Before
Midnight (2013/Sony
DVD)/Clear History
(2013/HBO Blu-ray)/Free
Samples (2012/Anchor Bay
DVD)/The Heat
(2013/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)/Hugh
Laurie: Live On The Queen Mary
(2013/Eagle Blu-ray)
Picture:
C/B-/C/B- & C/B- Sound: C+/C+/C/B & B-/B- Extras:
D/D/D/C+/C Main Programs: C+/C-/C-/C+/C+
Here's
a mixed set of new comedy releases...
Richard
Linklater's Before Midnight
(2013) is the belated fourth film in a series with Ethan Hawke and
Julie Delphi as Jesse & Celine, mow married and Greece, the film
follows the live action Before
Sunrise (1995), Before
Sunset (2001) and (to a
lesser extent) animated Waking
Life (2004) and though I
was not the biggest fan of those films, I at least understood their
appeal. This new installment is intelligent and passable, but not
very necessary and offers nothing new or fresh, making it a fan film
at best.
No
problem with the leads, supporting actors, locations or even
director, just nothing much to see here. At least it is not smug or
condescending.
There
are no extras, but you can read more about Waking
Life at this link. from
someone who loved this series:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/78/Waking+Life
Greg
Mottola's Clear History
(2013) is a very disappointing HBO telefilm from the capable director
and its otherwise funny star, Larry David, who plays a guy cheated
out of money from helping to create a hit environmentally friendly
car (that look like a Citroen 2CV!) and al the regrets that follow.
Running 99 minutes, I was bored, unamused and surprised all the jokes
fell so flat.
One
problem is it does not know how to get any jokes out of the past,
counterculture or music by the Rock/Jazz band Chicago, which has
several of their songs licensed here. Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton,
Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Kate Hudson, Eva Mendez and Amy Ryan even
show up and cannot make it funnier. It is just a dud that is sadly,
quickly forgotten.
There
are no extras, but Ultraviolet Copy is available.
Another
dud is Jay Gammill's Free
Samples (2012) is a
mumblecore bore about two lady friends, one of whom needs the other
to take care of her ice cream truck business for the afternoon, but
she (Jess Weixler) is a burned out wreck and to say she will not be
customer friendly (even giving out free chocolate or vanilla) is an
understatement. Then she has her other bad moments, we get side
vignettes that stop what little narrative the script has (including
Jason Ritter in a throwaway role) and when Jesse Eisenberg shows up
as an old male friend, all he can do is deliver his usual Woody
Allen-type comedy.
Pretty
much the worst entry here by a hair, this lacks energy and has no
energy. There was some potential here, but the makers simply did not
concentrate to try to do something different. If you watch it, don't
operate any heavy or dangerous equipment at the same time.
There
are no extras.
Paul
Feig's The Heat
(2013) was a surprise hit pairing Sandra Bullock as a cop who is not
taken seriously by her fellow officers with a crude Melissa McCarthy
in a formula film that will recall the likes of Walter Hill's 48
HRS (1982), but through
the consistency of the script, directing, acting, chemistry between
the leads and balance throughout its cut and uncut versions, one can
see the commercial appeal.
Of
course, why the Eddie Murphy thing works for McCarthy when it did not
for Whoopi Goldberg is a good question, but Hollywood's attempt to
make her the next big comedy star took hold and (along with Gravity),
Bullock is yet again back on top as the top female movie star in the
world. They also take on a drug kingpin and outdo the hideous Rush
Hour films with ease, so
for what it is intended to be and do, it excels. It will not stick
with me much and never laughed, but at least it is a professional
production all the way and that is something we do not see from the
studios enough these days. No wonder audiences were happy with it.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, 5 commentaries including MST3K, Acting Master Class,
Von Bloopers, Mullins Family Fun, Deleted, Alternate and Extended
Scenes.
Finally
we have an oddity in Hugh
Laurie: Live On The Queen Mary
(2013), where the comedian, comic actor and sometimes dramatic actor
shows up to sing, but for the 17 songs in the show we get, he only
sings half of them, so the title of this release is a bit misleading.
It is still an amusing program and fans will enjoy seeing this side
of him, especially U.S. Viewers less aware of his U.K. comedy past.
Unfortunately,
the laughs are few, though he is a class act and the music did not
even stay with me on a comic level. At least there is some joy to
the program.
Extras
include a bonus track encore and 20-minutes-long on camera interview
with Laurie.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Before DVD and
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on the Free and Heat
DVDs are much softer and fuzzier than I would have liked and make
them hard to watch. All are also HD shoots and are flat, though the
1080p 1.85 X 1 AVC @ 21.5 MBPS
digital High Definition image transfer on The
Heat Blu-ray is better
and shows how much better the shot is despite its limits. It ties
for a mixed first place with the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High
Definition image on Clear
and 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Laurie
as the best playback performers.
As
for sound, the big surprise here is how sonically capable the DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Heat
really is and not just in its music. For a dialogue/joke-driven
comedy, the effort and money has been put into this to make it really
work and move, embarrassing many action, horror and science
fiction mixes of late, with even the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on its
DVD more active than expected. Clear
and Hugh
have DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes that are pretty good, if not
always great and sometimes more towards the front channels than I
would have liked, but it is a bigger problem with Clear.
That leaves the
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on the stand-alone DVDs as weak, except
Free
is especially low and problematic in playback to the point it sounds
like someone botched the recording, mix or both, so be careful of
playback levels and volume switching on this one.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
