The
Drowning
(2021/DVD*)/The
East
(2021/MagNet/Magnolia Blu-ray)/Finding
Alice
(2020/DVD*)/The
Guns Of Navarone 4K
(1961/Sony 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Jack
Irish: Season 3
(2021/Blu-ray*)/Ms.
Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries: Series 2
(2021/Blu-ray*)/Whitstable
Pearl
(2021/DVD/*all Acorn)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: C+/B-/C+/B/B-/B-/C+ Sound:
C+/B/C+/B & B-/B-/B-/C Extras: C-/D/D/B/D/C-/C Main
Programs: C+/C+/C+/B/C+/C+/C+
Please
Note:
Some collectible triple Limited Edition foldout DVD sets with a
Halloween theme from Acorn, including Agatha
Raisin
and MidSomer
Murders
have been issued and fans should look into them before supplies run
out.
These
next thrillers take place overseas and come from several
eras...
We
start with The
Drowning
(2021) about a woman whose son goes missing and everyone thinks he
has drowned, but no body has turned up, so she has suspicions and
nine years later, sees a young boy who she believes might be her son
still alive!
This
is part of a cycle of such 'children in jeopardy' shows we have seen
from overseas and their popularity is a bit much, but here's another
one. Like those other shows, it has too many twists and turns to
buy, but I will give it some credit that it is consistent in taking
itself and its audience seriously. There is just nothing new here.
A
5-minutes Behind The Scenes clip is the only extra.
Jim
Taihuttu's The
East
(2021) is
the first of our two War genre films, about how a unit of soldiers go
into post-WWII Indonesia to help, but they are doing as much damage
as good thanks to a Captain dubbed ''The Turk'' (Marwan Kenzari) who
is at least a but sadistic and a new Dutch recruit (Marijn Lakemeier)
is not very happy about him or his actions and seems like one of the
only people to have any conscious that makes him take action as a
result.
This
is one of those films that starts good, starts to build up, then
seems to give up somewhere in the second half of its long 141 minutes
running time. That's not good, despite a good cast and some
interesting situations. That also means I believe I could have cut
this by at least 20 minutes and made it more effective, but you can
see for yourself if you can get the time. Wish it did more with its
time.
There
are no extras.
Finding
Alice
(2020) is a spiritual sister of sorts to the Finding
Joy
series we covered at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15739/Cannery+Row+(1982/MGM*)/Finding+Joy:+Series
Loosely
so, but this time, we have a comical soap opera drama of sorts with
Keeley Hawes as a wife who moves into the home her husband designed
and built. Sounds great, but suddenly, he dies and if that was not
bad enough, this leads to all kinds of things being revealed, many of
which she did not know about. Running six episodes, we get fun turns
by the undeniable Joanna Lumley and underrated Gemma Jones among
others and that makes this decent all around.
Unfortunately,
there are also passages that fall flat here and there, holding the
show back, but it is professionally made and anyone interested should
give it a good look.
There
are sadly no extras.
J.
Lee Thompson's The
Guns Of Navarone 4K
(1961) is
an epic War genre classic hit film about how a small crack unit does
what it can to take out the title Nazi weaponry in the kind of film
that also built the Action genre and has a great cast that includes
Gregory Peck, David Niven, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Baker, Anthony
Quayle, Irene Pappas, James Darren, Gia Scala, Richard Harris, Allan
Cuthbertson, Bryan Forbes, Walter Gotell and more in this
still-impressive British/U.S. Co-production now celebrating 60 years
as the kind of film that helped Columbia Pictures go from a small
studio to a permanent major.
They
need to take the guns out to free 2,000 British soldiers and allow
major warships to be able to stay afloat instead of being taken out
by the very powerful (for that time and still today) massive double
weapons which have been killing the Allied cause for too long. Based
on the Alistair MacLean novel, Thompson shows why he is one of the
greatest and most enduring journeyman directors of all time and this
film never wastes any of its 156 minutes being intense, smart,
entertaining or showing how great its cast is. Carl Foreman did the
screenplay adaptation and it is very well thought through. There is
growing chemistry as the cast interacts in character and I had not
seen it in way too long.
I
was glad at what I forgot and impressed how much of it holds up.
Though some visual effects, stock footage and the like might not have
aged well, this was impressive enough in its time to get the Academy
Award for best Visual Special Effects. It reminds us of a time when
such things were in a narrative context and not just showy and
stupid.
Now
in this sold 4K restoration, Guns
Of Navarone
deserves to be revisited and rediscover all over again. In either
case, treat yourself and see it, especially in 4K!
Special
Features on the 4K disc include a Progression Reel, Original Road
Show Intermission Cards and Original Theatrical Trailers, while the
regular Blu-ray continues the many goodies and includes two
feature-length audio commentary tracks (one by Director J. Lee
Thompson, the other by Film Historian Stephen J. Rubin,) plus (per
the press release):
The
Resistance Dossier of Navarone: Interactive Feature
Forging
The Guns of Navarone: Notes from the Set
An
Ironic Epic of Heroism
Memories
of Navarone
Epic
Restoration
A
Heroic Score
Great
Guns
No
Visitors
Honeymoon
on Rhodes
Two
Girls on the Town
Narration-Free
Prologue
and
a Message from Carl Foreman
Big
screen movie star Guy Pierce has a hit TV show on his hands, which
surprises me since he has had his share of good theatrical film
performances, yet seems to have avoided becoming a big international
movie star. He drives Jack
Irish: Season 3
(2021) and our previous coverage of the show attests to that, yet
this show (this season takes place three years after the last) is a
mixed bag that has him back in the private investigation world, but
with only so much grit and realism.
