Big
Driver (2014/Lionsgate
DVD)/Boardwalk Empire: The
Complete Fifth Season
(2014 Final Season/HBO Blu-ray Set)/Dallas:
The Complete Third Season
(2014 Final Season/Warner DVD Set)/Open
Windows (2014/Cinedigm
Blu-ray)/A Walk Among The
Tombstones
(2014/Universal Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
C/B/C+/B-/B & C Sound: C+/B/C+/B-/B+ & B- Extras:
D/B-/C/C-/C Main Programs: D/B-/C+/D/C
Here
are some various crime dramas, including two successful series coming
to a final end...
Mikael
Salomon's Big Driver
(2014) is a telefilm adaptation of the Stephen King novel about a
woman (Maria Bello) who is assaulted, beaten and sexually violated in
a questionable early scene, then the story starts to take twists and
turns that make it more and more unlikely and idiotic in what is
hands down the worst adaptation of anything King ever wrote, no
matter what his quote might say. This is the nadir of all involved,
trivializes rape, is unsuspenseful and awful all the way.
Olympia
Dukakis and singer Joan Jett also show up in this mess co-produced
and written by Richard Christian Matheson, but WOW is it a mess for
90 minutes of my life I will never get back. Skip it!
The
only extra is Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and
iTunes capable devices if one cares.
Boardwalk
Empire: The Complete Fifth Season
(2014) is the Final Season of the HBO/Martin Scorsese-produced series
with Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson, who has ruled the original
Jersey shore and made a financial killing during the Depression and
Prohibition. His enemies and other criminal opportunists start
gathering together against him like a storm cloud, though he does
have (unbeknownst to him) a possible out in a new relationship with
an enterprising Senator Joseph Kennedy, but that might not be enough
to help him survive, let alone have any kind of legacy.
Some
of his allies are in trouble too and those following the show know
how many of them are now dead. The episodes start to intersect with
more familiar stories about Elliott Ness, Al Capone, Lucky Luciano
and other unstoppable historic events. More than a few have
complained that this final set of shows was anticlimactic and that
has some validity since some outcomes will be obvious, especially to
those who know history and the Gangster genre, but there are a few
other issues.
Seems
the writer this time around have forgotten certain qualities or basis
for the characters, including Nucky, so some scenes don't match and
ring true consistently with the earlier seasons and being how well
Nucky was developed and established, he makes some odd, pedestrian
mistakes he should never have made as written here. You can see for
yourself if you start form the beginning, but the money, talent, look
and feel of the show remain and at least the show ends on a note of
consistency and quality if nothing else. I just think the makers
lost control of their show a bit and that's a shame.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, while the Blu-rays add the Scouting The Boardwalk
featurette and audio commentary tracks for four of the
episodes.
Dallas:
The Complete Third Season
(2014) is the Final Season of the relaunched nighttime soap opera
that managed to get most of its cast back together and somehow make
the show work enough that the fans came back and a few new ones were
made. Of course, Larry Hagman passed away so with the main
antagonist of J.R. Ewing gone, all this season can do is tie up the
loose ends,but it does it better than the still-humorous last episode
of the original run of the show where J.R. Gets a very special
visitor.
We
get 14 episodes over 3 DVDs and it is about as good as an average
season of the old show, which might be faint praise, but this is a
soap opera after all. Original cast members Linda Gray, Patrick
Duffy and Ken Kercheval are joined by Mitch Pileggi, Jordana
Brewster, Josh Henderson, Jesse Metcalfe, Brenda Strong and Emma
Bell, all whom have melded well into their roles. This is really for
fans only or the very curious, but at least it is consistent.
Extras
include a booklet with episode guide, while the DVDs adds Deleted
Scenes.
Nacho
Vigalondo's Open Windows
(2014) shows that Elijah Wood will sign onto anything that is
different, no matter how ill-advised, and this time it is a tale of
internet sex turned torture pron and murder, but the visuals are
always moving around since we get literally hundred of PC screen
shots overlapping each other for its 110 minutes that lack form,
ideas and never gel. If the idea was to do something freestyle that
might be intriguing, it is a total failure, though Wood seems to
think it will and gives an acting performance that at least he
believes in.
Sasha
Grey is also wasted here and with its cast of unknowns and it should
be added that the computer graphics are dated upon arrival,
guaranteeing it will date badly, quickly and that's a good thing.
Extras
include a Visual Effects Reel, Making Of featurette and Original
Theatrical Trailer.
Scott
Frank's A Walk Among The
Tombstones (2014) is an
attempt to put Liam Neeson into another franchise like Taken,
but with more edge and gore. As good as anything from that formulaic
money machine, he is a former cop and detective named Matt Scudder
who still takes on the occasional job despite his alcoholism and not
even officially being a PI anymore. Here, a fellow AA friend has
another 'friend' whose wife was kidnapped and killed (her body
dismembered after she was tortured, killed and who knows what else),
but the guy is a drug trafficker. Matt immediately passes until he
hears the audiotape the killers sent of the torture murder and takes
on the case.
From
there, the film is very hit and miss with every good scene followed
by one that is silly, odd, preposterous or unnecessary. He also has
a young homeless kid who wants to help him out and does at least have
some good reference skills as Matt does not know how to use a
computer. It is a good idea, but it is not well-integrated into the
plot as much as it could be. Despite its many problems, it is one of
those rare cases they should try a sequel, even if this debut entry
did not totally work out because this has more potential than most
forced franchises of the last few decades and Neeson has more of a
character to work with.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, while both discs offer the Making Of featurette A
Look Behind The Tombstone
and the Blu-ray exclusively adds
a Matt Scudder: Private
Eye featurette.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image presentations on Driver
and Dallas are soft, but Driver tends to be weaker
throughout, equalling the poor performance of the anamorphically
enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on the Walk DVD, but its
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image Blu-ray transfer has an
interesting, inky look throughout that is consistent and interesting,
though the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on
Empire
has more money and style on screen along with more detail. Only a
few shots disappoint, if that.
That
leaves the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on
Windows
with its goofy mix of ill-focused images, computer windows and shaky
camerawork that is a mess, but looks a little better than any of the
DVDs here for what that's worth. It does have a DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 5.1 lossless mix that tends to be as awkward that cannot match
the same across the episodes of Empire
or on Walk.
They have some minor
weak points, but play well, but Walk
goes a little more all out being set in the present and the
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on its DVD version is not bad, yet no match
for the Blu-ray's DTS. The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Driver
and Dallas
are passable and cannot compete with the rest of the discs here.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
