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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Comedy > Motorcycles > Biography > Cable TV Mini-Series > Documentary > Food > Starvation > Enviro > 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 Eve

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


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