Archer:
The Complete Season Six
(2015/Fox DVD Set)/The
Driftless Area (2015/Sony
DVD)/Fatal Beauty
(1987/MGM/Olive Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/C+/B Sound: B-/C+/C+ Extras: C/C/C- Main Programs:
C+/C/C-
Sometimes
comedy gets mixed with the action genre, among other things, but
Archer:
The Complete Season Six
(2015) continues the success of the crudely-animated spy spoof we've
covered before, but by this time, it is really for fans only and has
fallen into formula, but this is only 13 episodes and it only has to
continue and even stretch things out a bit. Consistent, yes, but not
much more. At least the makers have the energy and pacing to keep it
up.
Three
featurettes and a paperboard slide cover with a front that opens are
the extras.
Zachery
Sluser's The
Driftless Area
(2015) seems at first like a drama about crime, but early on, it
turns quickly comical as a young man (Anton Yelchin, always trying
something different) is trying to get a rosebush to a girlfriend when
his car breaks down. A goof (John Hawkes) in a truck picks him up
asking for $20.00 just to get him to a garage, but they eventually
have a fight and the young man is thrown out of the truck. He then
throws a rock at the thief that knocks him out (the window was
missing for reason we find out later), knocking him out and crashing
the track.
Conflict
follows, but he is falling for a likable, somewhat eccentric gal
(Zooey Deschanel) in what could be a fine relationship after she
saves him from a freak accident. Then it gets more serious with a
death from a house being set on fire and other mysterious happenings
then take the tale into another direction that does not always gel.
The
supporting cast including Frank Langella, Aubrey Plaza and Ciaran
Hinds are a plus, but the script tries to do too much in only 96
minutes and I was not impressed as much as I wanted to be.
A
Making Of featurette is the only extra.
Finally
we have Tom Holland's Fatal
Beauty
(1987), a Whoopi Goldberg film that was one of several films that
tried to make her the female Eddie Murphy and failed. This one
especially tries too hard and the bad jokes that did not work 30
years ago have aged very badly now. Moviegoers felt one Murphy was
enough (and his run as a big moneymaking star was about to crash in
1990 anyhow, by which time Goldberg would make her comeback with
Ghost)
so this becomes a bizarre time capsule as she plays an undercover cop
who stumbles onto a larger, more dangerous case.
Sam
Elliott is the 48 HRS-style Nick Nolte figure as her unwanted police
partner and good supporting actors like Harris Yulin, Brad Dourif,
Jennifer Warren and James Le Gros are welcome presences, but none of
that can save how badly this goes. MGM had hoped otherwise, but to
no avail. Sad.
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.
The
anamorphically enhanced DVD presentations on the two DVDs are about
even with the animated 1.78 X 1 image on Archer
looking clean and clear enough, but I bet the visual jokes work
better on Blu-ray and 2.35 X 1 digital shoot on Area
consistent enough. The big surprise is how good, colorful and often
clear the
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Beauty
can look despite sometimes showing the age of the materials used.
This was shot to compete with the first Beverly
Hills Cop
and it shows in its 1980s gaudiness.
As
for sound, the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the Archer
episodes sound better than expected and the best
sonic presentations here, as the lossy Doolby Digital 5.1 on Area
is weaker and more laid back (in part due to the isolated nature of
the narrative making sense there) so is not as strong, tied by the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo on Beauty
has faint Pro Logic surrounds from its Dolby analog A-type surrounds
and is more compressed than expected.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
