Eye
Of The Needle
(1981/United Artists/MGM/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/The
Hunger Games
(2012)/The Hunger
Games: Catching Fire
(2013)/The Hunger
Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
(2014)/The Hunger
Games: Mockingjay -
Part 2
(2015/Summit/Lionsgate/4K
Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray Sets)/Hush...
Hush, Sweet Charlotte
(1965/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B Sound: C+/B+ & B/B-
Extras: C+/C+/C/C/C/B Films: C+/C+/C/C/C/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Eye
Of The Needle
and Hush...
Hush Sweet Charlotte
Blu-rays are now only available from our friends at Twilight Time,
are limited to only 3,000 copies each and can be ordered while
supplies last from the links below.
Next
we revisit some old and new genre films, but start with an unusual
spy entry...
Richard
Marquand's Eye
Of The Needle
(1981) is based on the best selling Ken Follett novel with Donald
Sutherland as the killer title character, a spy for the Nazis in WWII
England, but they are in pursuit of him. The script wants to be a
spy thriller, but even more of a drama and melodrama when he gets
stuck on an island with a troubled married couple (Christopher
Cazenove, Kate Nelligan), but too much of the film sides with that,
cutting into the potential suspense and action aspects.
That
was likely the point since the most recent Bond film had been
Moonraker
(1979, but For
Your Eyes Only
arrived the same year, so a more serious tone arrived in spy films,
if only temporary) but the film comes close to being smug in this
anti-Bond approach. Still, it looks and usually feels the period
(Miklos Rozsa's score is a plus) and the cast (including Ian Bannen)
are fine. I just always found the film very uneven and time has not
changed my opinion on it. Still, it rightly has a following and this
new Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray fills the need for this
deluxe release for fans of the film. It is at least ambitious in
what it tries.
Extras
include another nicely illustrated booklet on the film including
informative text and yet another excellent, underrated essay by the
great film scholar Julie Kirgo, while the Blu-ray adds a feature
length audio commentary track with Kirgo, and fellow music & film
scholars John Burlingame & Nick Redman, an Original Theatrical
Trailer and the Isolated Music Score in 3.0 lossless DTS-MA Stereo!!!
Speaking
of Donald Sutherland, we next have all four films of a trilogy
hitting 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray for the first time. The cycle of young
adult action we are now seeing in steep decline started with Gary
Ross' The
Hunger Games
(2012), so the cycle ran only four years! Such
a surprise hit, it not only became a trilogy, the last film was split
in two. All from the same director, Francis
Lawrence's The
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
(2013), The
Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
(2014) and
The Hunger Games:
Mockingjay - Part 2
(2015)
completed the story as it was, but even by the last film, interest
had wained. We only previously reviewed the final film, which I made
comments about the whole franchise on at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14129/Alexander+The+Great+(1956/United+Artists/MGM/
Now
looking back at the series in these really high quality 4K Ultra HD
Blu-rays, it at least started out with some energy that made it a
hit, but as the series goes on, the scripts become lamer (the first
one was not that great to begin with) and it gets increasingly boring
and melodramatic in the poorest ways. I also blame Music Video
Director Lawrence, whose feature films (I
Am Legend,
Constantine
(easily surpassed by the new TV version), Water
For Elephants)
are nothing to write home about (only one was a hit) and who only
started to make better Videos in recent years after turning out ons
with mixed results and memorability since the mid-1990s, so he is a
'safe, commercial' choice.
This
does not allow for expansion of the material, but the producers are
extremely cynical, wanting to do the likes of Battle
Royale
without the guts to have it be violent, honest, brutal or cold, plus
(as noted before) Punishment
Park
without a point. What started out as passible becomes actually
condescending and insulting by the end of the second film if no
sooner (fighting against a police state is as fun as a trip to the
shopping mall?) and the star power inevitably becomes more of a
distraction than anything else, but the series has its fans and I
doubt the series will ever look or sound better than it does in the
new 4K editions.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other
cyber iTunes capable devices, while the regular Blu-rays repeat the
extras from the previous releases including feature length audio
commentary tracks for all four separate films, Making Of/Behind The
Scenes featurettes for all four films (3 on the first, 1 on the
second, plus Deleted Scenes, 3 on the third along with a Lorde Music
Video and Deleted Scenes on the third and 8 on the final film) that
is more than enough to overdose on all this. Needless to say it is
for fans only at best and goes on and on and on and on at worst.
