Big
Brother
(2018/Well Go Blu-ray)/Godzilla
(1998 remake/TriStar/Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Patrick
(2013 remake/Umbrella Region B Import Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B Picture: B-/B/B Sound: B/B & B-/B
Extras: C-/C-/C- Films: C/D/C
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Patrick
Import Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on Blu-ray players that can
handle Region B locked discs and can be ordered from the link below.
Here's
a set of releases we'll dub 'when genre films do not work' so you
know what to expect.
We'll
start with Kam Ka Wai's Big
Brother
(2018) with Donnie yen as a teacher who knows martial arts and tries
to help his new students with that... sort of. Is this a comedy?
No. Action film? No. Part of the cycle of teachers get tough
Hollywood created years ago? No. A drama teaching us a life lesson?
No. So what it is? A hodge podge of cliches that try to cover
everything and hope it all holds and the audience will like it.
Instead, it is bizarre up to its ending and even Yen seems out of his
element. See it if you really care and don't operate heavy
machinery.
A
few trailers are the only extra.
Though
it bombed, Sony continues to show its support for one of Roland
Emmerich's worst films, his 1998 Godzilla
1998 remake. First, we covered the remake on Blu-ray, which is
included in this set and I am part of the majority audience who was
not happy with the film at all...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9394/Godzilla+(1998+Revival/Sony+Blu-ray)
Then
Sony issued a basic Blu-ray edition from its new 4K scan of the film,
though it was part of a series of regular Blu-rays before the 4K
format was launched and this writer actually liked the film...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12774/Godzilla+(1998):+Mastered+in+4K+High+Definitio
Even
I thought that looked and sounded a bit better, but only made it
clearer how much the film did not work. Now we have an actual 4K
Ultra HD Blu-ray version and it is not looking that great, but the
sound has been upgraded to 12-track sound. Thus, more on that below,
but this set has no new extras and offers the old extras from the old
Blu-ray.
Finally,
Mark Hartley's remake of the classic-enough Australian thriller
Patrick
(2013) has a decent cast starting with Charles Dance (Alien
3,
For
Your Eyes Only,
et al) about the bed-ridden, vegetative title character (a barely
credited Jackson Gallagher, so you know we're in trouble) being taken
care of by Dance as a smart doctor and Rachel Griffiths as a main
nurse taking care of Patrick when a new nurse (Sharni Vinson) shows
up and starts to arouse him and his murderous telekineses.
Too
bad the film is too visually dark and a bit too cliched to work and
the lack of color is odd. The actors are trying, but the pace and
lack of suspense of naturalism kills the film in the end, which is
why you probably not heard of it, so it is for completists only. See
for yourself if you are really interested.
Extras
include a Feature Length Audio Commentary with Mark Hartley
(Director), Garry Richards (DOP) and Justin King (Writer), The
Spit, The Stunts, The Sex, The Gore - Making-of featurette (27
mins), Cast and Crew On-Set Interviews (56 mins), Mark and Garry's
Production Diary (29 mins), VFX Before and After Showcase (5 mins),
the Patrick (1978) and Patrick (2013) Theatrical
Trailers, a Behind the Scenes piece and a Stills Gallery that show
that they were at least trying. You can also read our previous
coverage of the original in its Blu-ray release...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12604/Patrick:+35th+Anniversary+Edition+(1978/Umbrell
Or
DVD before that...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8283/Patrick+(1978/Umbrella+PAL+Region+Zero/0/Impor
I
liked the original a little more than this one, but not by much.
All
three films are in the 2.35 X 1 frame and the
2160p HEVC/H.265, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High
Definition image on Godzilla
1998 is one of the oddest and poorest I have seen in the format after
viewing a few hundred such releases. The 4K remaster on regular
Blu-ray was not bad, but this has noise and dated CGI visual effects
throughout and Video Black is not all that good. Oddly, this was
issued in 35mm dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor prints at the time in select theaters when
the company revived their great process, but this is NOT that print.
The old regular Blu-ray included looks watery (more than ever) and is
only here for the extras.
Brother
is an HD shoot that has some motion blur and detail issues here and
there, but that';s minor, though a look is hardly developed, while
Patrick was shot on HawkScope lenses and you can see a look trying to
develop. However, it never takes.
The
4K Godzilla
is the sonic champ by default with its Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD
7.1 for older systems) finally unleashes the original 8-track Sony
Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) mix that has never appeared on home
video with this upgrade and it has its moments, but not enough for me
to site any demo moments. The old Blu-ray retains its weak Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 that is best avoided. That leaves the other two films
with competent DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes that are
not bad and have consistent soundfields, but not much else.
You
can order
the
Patrick
remake Umbrella import Blu-ray at this link, which also offers the
original film and many more hard to find releases:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo