Do
It Yourself
(2018/Artsploitation DVD)/Find
Me Guilty
(2006/Yari*)/Killers
Anonymous (2019/Lionsgate
Blu-ray w/DVD)/Loveless
(1981/Arrow/*both MVD Blu-rays)/The
Tall Men
(1955/Fox/Twilight Time Limited Edition Blu-ray)/Tolkien
(2019/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B-/B/B & C+/B+/B/B+ & C+ Sound: B-/C+/B+ & B-/B+/B/B+
& C+ Extras: C+/C/C+/B/C/C+ Films: B-/B-/C/B/B-/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Tall Men
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.
Here's
a group of unusual films, with serious situations, but sometimes
approached with comedy in unusual ways....
We
start with the Greek comedy/thriller Do
It Yourself
(2018), directed by James Widdoes, centers around a small-time crook
who agrees to film a video which will be used to help boost the
public image of a businessman. When he realizes that his accomplices
are going to kill him and the whole scheme was a wash, he gets
imprisoned in a porn studio, and has to hatch a plan of escape. Wild
and at times pretty hilarious with a high body count, Do
It Yourself
is certainly an original concept, and a film worth checking out.
Do
It Yourself
stars Mirto Alikaki, Konstadinos Aspiotis, Makis Papadimitriou,
Christos Loulis, and Themis Panou. The film is presented in standard
definition DVD with an anamorphically enhanced widescreen aspect
ratio of 2.39:1 and a lossy 5.1 Greek audio track with optional
English subtitles. Aside from compression that is the norm for the
format, the film looks and sounds fine for DVD.
Special
Features include:
Director
Commentary
How
it was shot
Storyboard
Comparison
VFX
Breakdown
The
Way of Styx - Short Film
and
a Trailer
Next
is Sidney Lumet's Find
Me Guilty
(2006), finally out on Blu-ray after its DVD debut 12 years ago. We
reviewed the DVD at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3958/Find+Me+Guilty
This
new edition has the same extras, sadly the same lossy Dolby Digital
5.1 mix (why no lossless sound?) and best of all, a nice, smooth
upgrade from the fairly decent DVD, but you can really see and enjoy
the film the way Lumet meant it to be seen, how he shot it, laid it
out, blocked it and had it edited. It remains one of Vin Diesel's
best films (by default?) and should now be a curio as Game
Of Thrones
alumni Peter Dinklage shows up as a lawyer in a really solid
performance.
I
still cannot believe Lumet is no longer with us, but this is a film
worth seeing (or seeing again) and any fan of comedy, gangster films,
Lumet or the cast should go out of their way to catch it. You'll be
surprised how well it holds up.
While
Gary Oldman is arguably one of the best actors of his generation, he
isn't always in good films. One must wonder why he chose Killers
Anonymous
(2019), a soulless and boring action/thriller that is trying to be
something akin to an early Guy Ritchie film but fails miserably.
Poor Jessica Alba is trying here, but she isn't given much to work
with as she plays a lesbian hired killer with a confusing and
complicated past. This direct to video film is just that, and one
you can skip without losing too much sleep.
The
film also stars Suki Waterhouse, Tommy Flanagan, and MyAnna Buring.
Using the AAA formula of a support group, only this time its for
killers, the film follows the exploits of some hired assassins with a
lot of baggage. Within the group, they plot an assassination attempt
on a U.S. Senator and fall into many mishaps along the way.
Killers
Anonymous
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with a
widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and a nice sounding English DTS-HD
Master Audio 5.1 mix. The transfer looks fine on Blu-ray disc and
has a nice even and slightly stylized look. A digital copy is also
included. Also included is an anamorphically enhanced, standard
definition DVD version with a compressed image and a lossy 5.1 Dolby
mix. Both releases are up to standards and fine considering the
nature of the film.
Special
Features include:
Director's
Commentary
Deleted
Scenes
and
an Alternate Ending
A
young Willem Dafoe stars in this bizarre film, Loveless
(1981), and shows how much talent he has always had as an actor.
Remastered and revamped on Blu-ray through Arrow Video. In the film
Dafoe plays a bad biker named Vance in the 1950s, whose something of
a greaser, who falls for a rich Southerner lady while Vance is on his
way to the Daytona racetracks. An early film of Director Kathryn
Bigelow as well, who co-directed with Monty Montgomery, this
interesting film is worth checking out if you're a fan of offbeat
period dramas.
