Fortunes
Of War
(2023/101 Films DVD)/Impulse
(1974/William Shatner/MVD/Grindhouse Releasing Blu-ray Set)/Justice
League: Crisis On Infinite Earths, Part One 4K
(2024/DC Comics/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: C/B-/X Sound: C/C+/B+
Extras: D/B/B Films: C/C+/B
Now
for a diverse new set of genre release, with two live action low
budget affairs included...
Bill
Thomas' Fortunes
Of War
(2023) is a WWII action film that is more action than historic drama
with an unknown cast trying their best to make this British Commandos
vs. Nazis tale work. Some parts are not bad, taking place in Norway,
but I never bought much of it. It did not seem realistic, of its
period or too specific to its time. It could have been any war,
imaginary or historical.
I
was shocked it got made at all since Nazi WWII stories are rarely
made and the more serious action kind ended by the late 1970s
(Raiders
Of the Lost Ark
brought them back in pulp serial form) and is lightyears away from
the realism and grit of The
Dirty Dozen
or Great
Escape.
Some might be curious, but I was oddly disappointed. Only the very,
very curious will want to give it a look.
There
are no extras, but this release could have used some.
William
Grefe's Impulse
(1974) comes out of the era where Hitchcock's Psycho,
the original Diabolique
and Peeping
Tom
launched hundreds of imitators, more than a few of which were
exploitation or semi-exploitation romps where the killer(s) motives
have shallow explanations, the kind that would not make it in a
serious, honest, reputable college study of the matter. William
Shatner, in between the cancellation of Star
Trek
and its permanent revival, did some of his oddest and most
interesting work. He also did some of his most hilarious and most
unintentionally campy and funny work.
Here
he plays a womanizing man who had a serious childhood trauma
involving his helplessness and murder. When he is triggered by any
odd thing that connects to that event, he kills!!!! He actually
starts killing too many, starting to leave a trail of dead bodies, so
soon, investigators are starting to catch up with him, but having no
idea of the why. Director Grefe may be a b-movie journeyman
filmmaker, but unlike most big budget hacks today, he at least
understand genre better than most.
Still,
the film is not great and even when it starts to get better, either a
down moment comes up or Shatner breaks its momentum unintentionally.
Still, he is always interesting to watch and there is some suspense
here and not just if he'll get caught and who will die next. This
also has an interesting supporting cast including Ruth Roman, Bond
film alumni Harold Sakata, Jenifer Bishop, William Kerwin, Marcia
(Marcey) Knight and James Dobson. Even with its issues and flaws,
everyone should see this one at least once.
Extras,
which run onto a second disc, are incredibly extensive and include
a reversible cover
Collectible
postcard featuring original oil portrait of William Shatner by
artist Dave Lebow
KINGDOM
OF THE SHATNER: William Shatner Live in Santa Monica - Oct. 9, 2022
Provocative,
in-depth interviews with director William Grefe among many others
Haunting
alternate French soundtrack
Local
Florida TV news piece on Grefe's Second Unit work on the 1973 James
Bond classic LIVE AND LET DIE, the debut 007 film for Roger Moore
Hours
of rare cinematic treasures from the vaults of William Grefe,
including some shorts
Still
galleries, trailers for this and 20 other Grindhouse releases
TWO
BONUS FEATURE FILMS: THE DEVIL'S SISTERS (1966) and THE GODMOTHERS
(1973).
Sisters
is in black and white, 1.33 X 1, low definition and involves a woman
kidnapped when answering a newspaper ad for work. An attempt to make
a realistic crime drama ripped out of the paper headlines is a real
mixed bag at best. Godmothers
(full color, 1.33 X 1, low definition) is a gangster spoof, one of
many, inspired by the massive success of Coppola's The
Godfather
(1972) as part of a mania of that film with Mickey Rooney, Bob
Hilliard, Frankie Fontaine, Billy Barty, Jerry Lester, Templeton Fox,
Joe E. Ross and an uncredited early turn by Danny Aiello as two men
start dressing as women to avoid marrying daughters of mob bosses.
