Don McKay
(2009/Image Blu-ray) + Dreamscape
(1983/Image Blu-ray) + Unthinkable
(2009/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
B-/C+/B- Sound: C+/C+/B- Extras: C/C+/C Films: C/C+/C
When Hollywood tries to produce
thrillers with a difference, the results can work sometimes, but too many
times, you get odd results that offer a film with different ideas in it that do
not add up. Three new Blu-ray releases
remind us of that, all with interesting actors, ideas and ambitions, but not
necessarily working in the end.
Writer/Director
Jake Goldberger’s Don McKay (2009) tells
the odd story of a school custodian and title character (Thomas Hayden
Church) called back to
his old home town he has avoided for a quarter century after an ugly incident
he would rather forget. He gets pulled
into returning by a piece of mail, a supposed gal from his past (Elisabeth
Shue) and a scheme that seems rather convoluted. On paper, this looks like it might have
worked, as it is one part offbeat crime drama, one part dark comedy and one part
absurd, bad, deadly situation. However,
despite a supporting cast that includes M. Emmet Walsh, Melissa Leo, Pruitt
Taylor Vance, Keith David and James Rebhorn, the film becomes more interested
in being impressed with itself and its cast than actually delivering a story
with a payoff and that is why you have not heard of it.
You
likely have heard of Joseph Ruben’s Dreamscape
(1983), coming to Blu-ray around the same time as his original Stepfather
(1987, reviewed elsewhere on this site) hits the format. Along with True Believer (1989), Ruben hit his stride as a filmmaker after a
drive-in movie start with The Pom Pom
Girls, Sister-In-Law and Joyride. Like Douglas Trumbull’s Brainstorm (the same year, also reviewed on this site), this film
wanted to be another Ken Russell’s Altered
States (1980) and has its followers, but all these films about entering the
dream zone and subconscious of people never paid off and later imitators
(Katherine Bigelow’s Strange Days in
1995, for instance) or the “virtual reality” cycle that followed at that time
only produced films that were worse.
In this
case, Dennis Quaid plays a man who has had some telekinetic abilities since he
was young and now finds he can physically enter the dreams of others, but
things get wild when he has to go into that of The President of the United States
that he is trapped in. The Science
Fiction side has potential, but is undermined by fantasy elements, a childish
attempt as a thriller (the government is here in its laughable “warm fuzzy 1980s”
mode that never made sense) and we land up with what now plays like a pre-teen
version of Tarsem’s superior The Cell.
The film
was sold as if it were Raiders Of the
Lost Ark and future Indiana Jones
and the Temple of Doom star (and future Mrs. Steven Spielberg) Kate Capshaw
happens to be the female lead. They also
lucked out by having a solid cast that includes Max Von Sydow, Christopher
Plummer, Eddie Albert, David Patrick Kelly, Chris Mulkey and Peter Jason, but
this is a cult item at best and with a music score by no less than Maurice
Jarre, a curio to boot.
That
leaves Gregor Jordan’s Unthinkable (2009),
yet another terrorism thriller that has become a formula as we get asked that
tired question, if said deadly weapon(s) activated would kill who knows how
many people, how much would you punch, beat-up, mutilate, torture, twist, stab
and nearly kill your suspect? Is it more
justified if the person is definitely a killer terrorist? Of course, this short-sightedness showed up
in bad films before 9/11 (Edward Zwick’s The
Siege a major example) is penned by actor Peter Woodward (son of no less
than the great actor Edward Woodward of Callan
and The Equalizer among others) so
what did they try that was different?
Nothing
much. Samuel L. Jackson plays the
interrogator role (repeating himself sadly), Michael Sheen (the British actor
who is definitely not Arab) is the nuclear scientist gone nuts and Carrie-Anne
Moss is the FBI investigator stuck in the middle as three bombs are about to go
off. This is borderline torture-porn,
the kind inspired by that subgenre and by the hit TV series 24, which jumped the shark only a few
seasons in. The actors are good and
Sheen can hold his own as usual, even against a match like Jackson, but we’ve seen this all before and
lately, too much, so any edge it has dissipates quickly. The uncut version is better than the
R-version, but not by very much. I was
hoping for a surprise, but I never bought it for long and it sadly falls apart
early.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on McKay, 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High
Definition on Dreamscape and 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Unthinkable
have interesting qualities to them, but are all eventually underwhelming. McKay
is a little softer throughout than it should be despite being shot on film, but
the 35mm Fuji lensed by Director of Photography Phil Parmet never looks great
throughout, sometimes is too soft and disappoints, though not as badly as the
noisier-than it should be Dreamscape
transfer. An older HD master, the
interlacing and graininess is not as good as this film should look, instead
looking disappointing not unlike the Short
Circuit Blu-ray (reviewed on this site) we saw a while ago. Director of Photography Brian Tufano (Quadrophenia, Trainspotting, Billy Elliot)
did an interesting visual job here and this does not do justice to it.
That
leaves Unthinkable, also filmed in
35mm and showing it more in some scenes than the other two Blu-rays. Unfortunately, Director of Photography Oliver
Stapleton (The Cider House Rules)
allows too much digital work and reproductions of HDTV images to spoil his work
and that hinders the narrative than otherwise.
As well, some shots are softer and we get some motion blur.
All three
have DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mixes, but only Unthinkable has a good soundfield and McKay is a very quiet, dialogue-based film. That leaves music by Jarre the highlight of Dreamscape, a Dolby analog A-type
theatrical release whose audio here shows its age in compression, lack of
clarity and some dialogue that seems too low for its own good.
Extras on
all three title have feature length audio commentary tracks with their
respective directors, McKay adds a
Theatrical Trailer and Deleted Scenes that would not have helped much. Dreamscape
adds a Stills Gallery and Behind-The Scenes Special Effects Make-Up Tests. Unthinkable
adds BD Live and movieIQ interactive functions and an alternate ending with the
extended version of the film, though neither ending work by the time it is all
finishing up.
As you
can see, they are all interesting, yet none of them deliver to their potential,
but it was not from a lack of ambition.
Too bad because if the makers had concentrated more, any of these films
could have been hits and/or classics.
- Nicholas Sheffo
