Love Ranch
(2010/NEM/E1 Blu-ray) + Ocean’s Eleven –
50th Anniversary (1960/Warner Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B-/C+ Extras: B-/C+ Films: B-/C+
For all
the films that have featured New York, Hollywood/Los Angeles and Paris, the one city that has still managed to stand out as
a favorite character in so many films is Las Vegas
and often nearby sister Reno. The allure of that adult playground,
including instant money, sex, reckless behavior, wealth without any work and
the gaudy appeal of what is a kind of living self-destruction have always
offered unique storytelling opportunities, as two new releases on Blu-ray show,
as different as they are.
Taylor
Hackford’s Love Ranch (2010) is an
underrated, well done drama/comedy about the couple who opened the first legal
brothel in Nevada. Helen Mirren is Grace and Joe Pesci (finally
back!) is Charlie, the husband/wife team who make it possible. They are a little eccentric (he smokes $100
bills rolled around his cigars) and they have a sort of, somewhat, you could
call it, open marriage. But they are
close and intend to become as successful as they can be. In order to further diversify their financial
interests, they take on a boxer (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) but this eventually
becomes a detour that causes all more trouble than any of the m expected.
Mirren
gives another great performance, Pesci takes on his first lead role in 13 years
and delivers his best work since Casino
and the casting otherwise is dead on.
Pesci and Mirren are a riot together, have great chemistry and are
clearly having a great time working together while never slipping out of
character once. They are more than
reason enough alone to go out of your way to see this, but writer Mark Jacobson
(whose work was behind Ridley Scott’s American
Gangster) delivers a smart, clever screenplay and Hackford delivers one of
his better films, obviously loving the source material and the results.
Gina
Gershon, Scout Taylor-Compton, Rick Gomez and Taryn Manning are among the
supporting cast and I give credit for all to bringing another key chapter of
this world to life. One of the better
features you’ll see all year, Love Ranch
cannot totally escape Casino’s
shadow, but it is one of the few such dark side of the city stories anyone will
be talking about in the decades ahead since.
Of
course, many have seen the remake of Ocean’s
11 and its two dreadful sequels, but the original film is a different
matter. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin
started making what became known as the Rat Pack cycle of genre comedies and
they were all decent hits, including the first one in 1960, which had the gang
on the big screen in Lewis Milestone’s original Ocean’s 11.
The film
may have a simple plot as the gang decides they’ll hit all the casinos in Vegas
and steal from all of them, ironic considering all the money they were making
in real life at all of them, so the film is one big upscale in-joke as we get
amusing subplots to al the characters in a script that is more about its jokes
and film more about its star personalities than any movie could get away with
then or now. Even by George Clooney’s
own admission, they were the cooler of the two gangs.
The cast
is terrific, including Sinatra, Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey
Bishop, of course, but also Angie Dickinson looking great, the underrated
Richard Conte, Cesar Romero, Akim Tamiroff, Henry Silva, Patrice Wymore, Norman
Fell and Lew Gallo. Red Skelton and
George Raft also show up, so to say this is star-studded is an
understatement. In that way, it is fun,
classy, energetic and Milestone (All
Quiet On The Western Front, A Walk
In The Sun) was still a very capable journeyman director to the end of his
career, with this being his next to last feature film and a hit. The 1962 Mutiny
On The Bounty (reviewed elsewhere on this site) remake would be his last.
Some good
writers worked on the script, including Charles Lederer (His Girl Friday, Kiss Of
Death, The Thing From Another World),
George Clayton Johnson (Logan’s Run,
key episodes of the original Twilight
Zone) and Harry Brown (A Place In
The Sun), so you know they were goofing around a bit versus their best
work. Billy Wilder even added some items
uncredited. The result is weak on story,
but rich in everything else. See it in
that spirit and you’ll enjoy it.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Ranch
and 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Ocean’s are impressive despite very different kinds of limitations
on both. Ranch was actually shot on digital High Definition video and
despite some softness, motion blur and other minor flaws, has a much more
consistent look to it than most HD narrative shoots we have seen to date, with
Director of Photography Kieran McGuigan (The
Other Boleyn Girl) turning in some of his best work to date. The stylings work and though Scorsese’s Casino (1995, reviewed elsewhere on
this site) is a big influence, this also wants to be grittier and darker in
ways that suggest more isolationism and less potential wealth.
Ocean’s was shot in real anamorphic
Panavision and as one of the first films ever to use the format, holds up very
well, though the idea of shooting in a widescreen scope frame has slowly grown
from the debut of CinemaScope back in 1953.
Director of Photography William H. Daniels (Stroheim’s Greed, Grand Hotel, Ninotchka, Winchester ’73, In Like Flint, Valley Of The
Dolls) was one of Hollywood’s best all around cameramen and became the main
go to for the Rat Pack films.
Considering the oversimplicity of the storyline, Daniels deserves as much
credit for making this a hit as anyone.
Originally issued in dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints, the
copy used here often shows that kind of color quality, but not always, plus we
get more softness and motion blur than expected throughout. Still, its flaws are limited and this
transfer (like Ranch) just earns its
letter grade).
Both
Blu-rays have DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) sound, with Ranch here in a 5.1 mix and Ocean’s
in 1.0 Mono reflecting its optical mono theatrical sound. Ranch
is dialogue based and has simple location recording that works to the narrative
advantage of the film (especially for a period piece), but don’t expect a
greatly consistent soundfield. Still,
this is fine for the kind of film it is.
Ocean’s could not be too much
clearer, though you sometimes wish the music (by Nelson Riddle) and songs were
in stereo, but no remix is offered.
Extras on
both releases include their won separate audio commentary tracks, with Hackford
covering his film, while Frank Sinatra Jr. and Dickinson cover Ocean’s. Ranch adds Deleted Scenes (with an optional
interactive mode only Blu-ray can offer) and Hackford/Mirren introduction to
the film. Ocean’s adds a Tonight Show
with Johnny Carson clip where Sinatra guest hosts the show and Dickinson shows up to
which point they talk about the film, Casino Vignettes, the original Theatrical
Trailer and the new interactive Las Vegas Then & Now map.
- Nicholas Sheffo
