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Category:    Home > Reviews > Thriller > Drama > Crime > Missing Person > Psychologi > Come And Find Me (2015/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/Dementia 13 (1963/Coppola/Film Detective Blu-ray)/The Girl On The Train (2016/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/The Mad Magician 3D (1954/Sony/Columbia

Come And Find Me (2015/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/Dementia 13 (1963/Coppola/Film Detective Blu-ray)/The Girl On The Train (2016/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/The Mad Magician 3D (1954/Sony/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray w/two 3-D Three Stooges shorts)



4K Ultra HD Picture: B+ 3D Picture: B+ Picture: B/C+/B/B Sound: B/C/B/C+ Extras: C/D/B-/B Films: C/C+/C+/B-



PLEASE NOTE: The Mad Magician Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last from the links below, while the new Film Detective Dementia 13 is now available from our friends at Movie Zyng via the right-hand sidebar or order button.



The following thrillers all challenge the idea of reality and are more than worth knowing about...



Zack Whedon's Come And Find Me (2015) starts out as an interesting film, where the couple at hand joke with each other and have at least an odd relationship, but one day, Claire (Annabelle Wallis) disappears to the shock of David (Aaron Paul) who starts on the usual missing persons search. However, something strikes him as odder than it should, so he starts to look for clues more deeply, only to run into tough people who would like him to move on. Of course, this just makes him more ticked and determined to find out where she is.


From there, I believed much of this was possible and could work, but the final reel takes a goofy turn that plays more like the unlikely and silly than a conclusion that matches the rest of the narrative. However, the cast is up for all this and does the best job they can, which makes the conclusion all the more disappointing. See for yourself if interested just the same.



Francis Coppola's Dementia 13 (1963) is in the public domain (for now?) and has been issued in yet another Blu-ray edition. We covered the film in its first Blu-ray release a few years ago at this link...


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11331/Roger+Corman's+Cult+Classics:+Attack+Of+The


This time it is Film Detective issuing the Blu-ray and performance-wise, they are about dead even, but the film should be seen and this is still better than any of the DVDs we've seen (including the DVD included with the earlier Blu-ray) as the ballyhoo on the film includes murders and asks you if you could also be a potential murderer and not know it!


Louise (Luana Anders) is out on a boat with her husband, who dies of a heart attack in front of her. Instead of getting hysterical or upset, she gets calm and simply dumps his body in the water. But this also complicates her inheritance of some serious money, so with others in the way, people will die, but who's killing whom?


William Campbell leads the rest of the cast and though this is not a great film, this Roger Corman-produced romp is one of many trying to capitalize on Psycho, Diabolique and the William Castle approach to gimmicky thrillers. You can see touches of the kinds of shots (especially with actors) Coppola would make more effective in his next films (starting with The Rain People, reviewed elsewhere on this site) so it is a curio with highlights worth your time.



Tate Taylor's The Girl On The Train (2016) is a hit thriller in the mode of psychological thrillers we used to see all the time in the wake of Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, if not quiet as good as either. It starts out well enough with Emily Blunt as the title character, sharing her thoughts via voice overs of the people and places she sees, but starts to get particularly interested in a sexually active couple who seem to have it all and her voyeurism is something she just may start to act upon... but how?


From there, we get multiple points-of-view, multiple narrative and alternative versions of the events that transpire next. She is made out to be an alcoholic, but is it really something else like an unknown or undiagnosed mental illness or even her first-ever mental breakdown unleashed as sex and lust unleashed?


What I did like about the film is that it is about grown adults who act like said adults, which is all too rare in big screen movies these days for no good reason. Allison Janney show sup as a police investigator, we get the supporting cast playing their roles in varied, even contradictory ways to keep us guessing as to what has happened or is really going on. I don't think it all works in the end, but at least it was ambitious and that is one of the reasons it deserved to be a hit.


