Cannonball Run (1981/HBO Blu-ray)/Le Mans
(1971/CBS/Umbrella Region Free PAL DVD)/UFC
Ultimate Fight Collection: 2011 Edition (Anchor Bay DVD Box Set)
Picture: B-/C+/C+
Sound: B-/C+/C+ Extras: C/C+/B Main Programs: C/C+/B+
PLEASE NOTE: This PAL DVD of Le Mans
can only be operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle
Region Zero/0/Free PAL format software and can be ordered from our friends at
Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at the end of the
review. The back of this one is
misidentified as Region 4. The rest as U.S. releases.
And now
for some new releases that are meant to offer old fashioned action fun, though
in varying degrees.
After the
Smokie & The Bandit films made
Burt Reynolds as big as star as he ever was, he started slacking and people
still paid for a time to see his films.
Trusting former stunt coordinator Hal Needham with his future, he would
direct The Cannonball Run (1981) for
him and it was a surprisingly big hit that horrified critics and made a ton of
money.
By this
time, the bandit/chase cycle of the 1970s was over, so the makers decided to do
a broad all-star cast comedy and be bonkers about it. The cast is impressive and reminded unkind
critics of the disaster films of the 1970s, but the film could also be seen as
one of those final over-the-top films that are really the peak of 1970s excess
(think Caligula, Can’t Stop The Music, Xanadu and others) but a real hit.
A very
politically incorrect film, the stars take up in a race in which they intend to
win at any cost. Among those in the
running are Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Farrah Fawcett in the biggest hit film of
her career (more than Logan’s Run
apparently), Roger Moore sending up his James Bond persona at a time when it
looked like Moonraker (1979) would
be his last film, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Adrienne Barbeau, Terry
Bradshaw (at his Steelers peak), Mel Tillis, Jackie Chan in his first U.S.
film, Jack Elam, Bert Convy, Peter Fonda, Bianca Jagger, John Fielder, Jimmy ‘The
Greek’ Snyder, an uncredited Valerie Perrine and Jamie Farr as an Oil Sheik!
Yes, you
have to see it to believe it, but it is remarkably coherent after all these
years, especially in an age of more “serious” commercial blockbusters with
mindless scripts that make this look ambitious.
No, it is not a great film by any means, but we have seen much worse and
it is more of a time capsule of an era sadly goner (including some of its stars
sadly gone too soon) than anyone could have imagined at the time.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer can definitely show the age of
the print used, but it does not look that bad overall with some nice shots and
good color throughout. It is far from
perfect, but I doubt the film could look too much better unless they spent much
more money to fix it up. Director of
Photography Michael C. Butler (Harry
& Tonto, Charlie Varrick, The Missouri Breaks, Jaws 2) does a better job of capturing
the stunt work than he ever got credit for.
The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is towards the front
speakers, but this was a film originally monophonic, so it is impressive they
got as much out of the film’s sound as they did. Al Capps’ score features prominently. The only extra is an interesting feature length
audio commentary track by Needham
and Producer Albert S. Ruddy. Two
sequels followed.
While
that film was originally intended for Steve McQueen, he passed away and
Reynolds finally took it over, but it was not the first time McQueen missed out
on staring in a film intended for him as he missed out on staring in John
Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix (1966,
reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site), Steve McQueen intended to correct
missing out on that film by making Le
Mans in 1971. John Sturges was originally
hired to direct, but McQueen kept second-guessing him and drove him off the
film, so Lee H. Katzin took over and though the film was not a hit, it is not a
bad flipside film to the Frankenheimer epic.
He plays
the star driver who may be in decline and may or may not make it, but this is
as much about watching the cars race and seeing this in raw terms as much as Grand Prix was and I liked that aspect
of the film very much. Both have
narrative limits, but they are also two of the few good films ever made about
car racing and certainly two of the most realistic with a narrative.
Bullitt (1968, also reviewed on this site
and now on Blu-ray) permanently cemented McQueen with the idea of fast cars and
this film more than any other takes that to its ultimate conclusion. He gets good support from Ronald Leigh-Hunt,
Siegfried Rauch, Elga Anderson, Christopher Waite, Luc Merenda, Louise Edlind,
Jean-Claude Bercq and Peter Huber among others and the fact that most of these
faces are unfamiliar further the documentary feel of the film. Though not perfect, it is a film worth your
time and it is nice to see it get such good treatment.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is colorful, but a little soft, though
it looks like it comes form the new HD master used for the U.S. Blu-ray
and was shot in real anamorphic Panavision by two Directors of Photography:
René Guissart Jr. (Girl On A Motorcycle)
and Robert B. Hauser (Willard
(1971), A Man Called Horse, The Night Strangler) that match up very
nicely, , while the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is a little better than the
compressed Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono option, but still shows the age of the film’s
soundtrack which at its best was offering in 6-track magnetic stereo in 70mm
blow-up prints. Michel Legrand’s odd score
also benefits. Extras include a trailer
and 24-minutes-long Filming At Speed
featurette.
Finally
we have UFC Ultimate Fight Collection:
2011 Edition, the biggest UFC DVD release to date; a 20-DVD box set (very
fancy in a hard slipcase as large as a coffee table book!) that marks the
franchise’s biggest year yet and they’ve got the fights to show for it. I have never seen any fighting franchise
(especially mixed martial arts or MMA) have a set this fancy and for sports on
DVD in general, one of the nicest sets to date.
You get
regular UFC events 119 – 131, Fight Night 22 – 24 and Live 2 - 4 events, plus
10 hours of content not on DVD before.
You can look up more UFC DVDs and Blu-rays on the site to see the events
we have covered as well as ones we will that follow this box set release, but
there is no doubt the franchise is going places and not going away anytime
soon. Fans will love this set!
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image has it usual mix of older analog videotape and low
definition digital footage throughout, but is consistent with the better DVDs
ion the series we have covered over the years.
Of course, some UFC Blu-rays are also out there on the market, but this
is a nice set. Dolby Digital 2.0 Sound
is the standard sound across the DVDs and you sometimes get Pro Logic type
surrounds, but not always. You also get
location audio limits and some monophonic audio. Extras in this great slipcase packaging
include a bonus DVD and almost every piece of content is a fight, but there are
three Best Of pieces on that 20th
DVD.
As noted
above, you can order the PAL DVD import version of Le Mans
exclusively from Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo