find believable. Duvall is very smart in the film and very funny. William H. Macy is in charge of the funding for Travolta's team and is very funny as well.
Features
Disney has surprised us all by adding a featurette. Too bad it's just as fluffy and stuffy as all the other 5-minute ones. You know, where it's 4 minutes of clips and 1 minute of comments from cast & crew. Also added is the trailer. Not bare-bones, just bare.
Audio
A talky courtroom drama. Do you think the audio will be booming? Of course not, but you can hear everything. All the talking and the subtle sounds is easily picked up.
Video
For a non-anamorphic transfer, this one is darn good. No artifacts whatsoever. Of course, the film would have been a little sharper with the 16x9 enhancement, but still everything looks great. This is a dark film, and the blacks are very deep.
Overall
A great movie that gets very nice audio and video. Extras are limited, but the movie is the most important thing.