The Librarian: Curse Of The Judas Chalice (2008/Sony DVD)
Picture: C
Sound: B- Extras: C Telefilm: C+
In what is an amusing little TV franchise, Noah Wylie is
not bad and having fun in the silly adventures of Flynn Carson, an Indiana
Jones/James Bond hybrid of some sort that plays like Remington Steele with less pretension, The Librarian: Curse Of
The Judas Chalice (2008) is the third installment in this occasional series
as our “hero” is driving his superiors (Jane Curtin and Bob Newhart, so you
know this is intended with some comedy) as he find himself hunting for rare
treasure.
Even though this has energy, a good sense of humor and is
even child-friendly, it gets too silly quickly and is just far too derivative
of much better productions, yet the surprise is Wylie (an underrated actor
stuck in people’s memories too much form the overrated E.R.) is able to hold is own better than you would think. Bruce Davidson is the bad guy and Star Trek: The Next Generation star
Johnathan Frakes is back directing here, showing he is at least competent with
genre material. If you are interested,
look into it.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is slightly
fuzzy throughout and that gets in the way of a nice shoot with some nicer
set-ups, but at least the source is clean.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is the other surprise here, not to harsh or
soft, with a decent soundfield for a TV production and though the surrounds are
not great, they are not bad. Extras
include deleted scenes, Visual Effects featurette and A Look Behind The Monastery Scene featurette.
- Nicholas Sheffo
