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Category:    Home > Reviews > Crime > Drama > Gangster > Police > Drugs > Courtroom > Melodrama > Stand and Deliver (1988/Warner Archive Blu-ray)

Departed 4K (2006/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Limited Edition Steelbook)/Narc 4K (2003/4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray*)/Night Falls on Manhattan (1996/Blu-ray/*both MVD/Paramount/Arrow)/Stand and Deliver (1988/Warner Archive Blu-ray)



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



PLEASE NOTE: The Stand and Deliver Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the link below.



Now for a group of dramas reissued, restored and back for a second look...



Martin Scorsese's The Departed 4K (2006) brings back his Oscar-winning film that he once said is his 'old film with a narrative' albeit a consistent one, which we reviewed years ago at this link:


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5029/The+Departed+(HD-DVD/DVD+Combo+Format


Not as cinematic as his best works, it is still more so than most of the superhero genre works he was rightly criticizing a few years before that genre's spectacular (and odd) implosion, with its amazing cast, true story and very book-like narrative. It is also sadly still the only time he ever worked with Jack Nicholson, who is better here than you might remember. The work here is more consistent than you also might remember, but starting with a Rolling Stones classic he revitalized interest in, he immediately admits he is revisiting his own cinematic past in more commercial ways. It is worth revisiting just to see all he gets right that most directors doing the same thing do not.

Extras are exactly the same as that edition with nothing new added, but this is the one to own and the Steelbook is nice enough.



Joe Carnahan's Narc 4K (2003) is finally being upgraded and in a big way from the then-decent DVD release it received when it first hit home video, as we reviewed at this link:


http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/361/Narc


Though I was not as impressed as my fellow writer, a very observant movie fan, no doubt Jason Patric is a solid actor and should have had a much bigger acting career commercially. I just did not buy the many off moments and a few predictable ones that threw thew film off too often for me, though not as badly as later films like Smokin' Aces, the odd A-Team feature film, The Grey, Stretch and Boss Level where comedy entered the narratives and made the films even worse. Copshop was a recent attempt to return to form, but he's not there yet, though his TV show The Blacklist fared much better.


Cheers to the rest of the cast, but this is now a curio since the late, great Ray Liotta plays a wild cop. Not a big favorite of mine, but if you have never seen it or are very curious, here is the way to see it now.


Extras definitely expand from the content from the old DVD and include...


  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Nathanael Marsh


  • Double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Nathanael Marsh


  • Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing by Michelle Kisner, a new interview with producer Diane Nabatoff and archival interviews and articles


DISC ONE - FEATURE (4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY)


  • Archival feature commentary with director Joe Carnahan and editor John Gilroy


  • Brand new introduction from director Joe Carnahan


DISC TWO - EXTRAS (BLU-RAY)


  • Shattering the Blue Line, a newly filmed interview with director Joe Carnahan


  • Shooting Narc, a newly filmed interview with director of photography Alex Nepomniaschy


  • If You Live Another Day, a newly filmed interview with actor Krista Bridges


  • The Journey of the Costume, a newly filmed interview with costume designer Gersha Phillips


  • Making the Deal, a vintage promotional featurette looking at the making of the film


  • The Visual Trip, a vintage promotional featurette looking at the look of the film


  • The Friedkin Connection, a vintage promotional featurette interviewing William Friedkin and discussing the connections between his body of work and Narc


  • Shooting Up, a vintage promotional featurette looking at the making of the film


  • Vintage EPK interviews with Joe Carnahan, Ray Liotta, Jason Patric, Diane Nabatoff, Alex Nepomniaschy and William Friedkin


  • Original Theatrical trailer


  • and an Image Gallery.



Sidney Lumet's Night Falls on Manhattan (1996) seemed like a strong project with a huge amount of talent joining one of the greatest directors in cinema history. It was based on a book by Robert Daley, whose work also was the basis of Lumet's epic Prince Of The City and Michael Cimino's underrated, influential and highly imitated Year Of The Dragon (both reviewed on Warner Archive Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) and he was writing the screenplay personally. Then he got a great cast that included Andy Garcia, Richard Dreyfus, Lena Olin, Ron Leibman, Ian Holm, Colm Feore, Paul Guilfoyle, Dominic Chianese, Vincente Pastore, Frank Vincent, a then-unknown Bobby Cannavale and James Gandolfini before The Sopranos, yet another reason this is a bigger curio than ever.


