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Category:    Home > Reviews > Comedy > Mystery > Detective > Satire > Politics > Counterculture > Internet > Urban > > Fantasy > Animals > Me > Mighty McGurk (1947/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)

Big Fix (1978/Universal/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Digital Lives Matter (2016/Gravitas Ventures*)/The Kid Who Would Be King (2019/Fox Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Life In The Doghouse (2018/FilmRise/*both MVD Blu-ray)/The Mighty McGurk (1947/MGM/Warner Archive DVD)



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



PLEASE NOTE: The Big Fix 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, while The Mighty McGurk is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series. All can be ordered from the links below.



Whether kids in comedy or comedies with kids, this next group of films covers a wide field of other genres and ideas as well...



Jaws and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind made Richard Dreyfus a big name star, yet his other leading role films of the time have become lost in the shuffle. Not long after covering a Blu-ray belatedly issued of this hit film The Goodbye Girl, here is a limited edition of the even more forgotten Jeremy Paul Kagan film The Big Fix (1978) where he plays a ojne0time counte4rculture protester who was politically active and is now a detective.


When a political candidate is the target of a print smear campaign (oh, the pre-Internet era), one of the people running that campaign (John Lithgow) calls him in for help, though with juggling two great young boys, an ex-wife (Bonnie Bedelia), her obnoxious boyfriend (Ron Rifkin) and mounting financial debt, he's got problems of his own. An old girlfriend (Susan Anspach) also turns up needing his help, but he cannot even keep crayons out of the barrel of his long-unused revolver.


This is no Neo-Noir, but a comedy (for the most part, especially at first) that has some nice turns later, but is interested in being off-beat and might go out of its way too much to make that happen at its expense. I like the cast and the appearances constantly surprise, but the script (co-written by the author of the novel the film is based on) is uneven and if a movie series was intended, it did not work out.


However, references to the past and history that the country has tried to forget since the 1980s makes this more interesting than you might expect and will remind some of the film Running On Empty, et al, when underground political figures on the Left still on the run long after Vietnam, protests and Watergate are over turns up. Dreyfus gives a performance typically his energetic funny self, but is just convincing enough as the lead.


The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film and looks pretty good throughout, some shots of which are very impressive, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix does what it can with the old optical mono theatrical sound that allows you to hear as much as possible. Bill Conti (For Your Eyes Only, Rocky) turns in an mixed score to go with the mixed film.


Extras include a 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 an Isolated Music Score and Original Theatrical Trailer.



DC Young Fly thinks is the next internet sensation with over 3 million online followers, but when he pisses off the wrong computer nerd he wakes up to sudden find all his followers are gone. And it couldn't happen on a worst day when he has an audition of a lifetime but he must have at least a million followers to qualify. Now, in order to get his followers back, he must follow orders from a mysterious hacker named Simon and help his followers regain their faith in him in 'digital lives matter' in Terry J. Vaughn's Digital Lives Matter (2016).


DC thinks with 3 million followers he can go anywhere, do anything and do anyone he wants. With social media on his side, he is invincible and untouchable. He makes his popularity off of making a few catch phrases, making fun of other, on-line ridiculing and bullying of whomever he like (which is bad of course) ...but as long as it increases his popular, gets him perks, or makes him money, it is all OK and good. But when a computer nerd gets offended by his lack of sensitivity and responsibility, DC is forced to see what his life is like if he didn't have any followers and to actually care about the people, family and friends who follow him by visiting his fans and making a difference in their lives and not just his.


This was a comical movie about aps and those who follow twitter or any kind of social media. People who live vicariously through others because they wish they were like someone or social media is their only escape from reality. People are so attached to a digital life, that they forget what real life is like for the rest of the people. The dangerous thing about social media is people think there are no responsibilities and no accountability, they can do anything they want because it is 'entertainment' or fun because they can get mass media on their side.


The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image has some motion blur, but looks fine otherwise, while the sound is surprisingly lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 with issues and limits. There are no extras.



Joe Cornish (Attack the Block) directs the modern day King Arthur story, The Kid Who Would Be King (2019). Taking inspiration from Harry Potter, this new fantasy take is sure to entertain a teenage audience, but feels a bit adolescent and formulaic at times. The film's American box office reputation was pretty poor as it fell victim to an early January release, and came out on disc fairly quickly. However, the 4K presentation is pretty impressive and brings the film to life at home for those who missed it initially in cinemas.


The film stars Louis Serkis, Rebecca Ferguson, Tom Taylor, Denise Gough, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and Patrick Stewart.


