Harley
& The Davidsons
(2016/Discovery Channel/Lionsgate Blu-ray w/DVD Set)/Just
Eat It (2015/Bullfrog
Films DVD)/Le Mans 24h:
Official Review 2016 (MVD
Visual/Duke Blu-ray)/The
Man Who Skied Down Everest
(1975/Film Detective Blu-ray)/The
Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits Of John Berger
(2016/Icarus DVD)/2016
World Series Champions: Chicago Cubs
(Shout! Factory Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B & C/C+/B/B/C+/B- & C+ Sound: C+/C+/B-/C+/C+/B- & C+
Extras: C/C/C-/D/C/C Main Programs: C/B-/B-/B-/B/B-
Here's
a great new mix of documentaries and a docudrama that should satisfy
everyone in all kinds of ways from sports fans to intellectuals, et
al...
We
start with the dramatic TV mini-series Harley
& The Davidsons
(2016) telling us the story how the famous motorcycle brand
(particularly of The United States and later known for being tough
and counterculture) was formed. As the company has been around for
many decades, it is a period piece for the most part, but it comes
across acting and script-wise as too contemporary for its own good
and is shockingly unmemorable and convincing.
Considering
it is from the Discovery Channel,
that is all the more problematic because the story is more exciting
than this and they come up with this bland, almost 1980s-type of
formula presentation that only rings true at times. Dougray Scott
turns up among the cast of so many unknowns pulling off one of the
best performances, but it still puzzles me on why this falls so flat.
A
Making Of featurette and ''Biketacular'' special are the only extras.
Grant
Baldwin's Just
Eat It
(2015) is
a fine documentary that tackles food waste by going after insane
stereotypes of 'good food' and the crazy standards that are keeping
good food from getting to people. One bad idea is the cosmetic
standard where perfectly good food is not being sent to supermarkets,
et al, because it does not look like some perfect picture.
Meanwhile, expiration dates are having markets throwing out perfectly
good, even fresh food and drink (think milk) because people take the
expiration dates literally (milk is good for at least one week AFTER
expiration date if stored properly) and that's not to get into how
food thrown out ruins the environment by the gasses it produces.
To
show the other side of all this madness, the makers of this program
take a year and see what happens if they live off of food other
people give them as left-overs, pus go to various supermarkets (even
if they have to go into dumpsters aka 'dumpster diving' which we've
seen before beyond the plight of the homeless) to prove the food is
perfectly edible and they go here into all the idiotic reasons (the
food being thrown out cannot be shipped to food banks or desert foods
might not be considered 'real food' by another extremely idiotic
standard) we're losing perfectly good food while starvation
skyrockets.
They
record (photos, listings) everything they get by these means and land
up having more food than they can store at their house! They get
fat on all this for free! This includes organic foods! So you can
see despite being a short 73 minutes, it is a stunning indictment of
the carelessness of the system of how food gets to people today that
is even actually killing people with starvation! That needs to stop
and I'm glad this film was made. Go out of your way for Just Eat
It!
A
shorter version of the film for school use and three PDFs via DVD-ROM
access are the extras.
Le
Mans 24h: Official Review 2016
offers over 4 hours of the legendary day-long racing event, here on
Blu-ray as it tends to be annually from Duke Productions via MVD
Visual. More popular overseas than in the U.S. sadly, I really enjoy
these releases not looking cheap like they might sometimes come
across on the cable channels we are lucky enough to have showing
them, but the HD here always seems more stable, no matter the flaws.
Porsche is one the the leading cars this time out, but so many major
manufacturers participate that it is odd they don't push this more
like NASCAR getting the raves and (too much) attention.
With
rain and all kinds of unforeseen issues, this race has more surprises
than other years down to the victor, but for the makes I like that
participated and did not do as well (Aston Martin), it was amazing
what bad luck EVERY MANUFACTURER had throughout. You would think
someone was making this up, then to see the many breakdowns and
wrecks of these vehicles becomes almost heartbreaking. It also give
you much respect for how hard these drivers, engineers and pit people
work to make this all so much fun. That made this one of the most
interesting releases in the Duke series to date and if you wanted to
try out one of the set volumes while they're available, this would be
one to start with.
Extras
include bonus footage sections.
