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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Relationships > Marriage > Affair > Infidelity > Sexism > Racism > Australia > Breathe In (2012/Cohen Media Blu-ray)/We Of The Never Never (1981/Umbrella 1080/50i Region Free Import Blu-ray)

Breathe In (2012/Cohen Media Blu-ray)/We Of The Never Never (1981/Umbrella 1080/50i Region Free Import Blu-ray)


Picture: B- Sound: B/B- Extras: C/B- Films: C+/B-



PLEASE NOTE: The We Of The Never Never Import Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray players that can handle 1080/50i format discs (including those few that can convert it to 60Hz for US HDTVs) and can be ordered from the link below.



Here are two dramas for you to know about...



Drake Doremus' Breathe In (2012) has a familiar set-up that applies to some films you have seen before and even some old thrillers better forgotten, but this is just a drama about a family that hosts an exchange student (Felicity Jones) who finds herself fitting in fine initially, but becomes interested in the male head of the household (Guy Pierce) whose daughter (Mackenzie Davis) and wife (Amy Ryan) don't suspect anything for a while. Daughter Lauren even initially suspects she is trying to take her boyfriend away from her.


Freudian slip? The drama is handled well and casting works, but as smart and even realistic as this tends to be, it cannot add anything new to the situation though Keith is made out to be a good dad/husband/musician who teaches music at school. Worth a look if you are interested and never gets too sappy to its credit, but that's all.


A making of featurette is the only extra.



Few in the U.S. have seen Igor Auzins' impressive Australian film We Of The Never Never (1981), though a DVD was issued at one point which we were lucky enough to cover at this link:


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6402/We+Of+The+Never+Never+(1982/Australian+drama


More realistic than most of the historical throwback melodramas Aussie cinema was making so many of, this newly restored edition is a really nice, welcome, needed upgrade telling the story of ho high society wife Jeannie Gunn (Angela Punch-McGregor) left the city for the outback and made a difference over a century ago. This film is one of the best of that whole overrated cycle and deserves rediscovery worldwide. This restoration is better than the last one of the DVD.


New expanded extras include all the audio of the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, a Behind The Scenes Gallery, Original Theatrical Trailer, a vintage Walkabout Documentary 1974 (no confusion intended with the Nicolas Roeg film of the the same name, reviewed on Criterion Blu-ray elsewhere on this site; 27 minutes) and new Back To The Never Never making of featurette, running 23 minutes.




The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on both Blu-rays are nice, if not perfect, with Breathe an HD shoot that is purposely semi-monochromatic more than it ought to be while the upgraded, restored 35mm film print on Never can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film as shot in real 35mm Technovision (like Apocalypse Now) and it is nice to see it saved as well as it has been here.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Breathe is well mixed and presented, but the quiet moments never undermine the soundfield, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono sound on Never can show its age and budget limits, but it has a better sense of warmth and fullness as compared to the older U.S. DVD.



To order the We Of The Never Never Umbrella import Blu-ray or DVD, go to this link for it and more great exclusives at:


http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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