Aquaman
4K (2018/DC Comics/Warner
4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Backtrace
(2018/Lionsgate Blu-ray w/DVD)/Iceman:
The Time Traveler
(2018)/Rampant
(2018/both Well Go Blu-ray w/DVD)/Showdown
(1993/MVD Blu-ray w/DVD)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/B+ & B-/A & C+/B &
C+/B & B- Sound: B+/B & B-/B+ & C+/B+ & C+/B &
B- Extras: B-/C/D/B/B Films: B-/C-/A-/A-/C
Action
heroes are the common theme of the following releases...
James
Wan's Aquaman
4K
(2018) seemed like a film that would never get made, despite the fact
that the title character is one of the most popular and beloved of
all the DC Comics superheroes. Since his debut decades ago, he has
always had a great following, a hit late 1960s animated series, one
of the major picks for the massive 1970s hit Superfriends!
TV series and a serious hardcore following that includes the desire
and value of his comic books and toy memorabilia being much more
expensive than you would expect. Still, he got mocked in recent
decades by those who missed developments in the comic books (darker
storytelling, his blue camouflage suit era, his bearded version,
appearances in other key comic series).
A
few years ago, in a brilliant development, DC/Warner cast Jason Momoa
in the role and immediately hit the bullseye! After his underrated
Conan film (see elsewhere on this site) did not get the audience it
deserved (some still saw Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role,
conveniently forgetting how bad his second Conan film. Conan
The Destroyer,
was) the the producers and promoters did not do their job to combat
this, so that was it and nothing happened with the character since
then.
Mr.
Wan is not my favorite director by any means, but he is slowly
getting better as he does here, giving us a broad origins story that
works well enough and the film works better than it should for being
all over the place, but thank a script that has its moments and
amazing supporting cast that includes Amber Heard (perfect as Mera),
Nicole Kidman, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera
Morrison and more new actors I hope we see more of very soon.
Now
we have it here as a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/Blu-ray set and 4K is the
best way to encounter this all-HD production. The fight scenes are
pretty good, scenes with the actors often standouts and the energy
and ambition make up for some of the flaws, issues and limits of a
film that even reminded me of some of the action epics coming out of
China, Korea and Japan of late. Oddest of all are the underwater
scenes, some of which look authentic, others of which are almost too
digital, yet are part of the consistent visual look and internal
logic of the film. Too bad the dry-for-wet-as-HD just gets too
cartoonish. Don't expect the realism of Cameron's The Abyss, better
James Bond underwater sequences or an IMAX underwater documentary
where viewing these scenes. Turns out even they were hard to pull
off, heavy-duty harnesses and all.
Momoa
and Heard have chemistry and in the end, the film has established the
entire world of Atlantis the comic books have been famous for since
day one. Some may find this has a bit too much humor, but some of
the jokes and funny situations do work and though I could imagine a
darker, less humorous film, this is a solid film for DC and great
solidification of Momoa for hopefully a very long time to come in the
role. Longtime fans even have much to celebrate and I definitely
recommend this one, even with some flaws and down moments.
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced
2.35 X 1 Ultra High Definition image looks pretty good and the color
range makes up for some definition issues (not all the digital is 4K
in origin) and expect some detail issues, especially as the digital
work increases for the fantasy, underwater and other visual-effects
rich moments kick in. Good thing the look is consistent.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image on the Blu-ray is good,
but lacks so much of the color and detail, plus some depth the 4K
edition has, so it is fine if you cannot see the 4K but no substitute
for such a stylized presentation.
Both
films offer lossless Dolby Atmos 11.1 sound (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 for
older systems) and has its dialogue-based moments by necessity, but
even they are well recorded and mixed, then when the 12-track kicks
in, it is as state-of-the-art as anything in the genre. This is
especially good with the 4K image, bringing the comic book to life in
the chosen style.
Extras
include better than usual featurettes Going
Deep Into the World of Aquaman, Becoming Aquaman, James Wan: World
Builder, Aqua Tech, Atlantis Warfare, The Dark Depths of Black Manta,
Heroines of Atlantis, Villaneous Training, Kingdoms of the Seven
Seas, Creating Undersea Creatures, A Match Made in Atlantis, Scene
Study Breakdowns
and an Exclusive Sneak Peek of Shazam!
You
can also read about the unfortunate 2023 sequel in 4K at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16410/Aquaman+And+The+Lost+Kingdom+4K+(2023/DC
Sylvester
Stallone pays a producer a favor by appearing in Brian A. Miller's
Backtrace
(2018),
a low budget action film that's painfully subpar. Also starring
Matthew Modine and Meadow Williams, the film feels like its made for
cable and has a cookie-cutter script that's more predictable than
most procedural cop shows.
After
suffering a brain injury from a bank heist gone wrong, MacDonald
(Modine) develops amnesia and is put into a prison psychiatric ward.
Following his seventh year shielded from society, he breaks out of
prison and gets injected with an experimental serum that forces him
remember what he can't. A drugged up MacDonald must now elude the
local authorities including a detective (Stallone), a FBI agent
(McDonald) and recover the stolen cash to clear his name...
The
film is presented in 1080p on Blu-ray disc with a widescreen aspect
ratio of 1.85:1 and a nice sounding track in an English DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) lossless 5.1 and lesser Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks in
English, Spanish, and French depending on your personal taste. Also
included is a standard definition DVD of the film with a similar
widescreen spec and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. A digital copy is
also included.
