Bunohan: Return To Murder (2011/Oscilloscope DVD)/A Common Man (2012/Anchor Bay Blu-ray)/Escape (2012/E1 Blu-ray)/Grand
Duel (1972/Blue Underground DVD)/Parker
(2013/Sony Blu-ray)/Safe Haven
(2013/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)/Shoot First,
Die Later (1974/Raro Blu-ray)
Picture: C+/B-/B-/C+/B/B-
& C/B- Sound:
B-/B-/B/C+/B/B-/B- Extras:
C+/D/C+/C+/C/C-/B- Films: C+ (Parker: C/Haven: C-)
Now for
the latest thrillers…
Dain
Said’s Bunohan: Return To Murder is
a drama thriller about criminals and kickboxing made totally in Malaysia by its
burgeoning film industry. Three brothers
on the outs with each other, including one who is a great kickboxer, have to
finally face each other and various hidden secrets as family land starts to
come up for grabs. However, one of them
has plans to sell out to big money developers and other ugly things are at
hand.
Though
the arc of the story was predictable and much of what we have seen before, the
locations, actors, culture, world and certain situations still made this very
watchable. Though not all the way
through, it sometimes takes you places you have not been before, some
performances are impressive, the fights convincing and Said has some directing
talent, so I hope to see him make more features. Though somewhat uneven, Bunohan is worth a look.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary track by Director Said, Original
Theatrical Trailer, a Making Of Featurette and Said on-camera interview.
A totally
India-based production that is not Bollywood, Chandran Rutnam’s A Common Man has Ben Kingsley as the
title character who is a quiet terrorist ready to bomb five locations around
the city if his demands are not met.
Kingsley is more than able to carry his part of the film in what is an
attempted character study that also becomes a formulaic action film with a less
familiar locale.
There is
not much suspense here, though editing is a little better than usual for the
genre and the supporting cast (including Ben Cross) is not bad here either, but
the script cannot overcome too many similar films, including comical action
variants (Speed comes to mind) but
we’ve seen worse. Too bad the makers
could not come up with more to say.
There are
no extras.
Roar
Uthaug’s Escape is an all Norwegian
production set during the Black Plague (we have had a few such films of late)
in which a quartet of killers preys on a vulnerable, innocent family and
kidnaps the surviving 19-year-old gal but she escapes and they chase her. Helped by a younger pre-teen girl they have
with them, they want to think the older girl forced her along, but it is the
opposite and the chase is on.
Of
course, this is in a barren land with all kinds of giant rock formations,
danger, valleys, hills, deadly animals and structures that could collapse at
any minute. Somewhat realistic and part
of what we could call a “dirty survival” action subgenre, this runs only 80
minutes and is not as good as it could have been despite some interesting
scenes and actors. Visuals would be
nicer if they were not re-colored and denatured. Characters are not as developed and cut
footage in the extras should have mostly stayed in the film. Too bad.
Extras include
Bloopers, a Visual Effects featurette and Deleted Scenes.
Giancarlo
Santi’s Grand Duel (1972) finally
gets a respectable release in being one of the last serious Spaghetti Westerns
before the bottom fell out and the subgenre become too comical for its own
good. Lee Van Cleef is a mysterious
stranger and expert gunfighter who comes to town for justice as a Sheriff and
to save a younger man (Peter O’Brien) from being framed for crimes and murder
he had nothing to do with.
This
means taking on a set of vengeful and corrupt brothers who rule the town and
West by fear, out to get who killed one of their own. Unfortunately, the mystery side is badly
executed, clue badly hidden and the film (at 94 minutes) shows that the genre
was coming to its end. Still, it is
better than mostly films in the genre and has some good moments, including a
different look from using different locales than usual and some more familiar
ones differently. Fans will want to give
this one a look in this new HD-mastered edition.
Extras include
a nice reel of Spaghetti Western Trailers (most of which we have reviewed on
this site), a feature length audio commentary track by C. Courtney Joyner &
Henry Parke and the Original Theatrical Trailer.
Taylor
Hackford’s Parker is one of the
oddest films any of its participants will ever make. Jason Statham is an action character from the
world of Richard Stark/Donald E. Westlake that is never convincing and from a
series of books with a very mixed past of inspiration. Whether it be political (Godard’s Made In U.S.A.), groundbreaking (Lee
Marvin in Point Blank) or commercial and overrated (Mel Gibson in Payback), the
books continue to inspire projects.
Hackford,
coming off one of his best films in the underrated Love Ranch (reviewed elsewhere on this site) tries to put Statham
into Hollywood A-list territory with material he only usually does in England (meaning
his U.S. works are knowingly action trash) and the results are bizarre. He is part of a heist gone wrong, other money
deals, pretends to be a rich man to get more money and lands up with Jennifer
Lopez (her mother is even played by Patti LuPone?) unraveling the various
angles of several coin games.
