Francis
Ford: The Craving
(1918/Undercrank Blu-ray)/Rocky:
Ultimate Knockout Collection 4K
(1976 - 2006/UA/MGM/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Set)/Ted
Lasso: The Richmond Way
(2020 - 2023/HBO/Warner Blu-ray Set)/William
Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill
(2024/Legion M Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B Picture: B- Sound: C+/C+ (B: Balboa)/B/B
Extras: B-/B-/C-/C+ Main Programs: C+/B-/C+/C/C
& B-/C/C/B-/B
Next
up are a group of new releases that deal with leading men and
sometimes, how the characters they play can take over...
Francis
Ford: The Craving (1918)
is a remarkably early silent film that goes out of its way to depict
how horrid and nightmarish drug addiction can be when people did not
talk about that much and sadly over 100 years later, it still has a
stigma and taboo that never helps matters. The visual effects they
use were groundbreaking for their time and not always easy to pull
off, but that is more than reason enough to save the film. Of
course, Ford had a big career at the time and a majority of his work
is lost. For only now we hope.
Remarkably,
being the brother of directing legend John Ford did not stop so many
films form being lost and you would think otherwise, but that is not
the case. However, you will see why he was a star, he could act in
the style of the time, the camera liked him and he had enough
presence and chemistry with his co-stars. I liked this film and
think all serious film fans should check it out, never exploitive of
its subject and sadly, as relevant as ever. The case also touts
other short films by Ford and they are here.
Those
extras include
additional shorts that include Unmasked
(1917; originally issued as The
Black Masks
in 1913) directed by Grace Cunard and Francis Ford; starring Grace
Cunard and Francis Ford; archival 35mm from the George Eastman
Museum; 11 minutes. This one about a jewel thief is a fun mystery
piece and well done.
The
Post Telegrapher
(1912) directed by Francis Ford; starring Francis Ford; with Anne
Little, Ray Myers; archival 35mm from the Library of Congress and Eye
Filmmuseum; 24 minutes. A western with the expected, dated
trappings.
When
The Tables Turned
(1911) directed by Emory Johnson; starring Belle Bennett; with
Francis Ford, June Marlowe, Henry Victor; archival 35mm from USC HMH
Foundation Moving Image Archive and Library of Congress; 11 minutes.
Also a western, but with more tinted scenes.
Screen
Snapshots
excerpt (1920) directed by Francis Ford; with Francis Ford, Jack
Hoxie, Billie Rhodes, Marian Sais; archival 16mm from Library of
Congress; 2 minutes. This has movie stars behind the scenes making
movies.
and
a new 9-minutes-long video essay featurette: Francis Ford: Film
Pioneer (2023).
That
makes Francis Ford: The Craving
a fine set of silent films to see and a solid set for those not used
to silent cinema to start out with besides the usual classics.
Rocky:
Ultimate Knockout Collection 4K
(1976 - 2006) finally adds the last two of the six films from the
Sylvester Stallone franchise (which he will no longer be a part of
and has zero rights to?) in Ultra High Definition with the first four
we already covered in 4K at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16260/Project+Wolf+Hunting+(2022/Well+Go+Blu-ray)/R
Then
we have this earlier set of the six films in one Blu-ray set for more
information on the plot and extras...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9311/Rocky+%E2%80%93+The+Undisputed+Collection
And
my coverage of the final film from its Blu-ray/DVD set...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5127/Rocky+Balboa+(Blu-ray+++DVD-Video
So
for those who never saw any of the films or are curious after the
(reviewed elsewhere on this site) Creed
spinoffs, here is the set, but it is a little disappointing in
playback though the films are not all masterpieces by any means.
Still, as bad as the sequels can get, we should be able to see them
looking as good as they can and hear them as vividly. You can read
my tech comments below, but this was and is always going to be for
fans only, save the first film.
Extras
include all the extras from the previous releases, plus Digital Movie
code.
Ted
Lasso: The Richmond Way
(2020 - 2023) the the oddly retitled complete three-season series
that was a surprise HBO hit. The one surprise is that it came from
Jason Sudeikis only briefly playing the character elsewhere with no
potential plans for expansion and the other is that anything
on the subject of soccer is a hit in the U.S., despite its slowly
(finally!) growing popularity. As the title character, Sudeikis is
the unlikely guy to take over a failing soccer team that has some
money behind it, but gets the chance because of a divorce among its
rich owners and its on-the-field filed performance.
But
Ted is a for real guy who is almost too nice and good to be true and
after pretty much everyone involved thinks he will just make the team
situation a further disaster, he very slowly starts ot turn the
situation around to the surprise of most. The question then becomes
whether he can really pull off the most difficult of comebacks in
sports, from worst to first... or somewhere close.
The
first season is the best, well written and thought out, but the
weekly TV grind and maybe a lack of time and rushing things when they
should not have (think how long new Moonlighting
episodes with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd took when the show was
good in its early seasons) resulting in a situation of somewhat
diminishing returns narratively speaking. We have also seen some of
this before, but the show tries ot do some things different.
Also
a plus are supporting cast members are Jeremy Swift, Anthony Head,
Hannah Waddingham, Brendan Hunt, Brett Goldstein and others help keep
this working so well, so I can see what all the hype was about and am
glad I waited until I could take it all in at once. It still might
not be for everyone, but at least try it if it sounds interesting to
you and see what you think. At least you'll understand why it was a
hit.
A
poster is the only extra, but I am always recommending the great
documentary Once In a
Lifetime about how in the
1970s, Warner Bros. tried to launch soccer in the U.S. with all their
massive resources, a superteam and the results are... something....
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5994/Once+In+A+Lifetime
Alexander
O. Philippe's William
Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill
(2024) is a surprisingly personal autobiography by the iconic Star
Trek and media star, a
survivor of his belatedly hit series and the industry that made him,
who has seen more downs than many realize and is as brutally candid
about all that as anything else, which also leads to select
retrospective of his career and how he became more of an
environmental advocate than you might think.
However,
he is grateful for his life, as hard as it has been and after
watching this, I had a new respect for him to go along with how much
I liked him to begin with. You understand the man better and
sometimes, I wondered if he should have had more friends, support or
professional help along the way, even if he got some he does nto
discuss here. He talks about living in Canada as a young Jewish kid
with parents that were taking care of him, but were not emotionally
available, then gets into how much he loved film, TV and the stage
early on and what it did for him.
He
is fearless in places too, but also gets into so much of his life and
career outside of Trek
that some of what he covers is long overdue. However, it is the man
himself telling and revealing all, ot the point that this gets so
sad, you might not want to watch at times you are too tired or having
some bad times in your life. However, despite all the mockery of his
limits as an actor, which are not always as bad as some say and role
depending, he is now a success and proved most of his critics wrong.
He is also a decent man who helped build the industry and does not
get enough credit for it. For all that and more, that is why I
highly recommend this documentary.
A
live Q&A with Shatner from 'Screen Rants' with Philippe and host
Tamara Krinsky is the only extra.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p
HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD
Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on the Rocky
films continue to disappoint with Rocky
V being flat and Rocky
Balboa somehow looking a
little worse and less naturalistic than the Blu-ray I covered years
ago. Why the set is being issued in secondary condition versus how
they first looked, save the expanded version of the fourth film is
odd, but the issue extends to the sound, which was never great on the
series until the fourth film, then got weaker with fifth, so no
consistency here. Balboa
does not sound quite as good as it did on the older Blu-ray, despite
the upgraded transfer, yet it does not look upgraded to me and a
little off. This is still the best way to see these films outside of
a good film print, but I hope Amazon/MGM gets to working on all of
them for preservation purposes.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white (with some various tinting) digital
High Definition image transfers on Craving and the
accompanying Ford shorts are lucky they have survived, but have been
restored as well as can be expected and can look surprisingly good
for their age. Again, the work is as remarkable as any of this
surviving at all, though all are shot well for their age and as you
watch, you realize how pioneering the makers were being in creating a
new artform and how to make this look good and watchable. Ford and
company do well here. We get new music by Ben Model that is fine, is
in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and sounds good, but I wish this
were all lossless. Otherwise, the combination is as pleasant as any
silent releases we've covered of late and keeps Undercrank's solid
reputation growing.
The
1080p 2.00 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Ted
Lasso has good, consistent color, but can be on the soft side in
some of the details and even beyond some images (smart phones, so-so
digital TV images of faux sports coverage) could be sharper. We'll
see if a 4K version would eliminate that. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes fare better and are more
consistent with is clearly recorded dialogue mixed with music and
convincing sound effects.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Shatner
has a slightly dark look, through the majority of the interview
footage with Shatner himself, but the quality of the licensed and
public domain clips is usually pretty good versus similar programs.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is mostly Shatner speaking
and many of his older clips are monophonic, but the sound is not bad
throughout considering.
-
Nicholas Sheffo