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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Crime > Murder > Malaysia > Terrorism > India > Kidnapping > Black Plague > Norway > Spaghetti Weste > 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

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


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