Come
And Find Me
(2015/Lionsgate Blu-ray)/Dementia
13 (1963/Coppola/Film
Detective Blu-ray)/The
Girl On The Train
(2016/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/The
Mad Magician 3D
(1954/Sony/Columbia/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray w/two 3-D
Three Stooges
shorts)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ 3D Picture: B+ Picture: B/C+/B/B
Sound: B/C/B/C+ Extras: C/D/B-/B Films: C/C+/C+/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Mad Magician
Blu-ray is now only available from our friends at Twilight Time, is
limited to only 3,000 copies and can be ordered while supplies last
from the links below, while the new Film Detective Dementia
13 is
now available from our friends at Movie Zyng via the right-hand
sidebar or order button.
The
following thrillers all challenge the idea of reality and are more
than worth knowing about...
Zack
Whedon's Come And Find Me
(2015) starts out as an interesting film, where the couple at hand
joke with each other and have at least an odd relationship, but one
day, Claire (Annabelle Wallis) disappears to the shock of David
(Aaron Paul) who starts on the usual missing persons search.
However, something strikes him as odder than it should, so he starts
to look for clues more deeply, only to run into tough people who
would like him to move on. Of course, this just makes him more
ticked and determined to find out where she is.
From
there, I believed much of this was possible and could work, but the
final reel takes a goofy turn that plays more like the unlikely and
silly than a conclusion that matches the rest of the narrative.
However, the cast is up for all this and does the best job they can,
which makes the conclusion all the more disappointing. See for
yourself if interested just the same.
Francis
Coppola's Dementia 13
(1963) is in the public domain (for now?) and has been issued in yet
another Blu-ray edition. We covered the film in its first Blu-ray
release a few years ago at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11331/Roger+Corman's+Cult+Classics:+Attack+Of+The
This
time it is Film Detective issuing the Blu-ray and performance-wise,
they are about dead even, but the film should be seen and this is
still better than any of the DVDs we've seen (including the DVD
included with the earlier Blu-ray) as the ballyhoo on the film
includes murders and asks you if you could also be a potential
murderer and not know it!
Louise
(Luana Anders) is out on a boat with her husband, who dies of a heart
attack in front of her. Instead of getting hysterical or upset, she
gets calm and simply dumps his body in the water. But this also
complicates her inheritance of some serious money, so with others in
the way, people will die, but who's killing whom?
William
Campbell leads the rest of the cast and though this is not a great
film, this Roger Corman-produced romp is one of many trying to
capitalize on Psycho,
Diabolique
and the William Castle approach to gimmicky thrillers. You can see
touches of the kinds of shots (especially with actors) Coppola would
make more effective in his next films (starting with The
Rain People, reviewed
elsewhere on this site) so it is a curio with highlights worth your
time.
Tate
Taylor's The Girl On The
Train (2016) is a hit
thriller in the mode of psychological thrillers we used to see all
the time in the wake of Fatal
Attraction and Basic
Instinct, if not quiet as
good as either. It starts out well enough with Emily Blunt as the
title character, sharing her thoughts via voice overs of the people
and places she sees, but starts to get particularly interested in a
sexually active couple who seem to have it all and her voyeurism is
something she just may start to act upon... but how?
From
there, we get multiple points-of-view, multiple narrative and
alternative versions of the events that transpire next. She is made
out to be an alcoholic, but is it really something else like an
unknown or undiagnosed mental illness or even her first-ever mental
breakdown unleashed as sex and lust unleashed?
What
I did like about the film is that it is about grown adults who act
like said adults, which is all too rare in big screen movies these
days for no good reason. Allison Janney show sup as a police
investigator, we get the supporting cast playing their roles in
varied, even contradictory ways to keep us guessing as to what has
happened or is really going on. I don't think it all works in the
end, but at least it was ambitious and that is one of the reasons it
deserved to be a hit.
Cheers
to the supporting cast too including Rebecca Ferguson, Luke Evans,
Jason Theroux, Haley Bennett, Edgar Ramirez and an interesting turn
by Lisa Kudrow that mocks her TV persona well. This one is worth
your time, but have your undivided attention ready to get the best
effect from it.