I
never could totally buy this show despite some good moments and we
only get four episodes here (who do these people think they are,
Benny Hill?) so it only has so much time to build up anything. At
least they know their target audience, so cheers to that, but its not
very memorable and makes me want to see Pierce in better roles.
There
are no extras.
Ms.
Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries: Series 2
(2021) is
a successful revival, sequel of sorts to the original Ms. Fisher
series set in 1920s Australia that we reviewed here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12085/Men+At+Work:+The+Complete+First+Season+(20
The
new show is set Down Under in the swinging 1960s with Geraldine
Hakewill as the title character and Joel Jackson actually playing a
detective named James Steed! (No lawsuit from the owners of the
British TV spy classic The
Avengers
with Patrick Macnee as John Steed (reviewed elsewhere on this site)
have not taken legal action yet!) in a series that has a case of
later 1960s style overkill, trying to play it for fun without being
Austin Powers.
The
show attempts to be humorous down to its unusual cases, but this is
one retro-show too many and unless you really land up liking the
cast, their version of this style and find humor in the teleplays,
you will be disappointed at this take of this era. I also thought it
had too many missed opportunities, so I was disappointed they settled
for kitsch. The cast and locales are nice, though.
The
only extra is a 15-minutes Behind The Scenes featurette.
And
we conclude with Whitstable
Pearl
(2021) has
the title character (Kerry Godliman) decide to start her lifelong
dream of launching a detective agency (!!!) when her grown son moves
out (!!!) of the house. Everyone in the small town starts to turn to
her (more lively than the population of MidSomer
Murders
to the lucky of all) until a good friend of hers is found murdered
and a DI (Howard Charles) from out of town arrives to investigate
with her.
They
initially clash, of course (this does not help the pace of the six
episodes here) until they have to get serious and figure out what is
going on. Unfortunately, though I liked a few touches the makers
come up with, it is too uneven to build up like the likes of a Mare
Of Easttown (reviewed elsewhere on this site) but is worth it for
mystery fans who might be very interested and the supporting cast is
not bad, plus you cannot go wrong with the location shoot. Mildly
recommended.
A
36 minutes From
Page To Screen
featurette is the only extra.
Now
for technical performance. Guns
Of Navarone 4K
is easily the best performer despite being 60 years old, presented on
4K disc in 2160p
HECV/H.265, 2.35 X 1, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High
Definition image as shot on 35mm film in the older CinemaScope
format. This is well restored and looks about as good as it ever
will, was originally issued at its best in three-strip, dye-transfer
Technicolor prints, but this is a War genre film, so the color is
only going to be so wide-ranging. Director of Photography Oswald
Morris, B.S.C. (The
Man With The Golden Gun,
Oliver!,
the original Sleuth,
Equus,
The
Wiz,
Kubrick's Lolita,
Dark
Crystal)
absolutely has a solid early grasp of what to do with the scope frame
and that really pays off here when many still saw scope framing as a
gimmick.
The
4K edition looks as good as I have ever seen it over the years and
has many impressive moments. The Blu-ray is passable, but no match
for the 4K version.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image in The
East
is an HD shoot that has some good images, but it is soft overall and
that affects its impact, though color is not bad, it cannot compete
with either Navarone
disc.
The
1080p 2.00 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Jack
Irish
episodes are also a set of HD shoots, but this has the second-best
performance on the list and are as well edited as they are lensed.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Fisher
episodes are also an HD shoot, but nicely stylized, yet they can be
too soft and I think it is beyond any stylization the makers chose.
Otherwise, color is nice.
All
three anamorphically enhanced DVDs (2.00 X 1, save 1.78 X 1 on
Drowning)
are looking as good as they can in the older standard-def format with
fairly good color (they get slightly darkened for the genre) and are
HD shoots. Alice
is in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and the other two DVD releases in
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mixes. They all sound fine for the
format except Pearl,
which is a little softer than expected, so be careful of volume
switching and high playback levels.
Navarone
4K
offers Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems,)
DTS HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 and 4.0 sound mixes (all from the
original 4-track magnetic soundmaster for 35mm scope prints, though
the music soundtrack was recorded separately, which is why the music
sounds best), but the Atmos has the most impact being the newest mix
off of the original sound materials. Yes, the film shows its age in
parts, but this is a remarkable upgrade and the second oldest to
Hitchcock's Psycho
4K
(1960, a DTS: X lossless mix) as oldest film to get this 12-track
treatment and for it to work. The regular Blu-ray only has a DTS-HD
5.1 mix and it is older and no match for the Atmos.
The
East
has a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix, while Jack
Irish
and Fisher
only offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes for
each show, but they are a little weak and disappointing in a TV
market where some shows are already in Dolby Atmos. The
East
sounds better, if not always great, but second best by default to
Navarone
on the entire list.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
