Knock
At The Cabin 4K
(2023/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/A
Question Of Silence
(1982/Cult Epics*)/Red
Sun
(1970/Radiance*)/Warriors
Two
(1978/Arrow/*all MVD Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B+/B-/B/B- Sound: A-/B-/B-/C+
Extras: B (Red
Sun:
B-) Films: B/C+/C+/B-
Next
up are some thrillers, all unusually odd in their own ways...
Love
him or hate him, M. Night Shyamalan has had a very interesting
filmmaking career with hits (Split,
Unbreakable,
Signs,
The
Sixth Sense)
and misses (Lady
in the Water,
The
Last Airbender,
The
Happening,
Old)
over the years, but in recent times has re-established his name with
some interesting projects that are worth mentioning, such as the
underrated Glass
and The
Servant
on Apple TV, and now Knock
At The Cabin 4K
(202
(2023) which challenges its audience to think of what they would do
in the shoes of its main characters if put in a similar situation.
Knock
at the Cabin
stars Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, and
Nikki Amuka-Bird. It is notable that Rupert Grint returns to
collaborate with M. Night after his featured role on The
Servant,
which showcases his growth as an actor over the years since the
fantastic Harry
Potter
series (reviewed elsewhere on this site). The film is based on the
novel The
Cabin at the End of the World
by Paul Tremblay.
A
small girl and her two dads go to a cabin in the woods for a vacation
retreat, but are soon confronted by four dark strangers that give
them two choices: save themselves or save humanity. With with at
first seems like a prank at the hands of a cult, the reality of the
situation becomes very real as the group's deadly actions have
consequences on a global scale.
Special
Features (per the press release) includes:
Four
Deleted Scenes
Chowblaster
Infomercial:
Enjoy an extended cut of the TV informercial from the film that
features an appearance by M. Night Shyamalan himself.
Choosing
Wisely: Behind the Scenes of KNOCK AT THE CABIN:
Examine what drew M. Night Shyamalan to adapt this terrifying story,
and how the relationships between characters were unlike any this
ensemble cast had ever played before.
Tools
of the Apocalypse:
Explore the creation of some of the film's most terrifying props and
learn why they play such an important role in the story.
Drawing
a Picture:
See how M. Night Shyamalan envisions his shots in advance of ever
turning on the camera, through his extensive use of storyboards.
and
Kristen
Cui Shines a Light:
Take a closer look at the actresses' dynamic performance as Wen in
her film debut.
Knock
at the Cabin
is a pretty solid entry for M. Night, and a pretty fun movie that's
easy to get caught up in. I would recommend checking it out on 4K
UHD!
Marleen
Gorris' A
Question Of Silence
(1982)
has a portrait of different women from different walks of life
(social economic classes included) who land up killing a male
clothing shop owner women of all kinds shop at and none of them will
say why when they get arrested. It does not seem pre-meditated and
the man did not do anything serious that would have called for it,
like attacking them, sexually assaulting them or even insulting them.
So why?
The
film wants to make a feminist statement, yet also a Marxist one and I
got all that by the time the film ended. The actors are good (one of
the female leads was well known as an iconic TV character that has a
few common denominators here, but no direct connection) and the
flashback in pieces is an interesting strategy. This might also have
been more relevant in its time than it is now, with shopping, the
lives of women and the like having changed just enough to make this a
time capsule of sorts, though other parts of the statement being made
here still applies.
It
also is taking advantage of the then-new freedom other female
directors and stars (plus Paul Verhoeven, still working there at the
time) and can rightly be added to the cycle of what was being made
there at the time.
Unfortunately,
it does not hold up as well as I wished it did, though it says what
it says and has its moments. The shop is made creepy and a
Kubrickian is here, but the lack of music and maybe overdoing it
simple statement hold it back. It also has a few run-on moments and
the ending is meant to say one thing, but it also lands up coming
across like a bad horror movie. Fortunately, this is a mature,
intelligent, adult film made by smart adults for smart adults and is
worth a look despite its shortcomings and how its aged.
Extras
include a Feature Length Audio Commentary track by Film Scholar
Patricia Pisters
Interview
with director Marleen Gorris (Cinevisie, 1982)
Interview
with actress Cox Habbema (Cinevisie, 1982)
Polygoon
Journal Newsreel (1982)
Promotional
Gallery
and
an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Rudolf
Thorne's
Red
Sun
(1970, aka Rote
Sonne)
involves free spirit (or is that freeloader) Thomas (Marquand Bohm)
who gets back to Munich (under an odd pickup that suggests some odd
things about him the film never goes back to address) and visits his
ex-girlfriend Peggy (Uschi Obermaler, a model known for her politics)
who is happy to see him. However, she has some new young female
roommates. Little does he know is that they kill all visiting
boyfriends after 5 days!
Not
played at first as an outright thriller scenario, the couple has a
nice reunion and things seem normal at first, then the screenplay
starts to slide into what it is up to and there are good moments here
and there. Ultimately however, it actually starts to drag in places,
builds little suspense and if it is trying to make some kind of big
statement, that never materializes. The ending is also a bit off and
I was a bit disappointed. With shades of Godard and Fassbinder, the
film comes up short, but is ambitious and has a decent cast with nice
locales. Too bad it just never adds up. Now you can see for
yourself.