Bruce
Nyznik & Lawrence Schiller's The
Man Who Skied Down Everest
(1975) is
a fun little lost gem about a group of people who climb the title
mountain, looking so often beautiful, but also having other
interesting moments throughout. Not just a generic travelogue, that
man is Yuichiro Miura in this too-forgotten film that won the Best
Documentary Academy Award! But the other great twist that makes this
more of a curio is that the narrator for this English-language
version is none other than Douglas Rain, here in normal voice. He is
best known as the computer voice in Kubrick's 2001:
A Space Odyssey
(1968, reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) and it turns out
he is as listenable in his real voice here as he was as HAL-9000.
I
am so glad Film Detective was able to get this one out and on Blu-ray
yet, a real treat in such a fine transfer, running a very solid 86
minutes. It had heart and soul and is yet another Blu-ray worth
going out of your way for.
There
are sadly no extras.
The
Seasons In Quincy: Four Portraits Of John Berger
(2016) is
co-produced and co-directed by Colin McCabe, an film scholar,
philosophy scholar and very smart producer who teams up with the
great Tilda Swinton to do a profile of the title artist, who is
examined, interviewed and extrapolated upon (just for beginners) in
four separate, yet sometimes unexpectedly connected (though we expect
connection) segments that challenge the viewer to not only think
about the world and politics, but about themselves, life, living,
memory and ask us what happiness ands even truth are.
Yes,
this is intellectual at times, but that is a really good thing here,
though you sometimes have to have a point of reference to get the
idea of certain things. But all four segments are so good, they are
an experience in themselves to be enjoyed that actually makes you
feel good and you realize that all involved are not only together in
the healthiest way, but the extreme generosity of ideas and so much
more shows that they are with the viewer strongly. I cannot say that
about enough releases of any kind.
Cheers
to Icarus for issuing this gem on DVD. It may not be what you expect
or fit into any easy category, but Quincy (not pronounced like
the TV detective, by the way) is another gem worth going out of your
way for and if Miss Swinton made you curious about it, go fulfill
your curiosity!
An
illustrated 16-page bonus booklet on the film with participants notes
are the only extra.
Finally
we have the shock and excitement of the 2016
World Series Champions: Chicago Cubs
as the long-victoriousless baseball team from one of the greatest
cities of all time finally get a pennant after 108 years! If you saw
it live on (HD)TV or REALLY lucky to be at ANY of the games, it is
one of the most special, spectacular sports events of any kind in
years... even if you don't watch baseball!
The
ups and downs are just incredible and though there are ways this
program could have gone further (more fired-up fans, a longer program
with things we had to have missed if someone filmed or taped them)
but this is fine for what we get without it being a compendium of
every single game. I bet this will hardly be the last release on the
landmark victory.
Extras
include Regular Season Highlights, Clinching Moments, World Series
Highlights and World Series Parade clip are the extras.
The
three newer Blu-ray releases are presented here in 1080p 1.78 X 1
digital High Definition and look equally good, but Cubs
has some blur issues even Le
Mans
does not demonstrate, something the anamorphically enhanced Cubs
DVD shows even more of, but both are in line with past such baseball
releases and when they look good they are fine.
My
favorite presentation here is Everest
in a 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer that we
could not identify much about how it was shot as we posted (Kodak or
Fuji 35mm film? Real anamorphic widescreen or Techniscope?), but it
is a remarkable transfer, has great color throughout and looks great
for its age too. It is also Film Detective's best color Blu-ray
release to date.
Ad
for the rest of the DVDs, Eat
and Seasons
have anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image that are better than the
same on Harley,
but more interesting shots (especially Seasons,
which also has a fine black & white moment) than that or the
obvious shooting on Cubs.
Cheers to their exceptional independent looks.
As
for sound and the Blu-rays, Harley
has DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless sound, Cubs
offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes, while Le
Mans
has PCM 2.0 Stereo and Everest
offers DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless sound. Cubs
and Le
Mans
have the best sound here, while Harley
is surprisingly underwhelming (much like the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo on the DVD version; odd for their reputation for loud
motorcycles) and Everest sounds about as good as it can for its age
being a theatrical monophonic film release.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the Cubs
DVD is weaker than the Blu-ray version, equalled by the lossy Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo on Eat
and Seasons
that are nicely recorded throughout.
-
Nicholas Sheffo