He case is from a real life crime where a murder takes place, involves a major African American drug dealer, but is not cut and dry because he is involved with more than a few police officers and in more than a few police departments. Lumet wanted this to be part of a sort of trilogy that started with Prince Of The City and continued with The Verdict, but the strong, double classics of his Al Pacino classics Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon are as inescapable, though he said this was about examining the U.S. legal system. With what has happened in recent years, this is sadly a time capsule of 'the good old days' when more people still believed in justice, the idea was not being openly mocked by certain elites and people could still be shocked by corruption and crime.


This film has some good moments, but as I felt then, it may have tried to be more complex, but did not go far enough in other ways (just like Gus Van Sant's To Die For, a spiritual cousin to Lumet's own Network!) leaving too much unsaid and to our great detriment, though no one on either film could have imagined just how bad it got. Thus, watch this film for what does work and who is involved and know you will not see intelligent, ambitious films made for adults like this like you used to. No wonder movies are in trouble.


Extras include an archival commentary by director Sidney Lumet, plus a second....


  • Archive commentary by actors Andy Garcia and Ron Leibman, with producers Josh Kramer and Thom Mount


  • The Directors: Sidney Lumet, an hour-long archive documentary from 2002 featuring interviews with Lumet, Garcia, Leibman, Jack Lemmon, Rod Steiger, Christopher Walken and others


  • On-set interviews with Lumet, Garcia, Dreyfuss, Olin, Holm and Leibman


  • Behind-the-scenes footage


  • Theatrical trailer and TV spots


  • Limited Edition packaging featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tom Ralston


  • and an Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing on the film by Nick Clement and original production notes.



Ramon Menendez's Stand and Deliver (1988) is part of a second wave of 'good teacher' films where the teachers have to get stronger or tougher (think Lean On Me, Dangerous Minds, 187) where the stories have been updated (even when based on real life people and events) with Edward James Olmos who has to teach a class of tough Hispanic teens math and calculus. Things start to change when he explains to them that the idea of zero in numbers was by a person of their same ethnic origin, but the tough world outside persists.


Lou Diamond Phillips is the lead teen, really good hear as tough and troubled, they've found someone who will not give up on them and it makes for some good drama. Andy Garcia also stars and the rest of the cast is really good here to, so good that we should have seen more of them soon after.


Some critics said it was fine, but compared it to a 'TV movie' or 'after school special' meaning (at the time, anyhow) it was something you could see at home for free on network TV, public television or maybe cable, but it was as good and better than that. That would include the likes of The Marva Collins Story with Cicely Tyson and many others. Now that we do not have than anywhere nearly as much and TV movies are coming to Blu-ray and restored for cable and streaming as well, they did not realize how good we had it. Now, we can see it as a special film that serves to be re-seen and a time capsule of an entertainment industry and educational system that is not what it used to be; a real time capsule. Definitely give it a look!


A trailer is sadly the only extra.



Now for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on the 4K discs of Departed (2.35 X 1, blowing away the old Blu-ray and HD—DVD versions from years ago) and Narc (1.85 X 1, also with Dolby Vision) are the best performers on the list as excepted, though the Scorsese film is a little more consistent despite no Dolby Vision. Departed retains its DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix that sounds as good here as it ever will and both discs of Narc has an upgraded Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1) soundtrack that does get more out of it than all previous editions, with its 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image Blu-ray passable, but no match for the 4K. It also has a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix you are supposed to decode with Dolby Pro Logic (or a similar mode, like DTS: Neo or Pro Logic II) but it is not as good.


The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Manhattan can show the age of the materials used at times, but this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film on home video and the closest to the 35mm prints of the time, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is not bad, but at a lower volume than usual, so be careful of volume switching and high volume playback. I think this is inherent to the soundmaster because this was a problem on the original DVD release of the film as well.


The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Deliver is from a slightly older HD master, so


It only has a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mix that you are supposed to decode with Dolby Pro Logic (or a similar mode, like DTS: Neo or Pro Logic II) and is about as good as the audio will ever sound on this one.



To order the Stand and Deliver Warner Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many more great web-exclusive releases at:


https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20



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