The
script keeps taking so many detours, that even they have unnecessary detours,
including an odd performance by Nick Nolte who is there just to make this seem
more intelligent than it actually is. Michael
Chiklis (looking as repetitive as Bruce Willis in the same genre these days) is
one of the crooks, but the appearances of name actors is more like name
dropping than storytelling. Even the
fight sequences are more comical than they should be, as are the situations
(the heist starts at a circus carnival) than don’t know if they are supposed to
be serious or funny, thus the oddness of the whole thing.
This also
means a slight sense of ironic distance is here, but even that is never made
clear, so the whole film is murky despite the money spent and all the name
professionals involved. If you are still
not certain, you’ll probably have to see this one for yourself to decide if you
like it, but I was not impressed and whatever the makers’ intents are puzzling. As entertainment, it is not that good
either. Bobby Carnivale and Clifton
Collins Jr. also star.
Extras
include two Blu-ray exclusive featurettes: The
Origin Of Parker and Broken Necks
& Bloody Knuckles, plus we get a feature length audio commentary track
by Director Hackford and two more featurettes: Bringing The Hunter To Life: The Making Of Parker and Who Is Parker?
Lasse
Hallstrom’s Safe Haven (2012) is one
of his weakest works ever, with a gal (Julianna Hough) on the run for a murder
she did not commit, settling in disguise in a small town where she starts to
fall for a local guy (Josh Duhamel) while still being slowly chased by an
officer who is professionally determined to get her. More than a few ads have made this out to be
some kind of thriller, which is why I included it here to warn readers that it
is not, but instead is lame schlock from Notebook writer Nicholas Sparks with
anything thrilling incidental and not with many thrills.
This has
a good cast, locales and a good set-up, but is a formulaic bore that could have
been a bad Lifetime or Hallmark TV movie.
Your safest bet is to skip it!
Extras
include Digital Copy for iTunes-abled, PC and PC portable devices, two
featurettes, Set Tour, Alternate Ending and Deleted & Extended Scenes.
Finally
we have another Italian film, Fernando Di Leo’s Shoot First, Die Later (1974) which was made in the middle of its
hardcore crime cycle and has Luc Merenda as a cop in the middle of a complex
tipping point as a corrupt cop is who seen as up and coming, a man who stands
for justice and can get things done.
Gangsters want a simple illegally parked car report squashed because it
involves some of their foreign visitor friends, but something so simple will
turn out to be deadly.
Based on
an actual crime case, the film is mostly believable in portraying the situation
(something we rarely see today) and the lead even has a side romance, but the
torture and murders shown are brutal. We
also get two bookending car chases handled by Remy Julienne, who also did many
for the James Bond films, but the former is sloppy and latter not long enough,
yet they fit the narrative.
Richard
Conte also shows up as a heavy, but top the credit of all involved, it is not a
showy “we got a Hollywood star” appearance and
he has more than a few scenes. Though a
mixed film overall, there is much to like about Shoot First, Die Later, it is as good as any release on this list
and is definitely worth a look despite its limits.
Extras in
our nice slipcase packaging include a two-part interview featurette with Di Leo
talking about filmmaking and this film specifically, plus another text-rich, illustrated
booklet on the film and those who made it with informative text that is up to
Raro’s usually high standards, making it the best set of extras on the list.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image Parker
is the visual champ here just edging out the other Blu-rays and being a
more consistent shoot overall than expected despite some styling choices and
minor issues. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 AVC @
34 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer on Haven should have been as good, but it has more soft moments and
motion blur which also makes its DVD version the worst performer on the
list. The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High
Definition image on Common is often
even more styled down and 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Escape very styled to fit the many CGI
visual effects and to look like “the past” with decolored color pallets. In all that, the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High
Definition image on Shoot First may
be the oldest, but save some soft footage, the nearly 40-year-old film can more
than hold its own against the new usually digital productions with great color
range, great shots and some nice definition with hardly any motion blur. A few demo shots are even here.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Grand
Duel and Bunohan look as good as
they are going to in their formats and the former especially calls out for a
Blu-ray release, but it is a big improvement over the lame transfers previously
issued of that film.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on Escape and Parker are
the best releases here sonically with well-rounded, consistent and active
soundfields throughout that are also well recorded overall. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix
on Haven and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 on Common are more towards the front
channels and not as consistent. The PCM
2.0 Mono Italian and English mixes on Shoot
First are obviously post-production works, but are solid presentations for
their age and under the circumstances. The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Bunohan
can more than compete with most of the releases being professionally recorded
and having active surrounds more than you might expect for a drama.
The lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Grand Duel
may be the least sonically strong release here, but the soundtrack is an
improvement over previous DVD releases.
Hope a Blu-ray is in the works.
- Nicholas Sheffo