Cheers to the supporting cast too including Rebecca Ferguson, Luke Evans, Jason Theroux, Haley Bennett, Edgar Ramirez and an interesting turn by Lisa Kudrow that mocks her TV persona well. This one is worth your time, but have your undivided attention ready to get the best effect from it.



Finally we have John Brahm's The Mad Magician 3D (1954), an underrated, fun knock-off of the megahit 3D blockbuster House Of Wax (1953) with Vincent Price. Price and some of the others responsible for that hit reunite here with the story about the title character (Price) who is also a great make-up expert out for glory and revenge if he cannot get his way in the world. There's plenty of gimmicks here and they are a hoot. Just above the B-movie level, this was one of Columbia's first 3D movies and has become too lost in the shuffle for our sakes.


Eva Gabor, Mary Murphy, John Embry, Donald Randolph, Patrick O'Neal, Jay Novello, Lenita Lane and uncredited Lyle Talbot help make up a great supporting cast that has the right energy and period feel that makes this murder-mystery romp enough fun that they could have made it without 3D. Glad it is finally out in real 3D, but it is fun seeing it both ways. Fans of Price should grab a copy before it goes out of print!



This the the first time we've covered both a 4K and 3D Blu-ray in the same text, but as fate would have it, they are the best performers on the list. The 2160p HECV/H.265, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced 1.85 X 1 Ultra High Definition image on Train is a little darker and more palpable than the lighter 1080p regular Blu-ray also included. Save a few minor points, the film works much better this way, with the 4K making the regular Blu-ray look like the film (and this was shot on 35mm film) lightened up for the Lifetime or Hallmark cable channels. The Blu-ray is still nice enough, but I'll side with the 4K as creepier as it should be.


The 1080p 1.85 X 1 MVC-encoded 3-D - Full Resolution black & white digital High Definition image on Magician has all the full effects as intended that the still fine 2D 1080p presentation lacks, but the 2D is a nice, clean monochrome presentation with the expected grain, so this looks good. The same can be said of the two Stooges shorts.


The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Find is a new HD shoot that is not bad throughout, including some fancy shots and visual twists, but it never rises above that professional-at-best level.


That leaves the 1080p 1.78 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image transfer on Dementia showing the age of the materials used, but looking much like the previously reviewed HD Cinema Blu-ray including some odd, unnecessary video noise reduction you would find on old DVDs. Someone needs to get a better print and thoroughly restore this one.


As for sound, Train offers DTS: X 11.1 sound in both formats, but it is limited (think of the quiet moments, plus the dialogue-based moments and you can imagine the tracks can only be used so much) versus big blockbuster productions that push such tracks. Still, this is a decent mix, but the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Find is also well mixed and presented offering more loud action moments. Thus, they tie for first place.


The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on Dementia and Magician were monophonic theatrical releases in their time 6 decades ago and can show their age. However, you can tell Dementia is a few generations down and can be hard to make out, while Magician is one of those 3D films that simply did not add stereo, yet it sounds about as good as it ever will. The isolated music score is a bit clearer sonically.



Dementia has no extras. Extras exist on the rest of the releases and include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other cyber iTunes capable devices for Find and Train, which also feature Director's Feature Length Audio Commentary Tracks for each, while Magician has a new feature length audio commentary track by film scholars David Del Valle and Steven Peros. All three have Behind The Scenes/Making Of featurettes, but Train has two along with Deleted and Extended Scenes. However, magician tops them all by also adding a nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative text and yet another excellent, underrated essay by the great film scholar Julie Kirgo, an Isolated Music Score, the Original Theatrical Trailer and the biggest surprise of all, the two 3-D Three Stooges live action shorts for the first time in higher Blu-ray 3D-level 3-D: Pardon My Backfire! and Spooks! We've seen them before in lesser 3D presentations and of course, 2D, but this is the best way to see the full 3D outside of a legitimate 35mm theatrical film presentation.



To order The Mad Magician limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and other great exclusives while supplies last at these links:


www.screenarchives.com


and


http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo


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