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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Romantic > Slapstick > Sexual > Time Travel > Satire > Spy > Espionage > French > Mumblecore > Comet (2014/MPI/IFC Films DVD)/Honeymoon Hotel (1964/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)/The Lovers (2010/MPI/IFC Films Blu-ray)/The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe (1972/Film Movement Classics Blu-ray)/While

Comet (2014/MPI/IFC Films DVD)/Honeymoon Hotel (1964/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)/The Lovers (2010/MPI/IFC Films Blu-ray)/The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe (1972/Film Movement Classics Blu-ray)/While We're Young (2013/Lionsgate Blu-ray)



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



PLEASE NOTE: The Honeymoon Hotel DVD is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.



Here's a mixed group of comedies, sometime adding other genres, that all come up with mixed results...



Sam Esman's Comet (2014) is the first of two romantic comedy films that try to deal with love across time and has Emily Rossum and a stuck-in-indie-limbo Justin Long over a six-year period that is told out of order, but that only reshuffles the genericness of the script, plotting, storyline and after a brief early period of promise, this gets lost in its own mixing up. Locations are nicer than usual, but that only adds to the phoniness and lame sense of would-be romance. As a result, this would have been better as a disaster film if the title object were heading towards the earth. Boredom arrives instead with a big thud.


A trailer is the only extra.



Henry Levin's Honeymoon Hotel (1964) is a romantic comedy with few laughs, a weak script and a fine cast headed by a young Robert Goulet (who sings the flat title song) who lands up going to the title location when his friend (Robert Morse) has his bride walk out on him at his wedding. Nancy Kwan shows up there, as does Jill St. John, but they are both underused despite looking great and staling all their scenes, with a drunk Jill brought there by their married boss (Keenan Wynn), but this mostly has an idiot plot despite the money in this one and even Else lanchester as a maid cannot save it.


It looks like MGM had high hopes for this one somehow, but TV sitcoms were starting to make these kinds of films pointless and though St. John's career would be on the upswing, it is a curio at best that shows why these stars were all stars. It is the kind of 'honeymoon' you could easily fall asleep on.


There are unfortunately no extras, as I'd like to see what the participants might say about it.



Roland Joffe's The Lovers (2010) is not a remake of Jean Jacques Annuald's NC-17 drama from 1990, but had different titles beforehand and has Josh Hartnett (then on the comeback trail) doing deep sea diving as he falls for a woman he loves, but when he gets injured badly, he finds himself back in 1778 in India (versus the U.S.) making it as outlandish as Comet above. His character is also in jeopardy in both periods of time and any romance is forgettable fluff.


Joffe was on his way year ago to becoming a major art filmmaker, but he took some odd turns and this is an ambitious but ultimately failed dud (pricey at that from the looks of it) that is barely better than Comet and gets too cheeky with its extravagance, pseudo-philosophy on love and worst of all, desperate breaking of the fourth wall. Yawn.


A Making Of featurette of the time and a trailer are the only extras.



Yves Robert's The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe (1972), a hit spoof of the spy genre late in the spy craze game with Pierre Richard in the title role of a man who has no idea every outfit in town is following him thinking he is a spy and possibly assassin. Remade in the 1980s in a dud with Tom Hanks, you can see why this was a hit at the time, but it is uneven overall and no Charade as far as wit and the genre are concerned.


Yes, it has some moments and of course, some of the technology is funnier now than it would have been then, but Director Bertrand Blier's son Bernard is here as one of two master spies and it is at least consistent in taking its audience seriously, but downsides include pseudo-Tati humor that does not work (his superior last film Trafic was issued the same year) and sexy Mireille Darc steals all her scenes (which would have happened even if I liked this one more), but the film expects you to find Richard hilarious.


Though he can be funny, he is not that funny and when all was said and done, the film did not stay with me and Richard was wrongly used in some sequences. Still, this is the best entry on the list so if you must see one of these releases, catch this one; especially if you are curious and want to compare it to the Hanks remake. I was disappointed.


An illustrated booklet with text on the film and new reissue trailer are the only extras.



Noah Baumbach's While We're Young (2013) has Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as an older couple who do not act old and find some sort of connection with Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried as a young couple on the move. Stiller is a filmmaker trying to be as successful as his father (an underused Charles Grodin) once was, but the film it a mumblecore dud with older stars mixed in with no point. Adam Horowitz also shows up, but to no avail. I never bought it and some of it feels forced. See it at your own risk.

Extras include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds trailers.



The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image in Comet may be the newest shot, but it is the poorest performer on the list and the softest presentation with so-so color and few memorable shots, though the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Hotel has some softness, the real 35mm anamorphic Panavision scope shoot has some great MetroColor shots and is well lensed throughout. The print can show its age, but it was not too bad.


The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on Lovers was also shot on 35mm film and has its share of nice shots, but the insistence of the makers to drain and stylize color and scenes is overdone at could have been the best performer here otherwise, but the 1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Shoe easily has the better color here even when the print has slight signs of age (and even best color on the list over Hotel), while the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Young has some good shots if nothing great. It is barely consistent and has some detail issues. Odd but not uncommon for a new shoot.


The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Comet has a few good surround moments for rare action and some music, but it is an inconsistent soundfield, but the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Hotel is at least a generation down and a little weaker than I would have liked. Be careful of volume switching and high playback volumes to be on the safe side.


As for the Blu-rays, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on Lovers and Young are at least well recorded, consistent and have professional-enough soundfields, even if that does not help them as narratives, so they tie for first place. That leaves the lossless PCM 2.0 Mono on Shoe in between the two, sounding about as good as a monophonic film from the time can, though another Blu-ray of a comedy from that year that was mono sounds better: What's Up Doc?



To order the Honeymoon Hotel Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


https://www.warnerarchive.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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