Amazing
Mr. X (1948/Film
Detective Blu-ray)/Dirty
Laundry (1987/MVD
Blu-ray)/Escape Room 2:
Tournament Of Champions
(2021/Sony Blu-ray)/Fried
Barry (2020/RLJ
Blu-ray)/Night House
(2020/Disney Blu-ray)/The
Suicide Squad 4K (2021
first sequel/DC Comics/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/B-/B/B+/B+/B Sound:
C+/C+/B/B+/B+/A- Extras: B-/C/C+/C/C/C+ Films: C+/C/C/C/B/C+
If
you like horror, comedy and/or gross humor, you'll find some or all
of that in the following entries...
Bewrnard
Vorhaus' The Amazing Mr. X (1948) is an early sound film about
spiritualists and connecting with ghosts, whether they turn out to be
real or not. We originally looked at the film on DVD over 13 years
ago at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8435/Classic+Film+Noir+Volume+5:+The+Amazing+Mr
It
has not improved with age, save the impressive camera work but
legendary cinematography John Alton, A.S.C., who is the reason it is
discussed the most. You can see his remarkable work much more
clearly in this new, upgraded Blu-ray edition from Film Detective.
I
want to add that I think co-stars Turhan Bey, Cathy O'Donnell and
Lynn Bari are good here, but most people do not known who they are
(though I always did) and failed to note how well they gel together
here, even if I ultimately did not think the film worked. Richard
Carlson is still a standout here, despite not having as much screen
time. Those really interested can see it for themselves, more
clearly than ever. Nice to see it restored so well.
Extras
include an illustrated booklet on the film with an essay on lead
Turhan Bey by film scholar Dan Stradley, while the disc adds the
featurette Mysteries Exposed: Inside The Cinematic World Of
Spiritualism and a very well done, feature length audio
commentary track by film scholar Jason A. Ney, which is not a repeat
of the track on the VCI DVD by another scholar, but new for this
release as well.
William
Webb's Dirty Laundry (1987) is the kind of low-budget comedy
home video and a larger number of theaters in the late 1980s (when
they still existed) could still support. A guy (Leigh McCloskey)
goes to a laundromat and accidentally gets involved in a drug deal
where the money goes missing and he gets blamed!
His
girlfriend (Jeanie O'Brien) is a music reporter, which leads them to
be in contact with a shady music manager (Sonny Bono) who also
happens to know the lead gangster whose product it is and whose money
is missing (legendary singer Frankie Valli) and a 'humorous' chase
results. Unfortunately, the script is all over the place, a mix of
good and bad actual musicians play musicians in the film, there are
really no laughs, Robbie Rist, Carl Lewis and Greg Louganis as a
heterosexual surfer dude do not add to any of this.
Considering
some of the talent here, this could have worked better in any number
of ways, but the makers just throw it all together and it never adds
up after 89 minutes. For the ultra-curious only.
Extras
include a collectible mini-poster inside the Blu-ray case, while the
disc adds a feature length audio commentary track by Tony Piuso, Newt
Wallen & Crystal Quin, an Original Theatrical Trailer and two
on-camera actor interviews (Leigh McCloskey and Robbie Rist) at about
a half-hour each.
Next,
the concept of the Escape Room
franchise is a pretty clever one and it has a vibe similar to the
Final Destination or Saw films in some ways. Real
escape rooms are something you can find in just about any major city
now. You and a group of your friends can get locked in a room and
must solve hidden clues in order to escape. It was only a matter of
time until someone made a movie about them, thus a franchise is born.
Well
in the sequel, Escape Room 2: Tournament of Champions (2021),
we retain that same basic concept although it's pushed to the limits
in a win or die scenario (and several do die.) The biggest film with
the film is that it spends most of its 90-minute running time jumping
from one elaborate trap to the next and sums it up with an ending
that spends more time setting up another film than it does resolving
the story in this one. We don't know who is the pulling the strings
behind the lot of this, which adds some mystery to it, but is equally
frustrating.
The
film stars Logan Miller, Taylor Russell, Anton David Jeftha, Deborah
Ann Woll, and Holland Roden.
In
Tournament of Champions, six teens and/or early 20-somethings
end up on a subway together, when the transit wrecks and they realize
they are in a trap. It doesn't take long until we realize that each
of these characters were past champions in previous versions of the
escape room. As they go from elaborate trap to elaborate trap and
the group grows smaller and smaller, its up to the sole victor (I
won't spoil it for you) to find out what the meaning of all these
traps are and what part they play in the future of demonic escape
rooms.
Special
Features:
EXTENDED
AND THEATRICAL CUTS OF THE FILM
Go
Inside the Minos Escape Rooms
Meet
the Players
and
Director Adam Robitel on Raising the Stakes
Fried
Barry
(2020) is
a pretty wild film that's just plain weird from start to finish. It
is shot gorgeously and has some very impressive filmmaking elements
in it that can only be described as trippy. The story centers on a
bizarre looking junkie (Gary Green) who ends up getting abducted by
aliens and ends up getting his body 'invaded' by an alien force. As
Barry goes around town, he gets into bizarre situation after bizarre
situation, and starts to realize that he is anything but normal
anymore. Part body horror, part drug movie, part gross, Fried
Barry
is definitely a movie to check out if you like any of what I just
described in a film.
The
film stars Gary Green, Joey Cramer, Chanelle De Jager, Lise Slabber,
Hakeem Kae-Kazim, and Jenna Saras. It was a Fantasia Film Festival
Official Selection for 2020 as well with direction by Ryan Kruger.
