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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Crime > Thriller > Novel > Literature > Film Noir > Filmmaking > French > Comedy > Teens > Italy > WWII > Cohen & Tate (1989) + Cop Hater (1957/MGM Limited Edition DVDs) + The Father Of My Children (2009/IFC/MPI DVD) + Heathers (1988/Region Free) + The Man Who Will Come (2009/Region Four) + Playing For Ch

Cohen & Tate (1989) + Cop Hater (1957/MGM Limited Edition DVDs) + The Father Of My Children (2009/IFC/MPI DVD) + Heathers (1988/Region Free) + The Man Who Will Come (2009/Region Four) + Playing For Charlie (2008/Region Free/Umbrella Import PAL DVDs) + Return From The Ashes (1965/MGM Limited Edition DVD)

 

Picture: C+/C/C/C+/C+/C+/C     Sound: C/C/C+/C+/B-/B-/C     Extras: C- (Man: D/Charlie: C)     Films: C+/B-/C/D/C+/C+/C+

 

 

PLEASE NOTE: The Umbrella PAL DVDs can only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle either Region Zero/0/Free PAL format software (or Region Four/4 software in the case of Man) and can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the review while the MGM Limited Editions are website-only exclusives and can be ordered from Amazon.com.  Also, since this posting, Cohen & Tate has been issued on Blu-ray.

 

 

As predicted, 2011 has produced a stream of DVD releases of small and cult films long overdue in the format or of unusual interest.  This list is comprised of import DVDs, one foreign film from the U.S. DVD market and three more web exclusive releases from the expanding Limited Edition collection.

 

 

One of the latter is an Orion Pictures film, Cohen & Tate (1989), directed by Eric Red.  This hard-hitting crime drama has the hitmen of the title role (Roy Scheider, Adam Baldwin) going successfully after a family in the Witness Protection Program, killing several officers and most of the family.  However, they will be paid in full when they deliver the young son (Harley Cross) to a powerful, unknown party.

 

Tate is particularly psychotic, but Cohen thinks he can control him and a child who is just a child, angry, upset and scared.  I like the performances, look (shot by Director of Photography Victor J. Kemper, A.S.C.) and feel of the film that is willing to be very cold, yet seeing it again years later reminds me of the point where it does not ring true once too often.  Still, it is a risky, mature, smart work everyone should see at least once.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is good for the film’s age along with good color from a print that is in good shape.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo was originally Dolby A analog theatrical sound release and there are some weak surrounds here if you decode with Pro Logic, but not richly so, though this is well recorded down to Bill Conti’s impressive score.  A trailer is the only extra.

 

 

The big surprise here comes from William Berke.  Cop Hater (1957) is a later Film Noir that could have been a tired, even silly police procedural and the like, but instead is a stark drama about a hot New York City summer in which a mysterious killer is on the loose and the target is officers of the law.  This could have been dull, lazy and routine, but instead turns out to be a very smart adaptation of the book from Ed McBain, known for his 87th Precinct novels.  This is the first time any of them were adapted on film and it is a solid film.

 

Robert Loggia plays Detective Steve Carella, originating a role later played by Robert Lansing, Burt Reynolds, Donald Sutherland and Dale Midkiff.  When a close friend and fellow policeman is killed and left for dead on the street, he is determined to find out despite having next to no information to go on.  Because it is in the gumshoe detective tradition despite the characters being actual police, we get an edge and realism in the story police drams still lack to this day despite the plethora of them being produced by U.S. and U.K. TV networks.

 

The supporting cast is also impressive, including Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Ellen Parker, Vincent Gardenia and Jerry Orbach.  I cannot believe this was not issued on DVD a while ago or that it was not rediscovered by now, but I can tell you it is more of a real Noir than the tired, numerous, lame attempts that serve as guidebooks to failure we see all the time.  All serious film fans will want to catch this one.

 

The 1.33 X 1 black and white image is soft, though the source is in good shape for its age and has good Gray Scale.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is also a bit weak and aged, though there are no major sound flaws either.  A trailer is the only extra.