Strange, very unfunny, shockingly odd and really bad, but a curio
nonetheless that serious gangster genre fans will want to see once...
and just once.
And,
torn from the pages of DC's 1985-1986 comic book series 'Crisis on
Infinite Earths' by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, Justice
League: Crisis On Infinite Earths, Part One 4K
(2024) from Warner Brothers Animation signals the end of the
Tomorrowverse animated film storylines and is the first of three
parts to be released on 4K UHD disc this year.
This
is a pretty epic and all character encompassing storyline for DC
Comics that had some ideas picked from it in the 2023 Flash
movie. To create the scale of this animated feature into live action
would take a serious budget and a huge cast equivalent to the
cinematic feats of Avengers
Infinity War/Endgame.
Who knows, maybe Warner Bros. will explore that option someday once
newly appointed cinematic CEO James Gunn (hopefully) gets things back
on track.
This
DC multiverse is broken and the infinite worlds are colliding! The
Anti-Monitor is released and starts to destroy every world in its
path. As it threatens the end of reality as we know it, DC heroes
from every multi-verse must ban together in a desperate effort. You
can definitely spot many lesser known characters in the film, which
adds an additional element of fun to the piece.
The
voice cast includes Darren Criss, Stana Katic, Jensen Ackles, Matt
Bomer, Meg Donnelly, Jimmi Simpson and Zachary Quinto, to name a few
headliners.
Special
Features:
Crisis
Prime(r):
The filmmakers reveal in detail their intricate plan to create a
comprehensive animated universe across seven films, concluding with
the events of the three-part adaptation Justice
League Crisis on Infinite Earths.
The
Selfless Speedster:
Explore The Flash's legendary role in the "Crisis on Infinite
Earths" comic series, the creative process that brought him to
life in the animated adaptation, and the vocal performance behind his
heroic and romantic story.
and
Silent
Treatment:
Film Clip from Justice
League Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Two
(Digital Only)
DC
animated series fans will want to check this out and tune in for the
next two installments landing on 4K UHD / Blu-ray later this year. I
think on the whole, the DC animation department has done a good job
of adapting some of the brand's most infamous comic storylines to
these straight to disc movies. I do also think, however, focusing on
storylines that cross over with the live action movies makes more
sense, and am happy that Mr. Gunn is going that route going forward.
This storyline is an appropriate send-off, however, to the company's
many animated projects that we have gotten on 4K UHD and Blu-ray over
the past decade. (Many of which are reviewed elsewhere on this
site.)
Now
for playback performance. Justice
League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One 4K
is presented in 2160p on 4K UHD disc with HDR10, an HEVC / H.265
codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and an audio track in
lossless, English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit). The
animation is on par with previous DC animated shows and looks and
sounds fine on both formats here. The 4K UHD does look a bit more
sharp than the lower resolution 1080p Blu-ray version. The animation
is passable, but not necessarily mind blowing.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Impulse
comes from surviving 35mm materials as the original 35mm negative was
apparently destroyed (!!!!!) but Grindhouse has done what they could
with what remained and the transfer is as good as it can look under
those conditions with some good color, detail and some depth, but you
can see the limits versus other films from the time, esp. ones
recently issued on 4K disc. Though Technicolor was the lab for the
film, it apparently was not issued in 35mm
dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints, so that would be the
first of hundreds since the company stopped making such prints until
1997. Its low budget has little to do with the image limits.
The
PCM 2.0 Mono comes form surviving optical sound elements and has also
been restored as well as possible, but its already low budget
theatrical monophonic sound had limits, so this is only going to be
so good. The combination is still the best I have ever seen this
film.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Fortunes
is much softer than I would have liked, so either the HD shoot had
issues, or this reduction to standard definition has ben done with a
lack of research or the transfer technology is dated. The soundtrack
here is in both lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and lossy Dolby Digital 2.0
Stereo mixes, but they too are not great with the 5.1 seeming a
stretch and 2.0 Stereo a little lacking.
-
Nicholas Sheffo and James Lockhart (4K)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
