Black
Widow (1987/Fox/Twilight
Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/The
Gift (2015/Universal
Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B/B- & C+ Sound: B-/B & C+ Extras: B-/C- Films:
C+/D
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Black
Widow
Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is
limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last
from the links below.
Here
are two thrillers that show you how an ambitious effort in the genre
can still produce mixed results and tired ideas can only bring a
tired narrative with no thrills.
Bob
Rafelson's Black
Widow
(1987) has Theresa Russell as the title character, a woman who goes
around pretending to be women she is not and seducing rich men who
she marries, who then suddenly die within a few weeks to months of
tying the knot. In a most male-dominated section of the Department
of Justice, one woman (Debra Winger, making for a good match of lead
actresses) starts to think she sees a pattern, but all the men she
shares this with (save one in the office played by the underrated
D.W. Moffet) don't believe her, though this aspect of Ronald Bass'
script becomes overdone very quickly.
Nevertheless,
she eventually starts her investigation, near-obsession, but turns
out (of course) to be correct (we learn how much so very early on)
and starts to go after her in unexpected ways. I like the lead women
and Rafelson gets some really fine actors here throughout, including
interesting turns by Lois Smith, Dianne Ladd and a scene-stealer by
Dennis Hopper. Unfortunately, then as now, the film never totally
worked as a thriller or character study, but has some moments worth
catching. Unfortunately, the mystery is dumped early on, suspense is
limited and it is hard to tell what the makers were really going for.
The conclusion is also too pat for its own good, yet it has aged
well enough to give a look to again for what does work and that
Hollywood is actually not able to make this kind of thriller much
anymore.
Thus,
Fox has rightly allowed this to be a Twilight Time Limited Edition
Blu-ray handled as well as it is ever going to be. Rafelson did
better earlier with his Postman
Always Rings Twice
remake and underrated (also a Fox release) Blood
& Wine
later. This was outdone in its release year by Adrian Lyne's Fatal
Attraction
and then forgotten by the time Paul Verhoeven's Basic
Instinct
(1992) launched another round of imitation thrillers trying to cash
in. See it if you never have before and if you can revisit it with
this special edition, you won't be sorry.
Joel
Edgerton's The
Gift
(2015) has the sometimes-interesting actor directing himself as an
old acquaintance of a guy from school years ago (a miscast Jason
Bateman) who is now married to a beautiful wife (Rebecca Hall) moving
into a new house. They have a 'chance' meeting that is not really a
coincidence as the loner actually has advanced designs for revenge.
Boring them to death is not part of the plan, but as you watch, that
actually seems possible.
From
there, it plays like one of those 'unwanted guest' comedies (Bateman
being all-serious here makes that actually less so) and this dud
drags on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on until its
supposed climax that is highly anti-climactic. Whatever was intended
was lost to me and apparently to the makers in this low-level package
deal where the title should refer to the highly toxic lump of coal
that is the really, really bad screenplay. Beware of this lame gift
made mostly by strangers who should not make feature films!
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Widow looks
best here with amazing work by the ingenious Director of Photography
Conrad L. Hall, A.S.C., pretty clear and color correct with few flaws
that properly represents what Hall and Rafelson intended. The use of
light is on a higher level than most HD shoots today and that adds
dimension to any suspense and mystery in ways that always work and in
this case, save the film form its limits.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Gift
wastes the widescreen frame and has poor, odd color reproduction that
does not help it at all. Fleshtones are odd, color timing sometimes
makes no sense and when you add the degraded video we see all too
often, tired, boring, cliched and as dull as the film itself. The
anamorphically enhanced DVD is even more boring and unwatchable.
Both
discs offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless soundtracks, with Widow
having a 2.0 Stereo mix from its analog A-type Dolby System, Dolby
Stereo theatrical release with monophonic surrounds that has more
moments of warping and distortion than expected, while Gift
has a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix that should be
stronger and better with a soundfield that is a bit off, but has some
good surrounds that help despite not being spectacular. The lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 mix version on the DVD is just outright weak and
awful.
Extras
on both releases include feature length audio commentary tracks (Nick
Redmond & Julie Kirgo with another excellent winner on Widow,
Edgerton trying to explain Gift),
with Widow's adding another illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text and Kirgo's always-smart essay on the film and its
disc adds TV spots, Original Theatrical Trailer and Isolated Music
Score of Michael Small's music that sometimes differ from what is
used in the film and has far superior fidelity to the film itself
sonically in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo.
Gift
adds two Behind The Scenes/Making Of featurettes, an Alternate Ending
that barely works better and Deleted Scenes that didn't matter in the
long run.
You
can
order the Black
Widow
limited edition Blu-ray while supplies last (with other great
releases) at these links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