 

 

Mia Hansen-Love’s The Father Of My Children (2009) is a drama about a filmmaking producer father who has a good marriage with two daughters, but is not having much success with his company.  However, the troubles go much deeper as he has been lying about other finances and is generally in denial of how irresponsible he is.  I liked the idea, but never bought the setup on how they were independently making these films and that they continued to do so with such troubles and without safeguards.  In addition, considering the business, serious questions would have been asked long before they got so bad, or these are the worse group of independent film people ever.  The acting is not bad, nor are the locations, but it is a mixed film that took on more than it could resolve.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is softer than expected, though the source is in good shape.  Also, color is not bad.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix really stretches out the simple stereo sound with few surround moments really working.  A trailer is the only extra.

 

 

We have reviewed Michael Lehmann’s Heathers (1988) a good few years ago in its U.S. 20th Anniversary Anchor Bay DVD release here:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7249/Heathers+%E2%80%93+20th+Anniver

 

This version has the same transfer, but the picture and sound never impressed me and the film is one I never liked.  The performances, comedy and storyline were patchy and it remains for fans only.  A trailer and Return To Westerburg High featurette are the only extras, which is a fraction of the U.S. DVD.

 

 

Giorgio Diritti’s The Man Who Will Come (2009) is an Italian WWII drama about a young girl (Gretta Zuccheri Montanari) who has been speechless since her baby brother died, made more difficult by the insanity at hand.  For now, she and her family are in a village with several families untouched by the coming battles, so the film becomes a character study of who they are as they face ugliness and have to deal with themselves and each other.

 

We have seen this before to a good extent, but some moments are interesting and we see sides of this impending change (and doom) that are not as common as this kind of film (itself made in the thousands) would usually offer up in a clichéd way.  So I liked some of it, but not all of it works.  Therefore, see it once just to see what does.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is softer than expected for a new release, though the source here to is in good shape with decent color.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is good, though I wondered if there was more sound from the soundmaster and Pro Logic produced more surround information that is sadly no noted on the DVD case.  There are no extras.

 

 

Pene Patrick’s drama Playing For Charlie (2008) is a mixed film where the child of the title is a newborn and the father (Jared Daperis) has to get his life in shape quickly to take care of the baby.  However, he is having trouble on the sports field where he should excel and off the field, makes many big mistakes.  I can imagine a mistake being made here or there, but the script pushes its luck, though I liked the acting, situations and potential.  I wish this worked better as it is predictable and we have seen some of this before, but it is interesting, even when it falls short.

 

Like Man, the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is softer than expected for a new release, though the source here to is in good shape with decent color.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is good, though I wondered if there was more sound from the soundmaster and Pro Logic produced more surround information that is sadly no noted on the DVD case.  Extras include a Theatrical Trailer and 19-minutes long Behind The Scenes featurette.

 

 

And finally, a unique thriller.  The always interesting J. Lee Thompson (Cape Fear among many others) helmed Return From The Ashes (1965) with Ingrid Thulin as a woman who has barely survived the Holocaust and now free, does what she can to find her husband (Maximilian Schell) who likely assumes she is dead.  Not only is this true, but he has remarried himself to a younger woman (Samantha Eggar), but he is not playing with a full deck and when the first wife returns, he intends to kill them both off!

 

I like the cast, the ideas and can say that this is a first-rate production, but the problem I always had with it is that the mystery side never totally worked for me.  It is still a smart and clever film, including the great Herbert Lom as a no-nonsense detective, but it lacks impact and though some might suggest it somehow trivializes The Holocaust, I did not find that to be much of the case.  See it for its fine use of the scope frame and actors if nothing else to see if you like it more than I did.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 black and white image is softer than expected despite the limits the MGM Limited Edition DVD-Rs can have.  The source print here to is in good shape with good Gray Scale, but this is just a little softer than I would have liked for such a sharply shot film in real 35mm anamorphic Panavision.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is not bad, but weak as well where I imagined it might be a little richer.  A trailer is the only extra.

 

 

As noted above, you can order the PAL DVD imports covered here exclusively from Umbrella at:

 

http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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