And
While We Were Here
(2012/Well Go USA Blu-ray)/Animals
(2012/Artsploitation DVD)/Lion
Of The Desert (1980)/The
Message: The Story Of Islam
(1976/Anchor Bay Blu-rays)
Picture:
C+/C+/B-/B- Sound: C+/C+/C+/B- Extras: C-/C/D/D Films:
C/C/B-/B-
These
following dramas try to be something different...
Kat
Coiro's And
While We Were Here
(2012) has Kate Bosworth in a failing relationship in another country
trying to write her grandmother's memoirs (actually voiced by Claire
Bloom) when she meets a young man (Jamie Blackley) who is much
younger than her, but they get involved in far away Italy in what is
supposed to be a real slice of life showing us how people and life
change. However, we have seen this dozens of times before,
especially from the recent mumblecore cycle of pseudo-independent
productions and no new ground is broken here.
As
a matter of fact, the whole affair feels like things we have seen
before and I did not buy it hardly ever, though some scenes were good
and in those moments, I had hoped this would pick up and become
something different and fresh. It did not. Iddo Goldberg is the
husband and we pretty much get limited character development all
around. Shot in HD, the main extra is the director's original
version in black and white, but it is even worse, looking phony and
simply like someone turned off the HD color. Roman
Holiday
it is not.
Marcal
Fores' Animals
(2012) is a more ambitious work with a young man (Orial Pla) who has
a relationship with a teddy bear he calls Deerhoof (who talks to only
him!) who we are not certain is or is not real. His police officer
father is not aware of this at first, but as he unexpectedly becomes
interested in a young man in his school class when he never seems to
have been interested in guy at all, odd complications ensue. The
bear is lost early, plays drums on his music recordings and gives him
off advice with a semi-robotic voice.
This
had some real potential, but gets lost in its gimmick somewhat and
despite some good acting, casting and ideas, never adds up including
in its conclusion which gets carried away, never seriously addresses
any sexuality issues (the film nearly trivializes things with one too
many alternatives to reality) and in the end, this really
disappoints. However, it is bound to be a curio and we're still
likely to hear about it in indie circles.
Extras
include a 12-page booklet on the film in the DVD case including
informative text and a reversible cover, while the DVD adds a
feature length audio commentary track with Fores and Travis Crawford,
an Original Theatrical Trailer, the original short that inspired this
feature film and a Making
Of featurette.
Finally
we have Blu-ray versions of Moustapha Akkad's The
Message: The Story Of Islam
(1976) and Lion
Of The Desert
(1980) which we originally covered on DVDs with extras at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3236/The+Message+%E2%80%93+30th+Anniversary+Ed
This
time, we get no extras for some strange reason, with playback only
marginally improved.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on both film
can show the age of the materials used, but color is improved, yet we
get all kinds of motion blur from whatever the HD source is or was.
Therefore, it shows a little more of the film, but new HD masters
(Ultra HD?) and some film clean up is needed in the future. The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Here
might be cleaner, but is actually softer and has its own detail
issues if not as obvious, while its black and white version looks
very phony (which is a bonus version I would rate C-) and very weak
throughout.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Animals
is actually as good looking and has some style of its own, though it
is also soft, but that is more due to the format we are covering it
in. It never tries to be too fancy in banal ays either.
All
three Blu-rays offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, but
The
Message
is the film that somehow sounds the best as Lion
has compression issues and more towards the front channels than I
would have liked, but it was created with a older soundfield in mind.
Here is dialogue-based and too quiet and refined to be much of a
sonic performer. As a result, the
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on Animals
can more than compete with the latter two Blu-rays despite having its
moments of quietness and many dialogue-driven scenes.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