Finally
we have Robert Aldrich's Hush...
Hush, Sweet Charlotte
(1965) in a new Blu-ray version, but it is surprisingly a Twilight
Time Limited Edition licensed by Fox. We covered the older DVD a
long while ago at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2637/Hush...+Hush+Sweet+Charlotte
And
of course it is a spiritual sequel of sorts to Aldrich's Whatever
Happened To Baby Jane? (1962),
issued on Blu-ray a few years ago and reviewed at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11937/Dead+Ringer+(1964)/The+Postman+Always+Rings
Being
able to see everything with more fidelity in this fine new transfer,
what stands out (besides sets and locales) are just how much more
effective the actors are (some of the best names in the business)
than you could ever appreciate on DVD. They know they have a
potentially big audience for this and give it their all, do not hold
back and they way they interact is impressive, all working on the
highest levels. Though I like Jane
a little more (Crawford or not), this film is often its equal at
times dispensing with in-joke humor for story and honestly about
terror and human cruelty it might not always get credit for. It
never wallows in its terror and gets on with it. That is why it is
worth revisiting and should be seen at least once.
The
other great thing here is that the DVD extras that include an
original theatrical teaser, original theatrical trailer and several
effective TV spots, and a solid audio commentary track by film fan
Glenn Erickson is joined by two new extras for this release: a second
feature length audio commentary track by film scholars David Del
Valle and Stephen Peros, the Frank DeVol music score offered as an
Isolated Music Score Track and a new illustrated booklet on the film
with yet another excellent, on-the-money essay by Julie Kirgo. That
makes this the definitive version of the film to own.
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High
Definition 2.35 X 1 image on all four Hunger
films look good in their own way and enough to tie for first place in
high quality image playback. The first two films were shot on 35mm
film to their credit and benefit in the Super 35mm format on with the
first mixing Kodak & Fuji film, while the second strictly used
Kodak Vision 3 negative stocks as well, but added the use of 65mm
film. So plastered in digital effects and more than enough blue &
green screen, the last two films are all-digital HD shoots with Arri
Alexa XT cameras that make things slightly more phony. The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on the regular
Blu-rays are fine for the format, but lack the detail of the 4K
releases, covering over the higher quality and visual errors in the
4K versions.
Despite
being decades older, the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image
on Eye
and 1080p 1.85 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Hush
are more than able to compete with the regular Hunger
Blu-rays. Rarely do the age of the materials used show, but these
are far superior transfers to all previous releases of the films,
with Eye
lensed by the great Alan Hume, B.S.C., who actually holds back from
his usual luster on films like the Bond classic For
Your Eyes Only
(1981) and TV classics like The
Avengers
from the mid-1960s. Thanks
to Blu-ray, you can see the depth intended and despite some flaws,
you can now experience the look and feel intended pretty much
throughout on both films.
All
four Hunger
films are here in Dolby Atmos 11.1 lossless mixes on the new 4K discs
that debuts an upgrade on the first film, while finally delivering
the entire soundmaster for the sequels. They all sound fine with
some good detail and depth, all professionally recorded and mixed,
yet nothing memorable or special stands out about the sound design of
any of them. Still, the first film has the most interesting mix as
the makers where figuring out this world sonically. As noted before,
the films become increasingly talky and that actually hinders the
sonics. The Blu-ray versions all offer lossless 7.1 mixdowns, with
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) and Dolby TrueHD on the last two sequels.
No, they do not sound as good as the Atmos versions, but they are
just fine as mixdowns.
Eye
and Hush
were theatrical monophonic releases, both offered here in DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes that show the age of the
films, but also sound better (Eye
less so) than they ever have. Hush
certainly is clearer here than on the old DVD version.
To
order Eye
Of The Needle
and/or Hush...
Hush Sweet Charlotte
limited edition Blu-rays, buy them and other fine exclusives while
supplies last at these links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