The
film also stars Marianne Kanter, J. Don Ferguson, Tina Lhotsky, and
Robert Gordon.
Loveless
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with a
widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and a nice sounding English LPCM
2.0 Mono audio mix. This is a new 2K restoration from the original
camera negative by Arrow Films, approved by co-writer/co-director
Monty Montgomery and director of photography Doyle Smith. While I
haven't seen previous versions to gauge improvement over the years,
this is a fine and sharp presentation with nothing that detracted
away from the presentation and is nicely colored and composed.
Special
Features include:
New
audio commentary with co-writer/co-director Monty Montgomery,
moderated by Elijah Drenner
No
Man's Friend Today: Making The Loveless,
new video interviews with actors Willem Dafoe, Marin Kanter, Robert
Gordon, Phillip Kimbrough and Lawrence Matarese
U.S.
17: Shooting The Loveless, new video interviews with producers
Grafton Nunes and A. Kitman Ho
Chrome
and Hot Leather: The Look of The Loveless,
new interviews with production designer Lilly Kilvert and director of
photography Doyle Smith
Reckless,
new audio interview with musician Eddy Dixon
Extensive
image gallery, including on-set photographs, storyboards and original
production documentation
Theatrical
trailer
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles
Vranckx
and
First
Pressings Only:
Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by
Peter Stanfield.
Raoul
Walsh's The
Tall Men
(1955) is a big CinemaScope Western we covered over ten years ago in
a
impressive Clark Gable Collection DVD set. As I said then (with
modifications), the film pairs...
Gable
and gutsy Raoul Walsh in a Western about post-Civil War cattle drives
and the troubles that ensue. This time, Jane Russell is his leading
lady and Robert Ryan plays his opponent. The tale of greed competes
with the drama and Miss Russell's larger-than-life screen presence.
The trailer from the previous DVD literally is carried over to this
Blu-ray disc, joined by an Isolated Music Score by Victor Young. The
film was originally a 4-track magnetic stereo 35mm film releases, now
upgraded to lossless DTS-HD MA (Mater Audio) 5.1 sound, but you also
get 4.0 and 2.0 Stereo options that are not bad, but not as
impressive as the new 5.1 mix. As before, you can hear how the
remastering had to cut out background noise to the point that it
competes with dialogue and other sound effects.
An
illustrated booklet with tech info and an essay by Mike Finnegan
round out the upgrades. Leo Tover had been shooting films since the
silent era and his use of CinemaScope, especially in its wider
original 2.55 X 1 aspect ratio, is impressive, fun and sometimes
unintentionally funny. The
Tall Men
has some memorable shots for a pre-Spaghetti widescreen Western. The
DeLuxe lab color is here with more richness and a better range. Not
many of these early CinemaScope films were made, so it is always nice
when they arrive.
Twilight
Time once again offers a much-needed upgrade to a film more people
should check out.
And
finally, the biopic Tolkien.
This is for the Blu-ray/DVD combo of the film and not the 4K UHD
version, which is also available from Fox.
X-Men
actor Nicolas Hoult stars in Tolkien
(2019), which is based on the life of Lord of the Rings author J.R.R.
Tolkien. A solider in WWI and a student, young Tolkien ends up
falling in love with Edit Bratt (Lily Collins), and eventually
becoming the famed author he was born to be. The film mixes some of
his real life experiences with events in the book and where that
inspiration came from.
Overall
interesting but a bit slow in pace, the film didn't make a ton at the
box office and maybe came out a few years too late. This would have
had more interest in the early 2000s when Peter Jackson's films were
front and center in the public mind. However,
Tokien
isn't a bad film and is definitely worth checking out now that its on
disc.
Tolkien
also stars Pam Ferris, Derek Jacobi, and Genevieve O'Reilly. It is
directed by Dome Karukoski (Tom
of Finland).
The
film is presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect
ratio of 2.39:1 and an English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless
mix and foreign language tracks in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1. There's
also a standard definition DVD with an anamorphic widescreen
presentation of 2.39:1 and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Both
presentations look fine for both formats, and are up to par on both
mediums.
Special
Features include:
Deleted
Scenes with optional commentary by Director Dome Karukoski
First
Look clip
Gallery
of stills
and
a Feature-Length Audio Commentary by Director Dome Karukoski.
To
order The
Tall Men
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 (Guilty,
Tall)
and James
Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
