The
Choice (2015/Lionsgate
Blu-ray w/DVD)/The
Clearstream Affair
(2014)/Fidelio: Alice's
Odyssey (2014)/40
Love (2014/First Run
DVDs)/Hostile Border
(2015/Sony DVD)/These
Thousand Years (1958/Fox
Cinema Archive DVD)
Picture:
B & C+/C/C+/C/C+/C+ Sound: B/DVDs: C+ Extras:
C-/C-/C-/C-/D/C- Films: C-/B-/C+/C+/C+/C+
PLEASE
NOTE:
These
Thousand Years
is now only available from the Fox Cinema Archive series and can be
ordered from the sidebar.
Here's
are latest look at dramas, with some (or too much) melodrama...
Ross
Katz's The
Choice
(2015) touts itself as the first independently-produced adaptation of
a book by pseudo-romance schlockmeister Nicholas Sparks, but the
formula is so beyond played out that it becomes a 111-minutes torture
test and the pairing of Benjamin Walker and Teresa Palmer is never
convincing as they fall for each other with no troubles. However,
before we start to fall asleep (for those who care), trouble soon
sets it. Can they survive it? Can we???
Tom
Welling and Tom Wilkinson show up as part of the passable supporting
cast, yet they cannot make a dent in the tiredness, obviousness and
pointlessness of this cynical production trying to squeeze the last
pennies out of a dead franchise. Your best 'choice' is to skip it.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other
cyber iTunes capable devices, while both disc releases add a feature
length audio commentary track by the director & Walker, a Music
Video, four Behind The Scenes/Making Of featurettes and Deleted
Scenes.
Vincent
Fareno's The
Clearstream Affair
(2014) is the most pleasant surprise here, a usually on-top-of-things
re-accounting of one of the most infamous financial/political
scandals in recent French history as journalist Denis Robert (Gilles
Lellouche) so big, he becomes the target of lawsuits, threats, lies,
grand schemes and much more in a very believable tale that shows how
ugly rich criminals can get these days and how the war on journalism
is as ugly as ever.
Running
a tight 102 minutes (I could have trimmed a bit off here ands there
for more impact), the cast of mostly-in-the-states-unknowns are
really good here and I was surprised how engrossing this was at its
best. Why have we not heard more about this one? Censorship
perhaps? Of all the releases here, this is the one worth going out
of your way for.
Trailers
for other First Run releases are the only extras.
Lucie
Borleteai's Fidelio:
Alice's Odyssey
(2014) wants to be a tale of female discourse as the title character
(Alice played by Ariane Labed) deals with men, a rough job on a work
ship and the many sexual encounters she has. In the latter, the film
is rather explicit, which is not bad, but eventually happens at the
expense of the narrative and we don't get enough character
development as she is torn between her land-bound boyfriend and the
ship captain, et al. That's a shame, because some of this works, but
too much is what we've seen before and that limits the 'female
discourse' too much.
In
the U.S., this would just get an NC-17, but the 97 minutes here are
simply unrated and I liked the acting and casting. However, there
are also too many typical and down moments, so it is a mixed bag at
best.
Trailers
for other First Run releases are the only extras.
Stephane
Demoustier's 40
Love
(2014) is a drama about a father/husband (Olivier Gourmet) who is
leaving a big job under cutback circumstances, but he wants more.
Back at home, he is getting along with his son somewhat well, but
things get more interesting when it comes to his 11-year-old son's
(Charles Merienne) talents in tennis, something his father starts
pushing for as he tries to launch his own business. The mother/wife
(Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) is not so sure about any of it and her fears
are confirmed when the tennis situation gets odder and odder.
I'll
stop there as not to ruin anything, but the film and its script are
mixed, eventually pushing all into a corner that it cannot get out of
and results in not being able to find its way to making the big
statement it seems to try and make. Probably halfway is where it
starts to go wrong, but you can see for yourself if your interested.
I was disappointed.
Trailers
for other First Run releases are the only extras.
Michael
Dwyer's Hostile
Border
(2015) is an interesting tale of young Claudia (Veronica Sixtos)
living illegally in the U.S. and running a dangerous credit card scam
when she is caught and 'permanently' deported back to Mexico where
she is living with her father and his wife, but things are rough down
there and get worse when traffickers want to use their property to
get illegal goods moved more quickly over to the U.S. and Claudia
becomes eventually involved with the threatening head of the
operation. Mexican Feds are also onto the case, but it will quickly
get out of control with all kinds of unfortunate complications.
I
really liked the acting, directing, pace and ideas here, but the
execution (no pun intended) is a little weak and makes the 84 minutes
not gel too well. However, with cuts in a few places and new scenes
in a few others, this could have been amazing. Hope to see more of
this cast and what Dwyer directs next.
No
extras though.
Finally
we have Richard Fleischer's These
Thousand Years
(1958), a big color, CinemaScope production based on a Pulitzer
Prize-winning book with Don Murray as the innocent guy trying to be a
cowboy with a future, but dealing with the reality of tough, scheming
men in the West. What could have been just another Revenge Western
has more drama and nuance than expected, though Fleischer was always
an underrated filmmaker. He borrows money from a girlfriend (Lee
Remick) who is in a bad relationship with a shyster (Richard Egan,
who becomes the villain of the piece, but not so simply) to start his
own farm. It works, but he is challenged by many and when he takes
another woman (Patricia Owen) to be his wife, that leaves the past
unresolved and the repressed returning quicker than he could have
ever expected.
He
is tricked a few times, then gets on a high horse about things, which
cuts into a relationship with a best friend (Stuart Whitman) and all
hell will break loose before all is said and done. Despite some
spots that run on longer than they should have in this 96-minutes
romp, there is much good to see here and Fox put the money into this
one. Harold J. Stone, Albert Dekker and Royal Dano help make up the
supporting cast, but I should add how save a mixed portrayal of
Native Americans, this is not as dated as many films form the time in
the genre. Definitely worth a good look, glad you can get this one
on DVD, but these Fox Cinema Archive DVDs don't stay in print
forever, so get it if you want it!
An
Original Theatrical Trailer is the only extra.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Choice
looks the best here by being consistent and being the only Blu-ray
here, but it is nothing special in the way it was shot, just flat and
not so memorable. The
anamorphically enhanced DVD version looks OK for the format and plays
as well as the rest of the DVDs here, but it is passable at best.
The
rest of the DVDs are also here in anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1
image presentations that look good enough, save Clearstream
(unfortunately, which deserves a Blu-ray release) and Love
being softer throughout than I would have liked. The DeLuxe Color on
Hills is the best on the list, despite being the oldest entry here.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix
on Choice
is nothing special either, but I well-recorded and consistent enough
to just earn its rating, while the lossy
Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD version is weaker, yet able to tie the
same mix on Border
and Fidelio,
but the
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the rest of the DVDs (including
Hills,
which might have been 4-track magnetic stereo originally) are better
than usual, tying the rest of the DVDs for overall playback quality.
-
Nicholas Sheffo