Finally
we have John Brahm's The
Mad Magician 3D (1954),
an underrated, fun knock-off of the megahit 3D blockbuster House
Of Wax (1953) with
Vincent Price. Price and some of the others responsible for that hit
reunite here with the story about the title character (Price) who is
also a great make-up expert out for glory and revenge if he cannot
get his way in the world. There's plenty of gimmicks here and they
are a hoot. Just above the B-movie level, this was one of Columbia's
first 3D movies and has become too lost in the shuffle for our sakes.
Eva
Gabor, Mary Murphy, John Embry, Donald Randolph, Patrick O'Neal, Jay
Novello, Lenita Lane and uncredited Lyle Talbot help make up a great
supporting cast that has the right energy and period feel that makes
this murder-mystery romp enough fun that they could have made it
without 3D. Glad it is finally out in real 3D, but it is fun seeing
it both ways. Fans of Price should grab a copy before it goes out of
print!
This
the the first time we've covered both a 4K and 3D Blu-ray in the same
text, but as fate would have it, they are the best performers on the
list. The 2160p HECV/H.265, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced 1.85
X 1 Ultra High Definition image on Train is a little darker
and more palpable than the lighter 1080p regular Blu-ray also
included. Save a few minor points, the film works much better this
way, with the 4K making the regular Blu-ray look like the film (and
this was shot on 35mm film) lightened up for the Lifetime or Hallmark
cable channels. The Blu-ray is still nice enough, but I'll side with
the 4K as creepier as it should be.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 MVC-encoded 3-D - Full Resolution black & white
digital High Definition image on Magician has all the full
effects as intended that the still fine 2D 1080p presentation lacks,
but the 2D is a nice, clean monochrome presentation with the expected
grain, so this looks good. The same can be said of the two Stooges
shorts.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Find
is a new HD shoot that is not bad throughout, including some fancy
shots and visual twists, but it never rises above that
professional-at-best level.
That
leaves the 1080p 1.78 X 1 black & white digital High Definition
image transfer on Dementia showing the age of the materials
used, but looking much like the previously reviewed HD Cinema Blu-ray
including some odd, unnecessary video noise reduction you would find
on old DVDs. Someone needs to get a better print and thoroughly
restore this one.
As
for sound, Train
offers DTS: X 11.1 sound in both formats, but it is limited (think of
the quiet moments, plus the dialogue-based moments and you can
imagine the tracks can only be used so much) versus big blockbuster
productions that push such tracks. Still, this is a decent mix, but
the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Find
is also well mixed and presented offering more loud action moments.
Thus, they tie for first place.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes on Dementia
and Magician
were monophonic theatrical releases in their time 6 decades ago and
can show their age. However, you can tell Dementia
is a few generations down and can be hard to make out, while Magician
is one of those 3D films that simply did not add stereo, yet it
sounds about as good as it ever will. The isolated music score is a
bit clearer sonically.
Dementia
has no extras. Extras exist on the rest of the releases and include
Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and other cyber
iTunes capable devices for Find
and Train,
which also feature Director's Feature Length Audio Commentary Tracks
for each, while Magician
has a new feature length audio commentary track by film scholars
David Del Valle and Steven Peros. All three have Behind The
Scenes/Making Of featurettes, but Train
has two along with Deleted and Extended Scenes. However, magician
tops them all by also adding a nicely illustrated booklet on the film
including informative text and yet another excellent, underrated
essay by the great film scholar Julie Kirgo, an Isolated Music Score,
the Original Theatrical Trailer and the biggest surprise of all, the
two 3-D Three Stooges live action shorts for the first time in higher
Blu-ray 3D-level 3-D: Pardon
My Backfire!
and Spooks!
We've seen them before in lesser 3D presentations and of course, 2D,
but this is the best way to see the full 3D outside of a legitimate
35mm theatrical film presentation.
To
order The
Mad Magician
limited edition Blu-ray, buy it and other great exclusives while
supplies last at these links:
www.screenarchives.com
and
http://www.twilighttimemovies.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo
