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Category:    Home > Reviews > Science Fiction > Monster > Action > Blaxploitation > Comedy > Horror > Literature > Mystery > Thriller > Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde: 35th Anniversary Edition (1975/VCI DVD) + Never Let Me Go (2010/Fox Blu-ray) + Soylent Green (1973/MGM/Warner Blu-ray)

Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde: 35th Anniversary Edition (1975/VCI DVD) + Never Let Me Go (2010/Fox Blu-ray) + Soylent Green (1973/MGM/Warner Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B (Hyde: C)     Sound: B- (Hyde: C)     Extras: B- (Hyde: C-)    Films: C+/B-/B

 

 

The Science Fiction genre has the unique ability to allow us to look at ourselves in ways no other genre does, often crossing the line into the Horror genre.

 

 

There were really no outright Science Fiction films in the Blaxploitation genre, while African American actors suddenly started showing up in the genre after 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) like Omega Man (1971), but several attempts at the Horror genre outright surfaced like the very popular Blacula, the very artistic Ganja & Hess (reviewed elsewhere on this site), the Exorcist knock-off Abby (so good it was pulled for good after a lawsuit) and even Blackenstein.  William Crain’s Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1975 aka Decision Of Doom aka Dr. Black & Mr. White aka The Watts Monster) is not a great masterwork, but still a very interesting an effective piece of filmmaking long overdue on DVD.

 

Bernie Casey is a doctor and scientist trying to solve liver disease by creating a serum that will reverse it forever and like all indie doctors, tries it on himself.  Instead of his liver going one way or the other, he turns into a giant, tall, white muscular white male killer monster!

 

Instead of some shallow “get whitey” plot, odd, interesting things happen throughout the film.  Casey gives a good performance, as does Rosalind Cash, Ji-Tu Cumbuka and others play this for real enough in ways most Horror junk we’ve seen lately does not begin to know where to start.  Due in part to make-up among other things, the monster is never totally white, which brings up some interesting issues about race worth thinking about, especially when the film starts to reference the 1933 King Kong in the final reels.  This is fun, but is also challenging the genre like so many films all around and that included other versions of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde like the Hammer film Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde which challenged gender as we covered at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/625/Dr.+Jekyll+&+Sister+Hyde

 

 

I like the freedom in which the film was made, which is a purely cinematic thing we rarely see.  This is fun and then some, though Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde author Robert Louis Stevenson is never given any credit.  A trailer is the only extra.

 

Director Mark Romanek has always been connected to futuristic technology and the Science Fiction genre in his music videos (The Films Of Mark Romanek collection) and in odd ways in his first feature film, One Hour Photo, all reviewed elsewhere on this site.  Hugely influenced by Stanley Kubrick, it is no surprise that his second film is even more of the Science Fiction genre.  However, Never Let Me Go (2010) is the kind of genre piece that does away with futuristic technology and even emphasizes older, even obsolete technology to flush out something darker.

 

Based on a book by Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains Of The Day), we are visiting a chilling new future England where a terrible new thing has become normal: supposedly cloned children being raised to be ultra healthy so they can exist to have their organs slowly harvested after a very short life.  They are told this makes the world better and the brainwashing starts from day one.  A love triangle has eventually develops between three of the characters (Andrew Garfield, Carey Mulligan and (finally getting a role worthy of her talents) Keira Knightley) that further brings out the ugly truth about a living death fascism that has won out over people.

 

The acting is stunning, the script pretty good and the look and feel of the film overall never fails.  You sort of know what is coming, but yet, there is always something subtle that happens that you might not expect or when it does, further confirms the nightmare unfolding before you.  Romanek does make one mistake and that is to stop being himself and tries to start being like the author of the book.  This surrender backfires a bit and actually inadvertently makes this nightmare seem acceptable and normal.  By abandoning Kubrickian aesthetics too much, he loses control of the film and though this is not as damaging as it might be, it hurts the full impact of the film, feels like political incorrectness at the worst time and makes this a compromised work.

 

I still liked it and recommend the film, but it still misses the mark.  Garfield and Mulligan are two of the best actors of their generation and Charlotte Rampling is very effective in her role running the donor school.

 

Extras include Director Mark Romanek’s On-Set Photography, The Secrets Of Never Let Me Go, Tommy’s Art and National Donor Programme & Halisham Campaign Graphics.

 

Finally we have Richard Fleischer’s Soylent Green (1973) finally arriving on Blu-ray and it was worth the wait.  This is one we have previously reviewed and here is my extensive DVD review:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/525/Soylent+Green+(1973/Warner+DVD-Vid

 

 

Though the film has been spoofed, it has not been seen enough and I was not happy with the performance of the DVD at all, but this Blu-ray has all the extras of the DVD (audio commentary, trailer and two featurettes) and makes it much easier to enjoy with the much-improved fidelity.

 

For one thing, the 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is a giant leap ahead of the DVD with a brand new HD master transfer replacing the muddy and problematic transfer used since the old 12” LaserDisc and on TV broadcasts.  Though there is grain and some minor flaws, the color is pretty consistent and this is supposed to look rough in places since it is a future with heat waves every day.  You can now see how good the Panavision cinematography really is and it brings the film alive in a way it really deserves and finally gets here.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 1.0 Mono track is the best option, as Warner decided not to try and upgrade to even stereo sound, but it does sound pretty good throughout with some moments of dialogue surprisingly rich and warm throughout.  Some audio shows its age, but some work was done to fix up the sound and it surpasses the awful DVD Dolby Digital 1.0 and even the 12” LaserDisc PCM 2.0 Mono.  Sadly, Warner did not incorporate the isolated music track (which actually included sound effects) here that the 12” LaserDisc had, but a Limited Edition CD soundtrack is still available and is worth your time:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/198/Soylent+Green/Demon+Seed+(Limited

 

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Hyde has some good shots and this is a nicely lensed film, but color is uneven here and there are detail and depth issues throughout.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also aged and dated, but VCI seems to have cleaned this up as much as possible.

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 AVC @ 32 MBPS digital High Definition image on Go has some stylized, contemporary, soft shooting with other naturalistic approaches that are represented here very nicely throughout.  That means the light is down one stop (or level) more than it would be in real life, but Director of Photography Adam Kimmel A.S.C., delivers this consistently and even chillingly.  The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless 5.1 mix is dialogue-based, with the music and sound effects a mix of soft and vivid sounds as the sound design dictates.  I can’t imagine the soundmaster sounding better, but this approach limits the soundfield and has it play like a monophonic film more often than expected, though that still fits the narrative approach.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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