Extras
(per the press release) include select
scene commentary with Thome and Rainer Langhans, Obermaier's
boyfriend and Kommune 1 member who served as inspiration for the film
and was on set for the shoot
Rote
Sonne between Pop Sensibility and Social Critique:
A newly produced visual essay by scholar Johannes von Moltke on Red
Sun,
which looks at the social and cultural influences on the film and
provides context for the era in which it was made (2022, 21 minutes)
From
Oberhausen to the Fall of the Wall:
A visual essay by academic and programmer Margaret Deriaz tracing
the development of the New German Cinema from the Oberhausen
Manifesto to the fall of the Berlin wall (2023, 50 minutes approx.)
Reversible
sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
Limited
edition 52-page booklet featuring new writing on the film by Samm
Deighan, newly translated archival letters by Wim Wenders, critic
Enno Patalas and the German Film Evaluation Office on the film's
official submission, newly translated archival interview with Rudolf
Thome and an overview reviews
and
a Limited Edition of 2000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo
packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of logos
and markings.
Finally,
Sammo Hung's Warriors
Two
(1978) is the breakthrough film for Hung, who became a superstar soon
after and after making all kinds of notable showings, including
stealing the first scenes in Brian Trenchard-Smith's The
Man From Hong Kong
(1975, reviewed a few times elsewhere on this site) so what could he
come up with on his own?
Needless
to say this is not a sequel or connected to the Walter Hill film The
Warriors
(from the same year!) or the more recent boxing film Warriors
with Nick Nolte and Tom Hardy, taking place in a world before the
others as two young friends (Hung and Casanova Wong) have a
relationship where one is a banker and the other (Hung) is a goof,
getting help from his more mature friend who does his best where they
discover an assassination plot they need to stop.
Hung
had already directed the successful Iron-Fisted
Monk,
so he got to helm this one and get to push himself as more of a star
and it worked, leading to one superstardom in the genre and the film
relies on more humor than even seen then before the genre got fully
into comedy by the 1980s. This has its moments, but is also much of
what we have seen since, so it holds up in mixed ways, but is
obviously a curio. I would say it is for fans only, but Hung does go
all out to his credit.
Extras
include a Feature Length Audio Commentary on the HK Theatrical Cut by
martial arts cinema expert Frank Djeng & actor Bobby Samuels
A
second Feature Length Audio Commentary on the Export Cut by action
cinema experts Mike Leeder & Arne Venema
Archival
documentary The
Way of the Warrior: The Making of Warriors Two,
featuring interviews with stars Sammo Hung, Bryan ''Beardy'' Leung
Kar-Yan, Feng Hak-An, Casanova Wong and Wing Chun master Guy Lai
Archival
interview with Bryan ''Beardy'' Leung Kar-Yan
Original
theatrical trailers
Double-sided
fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by
Joe Kim
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Joe Kim
and
an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by Jonathan
Clements and original press materials
Now
for playback performance. Knock
at the Cabin 4K
is presented in 2160p on 4K UHD disc with Dolby Vision/HDR10, an HEVC
/ H.265 codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and an audio track
in Dolby
Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems; both 48kHz,
24-bit), and lossy Dolby Digital 5.1. As usual, there is no
competition when it comes to comparison in picture quality between
the 4K UHD and the Blu-ray. Honestly, I'm a bit pleasantly surprised
that Universal put this out on 4K UHD disc right off the bat as they
held off on in doing so with other recent releases such as M3gan
and Cocaine
Bear
(both reviewed elsewhere on this site.) M. Night has a keen visual
style in every film that he has made and whether you like the
screenplay of the film or not, all of his film look great and show a
lot of creativity in directing and shot choices, with this one not
being an exception.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image on Question
was shot on 16mm color film and has been scanned in 2K for this
release, with the film stock showing its age a bit, yet also lensed
for atmosphere without overdoing it. This can be weak or limited,
but also authentic and could only look so much better with 4K
treatment and not just because it is shot on a smaller frame format.
The
original theatrical monophonic sound is here in Dutch DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 2,0 Mono and Dutch PCM 2.0 Mono lossless mixes that
sound as good as the film likely ever will. Again, note there is
limited music here.
The
1080p 1.75 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Red
Sun
looks good with a new 'HD transfer' (no more specifics given) and is
the second-best looking film on the list with solid color, detail and
depth, even if it can how its age in places. The original sound is
now here in German PCM 2.0 Stereo sounding as good as it likely ever
will and is pretty well recorded and mixed for its age.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Warriors
Two
can show the age of the materials used, but this is far superior a
transfer to all previous releases of the film despite some rough
spots that look built into the making of the film, with several sonic
choices depending on which version you watch. They include original
lossless Cantonese and Mandarin Mono audio for the HK Theatrical Cut,
plus lossless English Mono for the export cut, plus two choices of
English dubbed audio for the HK Theatrical Cut: the original export
dub mono (with Cantonese patches for missing scenes) and the newer
5.1 dub created for international presentations. All of that sound
is PCM 2.0 Mono, save DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) lossless sound for the 5.1 mix. The English is the
weakest and 5.1 most ambitious, but this is an older mono film and
the native language upgrades cannot overcome the sonic limits of the
film. You'll have to experiment for yourself to see which on you
like the most, but as has been the case with so many Italian films of
the time and other martial arts imports, the sonics are just too old
and can sound even older than they are. Also on the image, we get a
few more moments of motion blur than expected and some shots look
second generation.
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (4K)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
