Crazy
Six (1997/MVD Visual
Blu-ray)/MacGyver: The
Complete Second Season
(new series/2017 - 2018/CBS/Lionsgate DVD Set)/Ray
Davies Orchestra: Exorcist
(1974)/Flashpoint
(1975/theme songs double feature sets/Mercury/Vocalion Quadrophonic
Hybrid Super Audio CD/SACD/SA-CD)/Tag
(2018/Warner Blu-ray w/DVD)/Walking
Tall (2004 remake/MGM/MVD
Visual Blu-ray)
Picture:
B/B-/X/B+ & C+/B Sound: C+/B-/B+ B B-/B & C+/B
Extras: D/C+/C-/C/B Main Programs: C+/C/B-/C+/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Exorcist/Flashpoint
Import Super Audio CD is now only available from our friends at
Vocalion, has a CD layer that will play on all CD, Blu-ray and DVD
players and can be ordered from the link below.
We
dig into the action/crime genre in unusual ways, coming up with some
strange duds and a few surprises...
We'll
start with a new back catalog release of a film meant for theaters,
but landed up going straight to video, now a curio as co-star Burt
Reynolds just passed away. Eastern Bloc government has fallen and
Communism is dead. In it's place drug-lords, warlords and mafia
families have taken control. The city thrives on illegal weapons and
drug trafficking. Crazy Six (Rob Lowe) and Dirty Mao (Mario Van
Peebles) are leaders from two rival families and have an uneasy truce
against Raul (Ice-T), one of the largest family, but when a job
between Crazy Six and Mao goes bad, it's all out war between the
families on Albert Pyun's Crazy
Six (1997).
Crazy
Six and Dirty Mao are from rival families, but they teamed up
together on a job to steal a shipment of drugs, money and weapons
from an even larger rival, Raul. But somehow, Raul finds out and not
only does he want his stuff back but revenge. Raul kills Crazy Six's
friends and kidnapped his girlfriend. All Crazy Six wanted was to
get enough money to leave the city, all Crazy Six's girlfriend wanted
was Six to get clean of drugs... and now Crazy Six must team up with
a crazy American Detective (Burt Reynolds) and take on the entire
Mafia to get his girl back.
This
was your typical action, drugs and violence movie mixed with a hip
hop soundtrack and a lot of one liners. There are no 'good' guys in
the story, everyone is a fallen character of some sort. As usual,
there is a girl involved and in the end our 'hero' (the gangster) is
fighting for love. And the usual question is after a gun battle and
bloodbath can a gangster find true love and his happy ending too?
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer can show the
age of the materials used, but this is good, as good as this will
likely ever look, but the
PCM 2.0 Stereo (this was a Dolby Digital theatrical release of some
sort) shows its age and budget limits. Passable with much dialogue,
don't expect too many Pro Logic-like surrounds. There are also no
extras.
Lucas
Till stars in MacGyver, which has returned to CBS for its
Complete Second Season
in what has turned into a successful revival. The show
tries to mask itself as intelligent when in all reality its just
derivative and its action way too convenient to be taken seriously.
There is action and there is some topical subjects involving the war
and modern media but ultimately the show is a big snooze.
MacGyver
is a handsome war hero who can pretty much do it all. Paired up with
a CIA agent, he goes on various missions involving high risk missions
that span the globe. The show also stars Isabel Lucas, George Eads
and David Dastmalchian.
Episodes
include DIY or DIE, Muscle Car + Paper Clips, Roulette Wheel +
Wire, Skull + Electromagnet, Jet Engine and Pickup Truck, CD-ROM and
Hoagie Foil, War Room + Ship, Bullet + Pen, Mac and Jack, Mudoc +
Handcuffs, Benjamin Franklin + Grey Duffle, and Skyscraper -
Power.
The
show is presented in anamorphically
enhanced standard definition with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect
ratio and a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital mix, both of which are of the
norm for the format and nothing too fancy. The show is shot
cinematically to look good in HD and has high production values for
the most part. Some of the digital effects sequences are laughably
bad but all in all the money is on the screen.
Special
Features...
MacGyver
in Cuba
Saving
the Day - Season 2
MacGyver:
Special and Visual Effects
and
Deleted Scenes
Next
up is the first time we get to look at a music industry cycle that is
little covered or discussed, albums that contain nothing but covers
of TV and motion picture songs, usually from multiple sources and
usually, instrumentals. As Hollywood feature films dealt with the
reality of TV and the rise of color TV and Rock music (with its
cutting-edge sonics), feature films gave in on stereophonic sound
being the norm and it became rarer and rarer in the late 1960s,
staying that way for a decade. TV would not have stereo until the
1980s. Movie soundtracks could be hits and even have hit songs, but
TV rarely had hit records and hardly ever had any kind of vinyl music
respect for a long time.
Conductors
and other music artists who loved such music and saw the gap would
issue albums with songs they rerecorded from both mediums and Ray
Davies (NOT the member of The Kinks) was one of them. By the
mid-1970s, record labels and feature films were trying new things
with multi-channel sound and music, including the arrival of basic
analog Dolby System, Quinophonic sound on the 1975, magnetic stereo
on select 35mm films and all 70mm films and the record industry went
for Quadrophonic sound. At Mercury Records, Davies home label, he
showed his love of action and adventure on the big and small screen
with two album releases back to back that happened to be showing off
the new 4-track quad format. Those albums were headlined by the
Theme from The
Exorcist
(1974) and an action set boldly titled Flashpoint
(1975). The great U.K. audiophile label Vocalion has issued both on
one disc in the still very much alive Super
Audio CD/SACD/SA-CD in 4-track with its ultra high definition Direct
Stream Digital sound and even as a CD stereo layer for everyone who
cannot play the great format.
Here
are the contents of each release...
Themes
from The Exorcist, The French Connection, The Sting
and other great films
1:
THE FRENCH CONNECTION (Ellis) with Gene Hackman
2:
LOVE THEME FROM THE GETAWAY (Jones; A & M Bergman) with Steve
McQueen
3:
KLUTE (Small) Alan J. Pukula's Donald Sutherland/Jane Fonda thriller
4:
THE MAGICIAN (Williams) theme from the TV series with Bill Bixby
5:
THE ENTERTAINER (Joplin) theme from the film The Sting
6:
BULLITT (Schifrin) with Steve McQueen
7:
COPS AND ROBBERS (Legrand)
8:
ENTER THE DRAGON (Schifrin) with Bruce Lee
9:
NIGHT MUST FALL (Davies)
10:
POINT BLANK (Mandel) with Lee Marvin
11:
BEYOND TOMORROW (Theodorakis; Kusik) love theme from the film Serpico
12:
TUBULAR BELLS (Oldfield) theme from the film The Exorcist,
itself a quad recording by Mike Oldfield
Flashpoint
13:
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (Barry; Black) second Roger Moore Bond
film
14:
THE BIG BOSS (Koo)
15:
EARTHQUAKE (Williams) main title & love theme
16:
MR MAJESTYK (Bernstein) with Charles Bronson
17:
LOVE SAID GOODBYE (Rota; Kusik) from the film The Godfather, Part
2
18:
KOJAK (Goldenberg) with Telly Savalas
19:
MAGNUM FORCE (Schifrin) second Dirty Harry movie with Clint Eastwood
20:
GOLD (Bernstein; Black) with Roger Moore
21:
LIVE AND LET DIE (P & L McCartney) first Roger Moore James Bond
film
22:
AIRPORT 1975 (Cacavas)
23:
WE MAY NEVER LOVE LIKE THIS AGAIN (Kasha; Hirschhorn) from the film
The Towering Inferno
24:
FIST OF FURY (Koo)
Though
some covers fall a little short, they are all sonically ambitious and
the musicians are clearly having fun covering songs they love from
films and TV shows they respect and are clearly watching. Later, all
these films would have soundtracks issued, though some at the time
were re-recordings to be somehow more 'consumer friendly' so the work
here is not far from those versions. Reissue soundtracks sometimes
contain soundtracks form both where applicable.
Yet
while most of these films and all of the TV shows here were
originally issued monophonically in theaters (the Bond films and
Godfather II got stereo/5.1 upgrades later) and any actual
soundtracks were stereo at best, Davies and company were definitely
out to show off the 4-track sound and that makes this as fun as any
of these popular compilation remake sets. Fans of this music and
sonics should get this one.