Special
Features include...
Making
Backtrack
Cast/Crew
Interviews
and
Trailer Gallery
Ho
Ying (Donnie Yen) was an elite place guard during the Ming Dynasty,
but due to a twist of fate he was frozen in time in an avalanche.
Awoken in the modern day, Ying fights to return to the past and
correct the past ...to save his village and stop those who would
abuse the secret of time travel in Wai man Yip's Iceman:
The Time Traveler
(2018).
Ho
Ying was once one of four guards charged with guarding the secrets to
time travel, however Ho Ying was the only one given the secret mantra
to activate the ancient time machine. He was wrongfully accused and
his entire village was massacred, and now in the future he meets May
a girl who loves him and together they return to the past to correct
the future. Together they fight against his former brother-in-arms
who betrayed him. But regardless of whatever era he is in, he learns
that those in power wants to control the power he has. Time after
time, Ho Ying learns history is not so easily changed...
This
was an action pack, martial arts/sci-fi movie it is about a man who
time travels to protect the people he loves. But after repeating
happiness and tragic loss, he learns time is not so easily
controlled, instead the learns to accept what life teaches him and
continues to travel through time, but there is more to see indeed.
Extras include trailers, see more on playback quality below.
Prince
Ganglim (Hyun Bin) returns to Korea from his exile only to discover
that his country is overrun by zombies. His brother was murder by
the King his father and the Minister of War and his aides has been
secretly plotting to use the zombies to wipe out the kingdom and give
it a 'fresh' new start and take over the government with them as the
head in Sung-hoon Kim's Rampant
(2018).
Prince
Ganglim rather just enjoy his wine and women than worry about the
kingdom, but he is forced to become an unwilling leader when he
returns and discover his home is covered with zombies. His father
the King is a weak and paranoid ruler in which the Minister of War
has used to his advantage to secretly remove all those loyal to the
King. Prince Ganglim finds his only help are the 'peasants' and
those considered 'traitors' to the kingdom. Together the must not
only stop the conspiracy, but also keep the zombie from turn Korea
into a nation of the undead. The Prince and the people instead of
running, decides to fight, he uses the capital to bait and trap all
the zombie inside and destroy them before they can spread.
From
the people who brought you Train
to Busan,
this is another zombie movie set in ancient Korea. It truly shows it
only take one zombie to cause a zombie outbreak, anyone with the
slightest injury eventually becomes one. At first main character
seems like total loser and worst type of womanizer, but over time
(and tragedy) he becomes a hero that people look up to. Extras
include making of the movie, behind the scenes and trailers.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on both
releases look as great as they can in the format (wonder if they'll
be 4K candidates) with great color range and depth throughout, but
Iceman
has the edge because the money and effort are really in there. The
sound is not any kind of 12-track sound, but we get (Iceman
in Korean, Rampage
in Cantonese) still very impressive DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes that are pretty sonically
capable. The anamorphically enhanced DVDs with lossy Dolby Digital
5.1 mixes are passable, but no match for their Blu-ray counterparts.
Finally,
from the director of Best
of the Best
and Best
of the Best 2
comes Showdown
(1993), the renowned martial arts epic. Ken Scott (Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze)
picks a fight with the wrong guy on his first day at his new school,
and all because he decided to talk to a girl (Christine Taylor).
This wrong guy ends up being a champion of an illegal fighting
operation and kicks Ken's butt all over the school yard. It doesn't
take long for school janitor and ex-cop Billy Grant (Billy Blanks,
The
Last Boy Scout)
to train Ken to defend himself (through several montage training
sequences of course.) The two men go head to head in physical combat
in this fun martial arts time capsule flick.
The
film also stars Ken Mcleod, Linda Dona, Brion James and Patrick
Kilpatrick.
Showdown
is pretty much a low budget version of Karate
Kid
or Rocky,
and with plenty of fight scenes to keep martial arts fans
entertained. The film is captured in 1080p high definition with a
widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and audio tracks in Dolby Digital
5.1 (384 kbps) and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (384 kbps) lossless
sound, the restoration here is clean and pretty nice. While shot on
a low budget not every shot is perfect, but this is clearly the best
the film has ever looked. Also included is a standard definition
anamorphically enhanced DVD.
Special
Features include...
"The
Making of "Showdown"
(new feature length documentary with director Robert Radler, writer
Stuart Gibbs and stars Billy Blanks, Kenn Scott, John Asher, Patrick
Kilpatrick and Michael Genovese) (HD, 98 mins)
Robert
Radler: Portrait of a Director
featurette (HD, 12 mins)
Billy
Blanks: Martial Arts Legend
featurette (HD, 15 mins)
The
Fights of "Showdown"
featurette (HD, 47 mins)
"Showdown":
Anatomy of a Scene
featurette (HD, 7 mins)
Photo
Gallery
Original
Theatrical Trailer (SD)
Collectible
Mini-Poster
Showdown
is a very '90s action flick that's predictable yet has a good message
behind it. Even if it's not perfect, this is a nice presentation for
those remember it from the VHS era, and there's a wealth of new bonus
features too.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Aquaman),
Ricky Chiang (Well Go) and James
Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
