Blind
Revenge
(2011/Cinema Epoch DVD)/Steel
Magnolias
(1989/Sony/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/B Sound: C+/B- Extras: C-/C Films: C+/C
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Steel
Magnolias
Limited Edition Blu-ray is now out of print, but a new 4K edition has
been issued by Sony and you can read more about it at the link
below...
Daryl
Hannah has had a very mixed movie career. For every hit (Tarantino's
Kill
Bill
films), cult film that became a classic (Blade
Runner)
films about something (Stone's first Wall
Street)
and film that remained a cult item (Summer
Lovers,
also issued by Twilight Time as a Limited edition Blu-ray), she has
made many forgettable, even awful (Legal
Eagles)
messes that she somehow survives including junk that is going (and
deserves to go) straight to video. So how does she endure such
changes?
Maybe
it is her beauty or the idea that she has more to offer than most
filmmakers have been able to get out of her. To put up with some of
the duds she has made (especially recently), she must also be a very
nice, patient woman. We now look at two new releases of hers that
are among her more interesting.
In
Raoul Ruiz's Blind
Revenge
(2011), she platys a woman who agrees to be hired by a blind man (Tom
Conti, in a good performance) to transcribe a book he wants to write.
Though other actors show up (including the late Simon MacCorkindale,
Elaine Paige and Miriam (End
Of Days)
Margolyes), it is essentially the two actors, talking, interacting
and that works surprisingly well and for a surprisingly long time in
what is an ambitious work that is very watchable and more
entertaining than expected.
The
only thing is I did not buy the ending, but the fact that it got that
far before running out of ideas is enough that it just might become a
cult item and certainly one everyone should see once just to get
their take on it. Conti can act and Hannah more than holds her own,
plus they even have chemistry. Definitely try it out. A trailer and
stills are the only extras.
Rewinding
to 1989, we have Herbert Ross' moderate hit Steel
Magnolias
based on a stage play, getting a limited edition Blu-ray release from
Twilight Time. I always found this to be an odd failure of a film
despite Ross' capacities and a cast that includes Hannah, Sally
Field, Dolly Parton, a Julia Roberts on the rise, Shirley MacLaine
and Olympia Dukakis. There is no doubt of the talent, but I never
liked the film because I thought it never worked and rang false from
the earliest scenes.
In
what almost seems like a joke, Hannah plays her mousy character with
horn-rimmed glasses that makes her look more like she is ready for
Halloween than this film, everyone also sports southern accents for
the most part (it is almost like a weird Oscar-begging contest where
no one wins) and the comic melodrama has those accents outdone by its
cliches.
This
just never gels, never becomes believable, feels flat and unreal. It
has a following and even some good acting moments, but despite
looking and even feeling like it is taking place in the outdoor
locales it is shot in, remains somehow stuck on the stage in spirit
in the most restrictive way and likely led to more bad all-female
cast films that did not work over the years in what is hardly a step
forward for women in film. We've seen worse, but even Producer Ray
Stark could not make this one work and it remains an ensemble
disappointment despite the fact that I like everyone in the cast.
Extras
include an isolated music score of Georges Delerue's music, feature
length audio commentary by Director Ross and illustrated booklet with
another fine essay by Julie Kirgo.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Blind
is a little soft, but is not bad, has some good color and any motion
blur is limited. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image
transfer on Steel
is as good as this film ever looked, especially since Tri-Star was
putting out substandard prints of even their big films (like Glory)
due to financial troubles caused by loosing money on Rambo
III,
so some prints of this film looked better than others. For those who
saw lesser prints, this will be a revelation in color, depth and
fidelity. This did not improve the film for me, but made it a much
more pleasant one to sit through. Director of Photography John A.
Alonzo (Chinatown)
did a fine job of shooting this one as usual for a man of his talents
and it finally shows here.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Blind
is not bad, well recorded enough and consistent throughout, making it
as professional a job as you’d expect from an indie production,
while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Steel
can be towards the front speakers. This was originally an older
Dolby A-type analog theatrical release and you can sadly hear this in
the sonic limits on the mix, on the dialogue and even sound effects,
so despite being an ambitious upgrade, the Delerue music tends to be
the standout in the mix. I was never a fan of how this film was
mixed to begin with.
You
can read about the Steel
Magnolias 4K
upgrade here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16431/Amore+Mio+(2023/Distrib/Icarus+DV
-
Nicholas Sheffo