The
4.0 DSD (Direct Stream Digital)
lossless sound is fine and up there with the best we've heard lately
and certainly from all the great Vocalion 4.0 SA-CDs to date, but
there are moments on the Exorcist
set that are stunning and some of the best quad sound I have heard in
any format to date (including quad SA-CDs we did not review but I've
caught myself, like Audio Fidelity's Best
Of The Guess Who SA-CD
you should get while supplies last; Vocalion already has issued two
of their albums in quad we hope to hear soon) and this is a fun set
for parties and when you have friends over as well.
The
DSD 2.0 Stereo is also very good and the PCM 2.0 16/44.1 Stereo CD
track is also just fine, but the 4.0 is the knockout and so much so
that it even sounds better than any video release in this review.
That says something.
The
illustrated booklet includes a fine Oliver Lomax 2017 essay including
excerpts from a 2016 Davies interview. All around, a pleasant
surprise and double feature more than worthy of rediscovery.
The
lighthearted buddy comedy Tag (2018) is based on the true
story of a group of lifelong friends that chose to never grow up...
and keep playing the classic game of tag. The film centers around a
small group of friends (Jeremy Renner, Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jake
Johnson, Hannibal Buress) who take their annual game of Tag VERY
seriously. Nothing stands in their way be in a life changing moment,
the death of a family member, or even a wedding is same from their
vicious game.
One
of the friends (Renner) has somehow eluded being tagged his whole
life and now it's up to his friends to beat him once and for all.
However, Renner is always one step ahead of the competition and makes
it his personal goal to not get caught. When his friends find out
that Renner is getting married, they assemble to try to figure out a
tender moment to tag him during the wedding... but Renner's new wife
to be (Leslie Bibb) isn't having it and doesn't want her wedding
ruined by a childish game.
The
film also stars Annabelle Wallis (The Mummy), Isla Fisher (Now
You See Me), and Rashida Jones (Parks and Recreation),
Brian Dennehy (First Blood), and Thomas Middledtch (Silicon
Valley). The film is
directed by Jeff Tomsic (Abbey is Silly).
Tag
is presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio
of 2.39:1 and a nice sounding DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless
mix, both of which are pretty standard for the format. The sound mix
is tight and no visible flaws within that I noticed. Moments of
style and slow motion are throughout the film and stick out nicely
from some of the more natural moments.
Also
included is a standard
definition DVD with an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1
and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. The image is compressed and not
as good looking as the Blu-ray or the also included Digital Copy.
Special
Features...
Bloopers
Deleted
Scenes
and
a Meet the Real Tag Brothers featurette
Tag
is a pretty fun popcorn muncher yet tends to drag during its third
act. Still, it's worth checking out at least once and was better
than I initially expected.
Finally,
we conclude with one of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's first starring
roles, Walking Tall (2004) is also a remake and based on a
true story. While it has been released on Blu-ray before, this is a
new special edition version with a slightly better presentation and
the same extras.
Also
starring Johnny Knoxville, the story is centered around a decorated
military officer named Chris Vaughn (played by The Rock) who comes
home to his small Washington town after years of being in service.
Seeing that the town's mill has closed down and is now home to a
corrupt casino operated by his old schoolmate Jay Hamilton (Neal
McDonough). After being assaulted in the casino, Vaughn takes
matters into his own hands... with a 2 X 4.
The
film is directed by music video director Kevin Bray (All About The
Benjamins) and also stars Ashley Scott and Kristen Johnson.
Presented
in 1080p high definition with a 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a
DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (and a LPCM 2.0 mix as well) both of
which present the film fine on Blu-ray. The film isn't overly
stylized and has a normal and real-world feel even if there's some
action in the film that's a bit over the top.
Special
Features include...
Audio
Commentary by star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
Audio
Commentary by Director Kevin Bray, Editor Robert Ivison, and Director
of Photography Glen MacPherson
'Fight
the Good Fight' Stunts Featurette (SD)
Deleted
Scenes (SD)
Bloopers
(SD)
Alternate
Ending (SD)
Photo
Gallery (TBD)
and
an Original Theatrical Trailer (SD)
For
more on the film
by someone (of many) highly dissatisfied with it, try our original
DVD review from the time of its release...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1696/Walking+Tall+(2004)
To
order the
Exorcist/Flashpoint
Import Super Audio CD from Vocalion, go to this link to order it,
then go through their website for other great exclusives...
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDSML8526
-
Nicholas Sheffo (SACD), Ricky Chiang (Six)
and James
Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/