Special
Features:
Audio
Commentaries
Making
Of featurette
Fried
Barry Short Film
Deleted/Extended
Scenes
Outtakes
Barry
Outtakes
and
How To with Barry
Rebecca
Hall (Godzilla vs Kong, Iron Man 3, The Prestige)
proves her leading lady capabilities with the exciting supernatural
thriller, The Night House (2020), which is a creepy ghost
story that is definitely pretty original. With a vibe similar to
suspense films like Robert Zemeckis' What Lies Beneath and
even a dash of inspiration maybe from The Invisible Man
remake, the film centers mainly on a female protagonist who slowly
solves a complex mystery surrounding her (maybe evil?) husband.
Things get pretty weird in this film though, and the slow build up
pays off with a satisfying ending.
The
film also stars Sarah Goldberg, Stacy Martin, Vondie Curtis-Hall, and
Evan Jonigkeit.
Beth
(Hall) is a school teacher who is shaken by the sudden suicide of her
husband and is now living in the lake house that he built before he
died. As she attempts to move on with her life, she slowly starts to
piece together the events that led us to his death and some startling
secrets about him are unearthed, she soon realizes that these events
hold a bizarre connection to her past.
Special
Features:
What
Happens at the Lake House Featurette
and
Trailers
Finally
we have James
Gunn's The
Suicide Squad 4K,
a 2021 (first?) sequel to the hit 2016 film we reviewed on 4K disc
here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14630/Counter+Clockwise+(2016/Artsploitation+DVD)/In
Returning
from the first David Ayer film are Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney),
Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), Amanda Walker (Viola Davis) and Harley
Quinn (Margot Robbie) while losing Will Smith. New cast members
include Savant (Michael Rooker), T.D.K. (Nathan Fillon), Blackguard
(Pete Davidson), Javelin (Flula Borg), Ratcatcher 2 (Daniel
Melchior), Mongal (Mayling Ng), Polka Dot Man (David Dastmalchian in
one of the best performances here), Bloodsport (Idris Elba),
Peacemaker (John Cena, struggling to give an acting performance for
once in his life and succeeding here and there) and King Shark (voice
of Sylvester Stallone).
Before
this film, DC Comics had two universes to deal with in the superhero
genre: the regular one and the comedy one launched by Shazam!,
but this film adds a third one of absurd, ultra-gross, wacky humor
and situations that are two outrageous for the other films and too
gross for the new child-friendlier Shazam!. Gunn, in an
attempt to make up for the last film's mixed response, goes for broke
and the gross situations, gross dialogue, absurd moments and has so
many such vignettes that it constantly interrupts any narrative the
film could or should have.
On
the one hand, it has plenty of well-thought out moments and tie-ins
for longtime and new DC fans, but it more than earns it R-rating
puling far past his Marvel movies and falling back more than a few
times of his horror genre entries to the point that some may argue it
is not a superhero genre film and since it is a supervillain film,
that has a degree of validity. Unfortunately, Gunn succeeds and
fails at the same time, coming up with so many moments as intended,
but shrinking narrative to the point that the film is no better than
its predecessor.
At
least the actors give it their best and Gunn's love of all genres
attempted are authentic enough, but it is just too much and it does
not add up when all is said and done, including having see more than
some of this before, including in Gunn's own films. See for
yourself, but expect the unexpected and do not have high
expectations. That might help.
Extras
include
Digital Copy, while both discs add a feature length audio commentary
track by Gunn and the regular Blu-ray
adds a Gag Reel, five featurettes (Gotta
Love the Squad and The Way of The Gunn, Comic Book Origins of The
Suicide Squad, Starro: It's a Freakin Kaiju! and Bringing King Shark
To Life),
Breakdowns (It's
a Suicide Mission
Scene, My
Guns Bigger Than Yours
Scene, Harley's
Great Escape
Scene and The
Fall of Jotunheim
Scene,) War Movie Retro Trailer, Horror Movie Retro Trailer,
Buddy-Cop Retro Trailer and Deleted & Extended Scenes.
Now
for playback
performance. The 2160p HECV/H.265, 1.90 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10+;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Squad
4K
version just passes up the rest of the entries here for color range,
detail, depth and clarity. The 1080p Blu-ray version is good for the
now-older format, but cannot match the 4K in overall performance.
More impressive is the soundtrack, which is in Dolby
Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) on both
discs. It is one of the most impressive uses of the sound format to
date with all kinds of traveling dialogue and sound effects that make
for some of the film's better and more interesting moments. A nice
surprise.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 black & white digital High Definition image
transfer on Mr. X can show the age of the materials used, but
this is far superior a transfer to all previous releases of the film
including the older DVD form VCI that looked OK for the time and
under the circumstances, but now shows its age and was from a lesser
source. The DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is also an improvement, but the sound is
optical mono from an independent film production, so one can only
expect so much. Otherwise, its fine.
Fried
Barry is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with
an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and a
lossless English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix. The film looks
and sounds fine for the Blu-ray format and definitely looks better
than streaming. As mentioned the film has great cinematography and a
highly cinematic look even though the content at some times can be
questionable.
Escape
Room is preserved in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with
an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2:39.1 and a
lossless English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix. The film looks
and sounds up to standards with the Blu-ray format in an overall
satisfying presentation.
The
Night House is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc
with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.40:1 and a
lossless English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mix. The film is
beautifully photographed and has a great and tense sound mix that
that is heightened.
Finally,
the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Laundry
can also show the age of the materials used, but the slight motion
blur suggests a slightly older HD master or someone did not totally
transfer this as well as they could have. Color is fine otherwise
and the DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix is about as good as an
independent film from the time could sound in mono, as at this point,
only Woody Allen and ultra-low budget films were not using at least
simple stereo at this point. The combination is a little aged, but
is good enough for this release, though die hard fans might want a
little more.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (4K, Dirty, X) and James Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