Young Alex (Serkis) isn't exactly the most popular kid at school, but things change when he finds the mythical sword known as Excalibur. He soon embarks upon a journey that involves some of his classmate friends (and enemies) and they are guided by a young magical teen named Merlin (Imfrie) in an attempt to go up against the evil Morgana (Ferguson) and her army of supernatural bad guys.


The film is shot by Hollywood cinematography legend Bill Pope (The Matrix Trilogy) and presented here in 2160p HEVC/H.265, HDR (10+; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on 4K UHD disc. The presentation features a 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio and audio mixes in English Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby True HD 7.1 for older systems) 48kHz, 24-bit, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, and lossy Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Also included is a 1080p high definition Blu-ray disc with similar specs. There are plenty of interesting visual effects and sound elements in the film that feel more alive in the 4K version, not just the extreme level of detail. The film has a nice darkly overcast look to most of the scenes, in contrast to moments that could have been a bit more sunny. The digital effects aren't terrible overall, but nothing groundbreaking.


A digital copy is also included.


Special Features include...

Deleted Scenes

Origins of a King

Young Knights

Hair, Makeup & Costume Tests

Merlin's Magic (x4)

*Knight School

*The Two Merlins

*Meet Morgana

*Movie Magic

and "Be the King", Lay Lay Music Video.


The Kid Who Would Be King is a fine modern re-telling of the classic story, and will likely satisfy fans and teens in particular. It reminds me a bit of the Percy Jackson films in a way, films that desperately want to capture the magic of Harry Potter, but miss the mark.



Take a look into the life stores of Danny and Ron's Rescue, how they have rescued over 10,000 dogs and turn their farm into a rescue for dogs that were lost, abandon, abused or just thrown away. As they tell their story of how they came to be and what influenced them to create a rescue they share their passion, joys, trials and difficulties in Ron Davis' Life In The Doghouse (2018).


Danny and Ron are a couple who has devoted their lives to saving dogs. After Hurricane Katrina, hundred of dogs were left to starve and fend for themselves. Danny and Ron took it on themselves to take in all those dogs left behind and find homes for them. Through the years they converted their farm into a haven for dogs, the dogs don't live with them ...they live with the dogs. Over the years they have taken dogs who's owners have given up on them, from puppy mills or dogs who were about to be euthanized. Their story is how they keep the farm running, everyday taking in more and more dogs, rehabilitate them and then find new owners from, that it doesn't not matter if they were stray, mutts or in need of special care. True dog lovers don't care about pedigree or perfection, but how much love you can give to a dog.


This was a heart warming tale how two men learned to care for dogs and found a whole lot more by helping dogs, they find life, meaning and purpose in their lives and each other. Life might not be easy raising, cleaning and feeding hundreds of dogs each day but to them it is worth to know they are able to change or save even a single dog's life.


By coincidence (like Digital Lives Matter), the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image has some motion blur, but looks fine otherwise, while the sound is surprisingly lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 with issues and limits. There are no extras.



Finally we have a film directed by a man who happens to be named John Waters, but it is not the controversial 'shock' director we know now but a journeyman director under contract to the old MGM just after WWII helming a comedy with Wallace Berry. He was a big star at the time and plays a former boxer running places in the Bowery in the early part of the decade as The Mighty McGurk (1947).


Edward Arnold is his boss and he is well-known, but his hard fighting and hard fun is about to be interrupted when a young boy (Dean Stockwell, decades before the TV hit Quantum Leap, et al) who is a little streetwise and English in origin. At first, it is not a good match, but just as that changes, local child services wants to take the boy away. Can McGurk stop them?


Stockwell makes this a curio as much as anything and the film is not bad for 85 minutes, but it may be a not long and drawn out when all is said and done. You can see why Berry was a star at the time and the supporting cast (including a young Cameron Mitchel, Dorothy Patrick and Aline MacManon) help. Warner Archive has issued this on DVD and now you can see it for yourself.


The 1.33 X 1 black & white image transfer can show the age of the materials used with print damage and softness that suggests an older transfer and second-generation material that extends to background noise on the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtrack of the old optical mono theatrical sound. The film needs some restoration, but at least this includes an Original Theatrical Trailer.



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


www.screenarchives.com


and


http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/



and to order The Mighty McGurk Warner Archive DVD, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


http://www.wbshop.com/



- Nicholas Sheffo (Big, Mighty), Ricky Chiang and James Lockhart (4K)

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/


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