Addams
Family 2
(2021/animated/MGM/Universal Blu-ray w/DVD)/The
Brotherhood Of Satan
(1971/Arrow Blu-ray*)/Demons
1 & 2 4K
(1985, 1986/Synapse 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/*both MVD)/Dune
(2021 remake/Warner Blu-ray w/DVD)/The
Penthouse
(2021/Lionsgate DVD)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B & C+/B/X/B & C/B-
Sound: B & C+/B/A-/B+ & C/B- Extras: C/B/B+/C+/D
Films: C+/C/B- & C+/C+/C
Sequels,
remakes, restorations and revivals make up the latest batch of genre
films...
Gregg
Tiernan and Conrad Verono's CGI-animated The
Addams Family 2
(2021) marks the second animated feature film version (after live
action and animated TV version, plus a few live-action feature films)
with some decent animation, a solid voice cast and a mixed script.
After attending a school science project contest, the Family decides
to take it on the road, a road trip in their haunted camper. This is
to bring them together, but as expected, it does not quite work out
that way.
On
the down side, I thought the humor became a little too off-color for
younger audiences, but voice actors Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron,
Chloe Grace Moritz, Wallace Shawn, Bill Hader, Snoop Dogg and Bette
Midler (who was so good in voicing Oliver
and Company)
are very good here and gel very well, rising above some of the flaws
and limits of this obvious outing and maybe fans will like it more
than most. Maybe its time to gibe these characters a break, but this
will do for now.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer is not bad and
has some nice color and detail, though far from the best CGI out
there, is pretty good for the format and certainly sticks to its
style (horror film Addams-style, et al) to a fault, appropriately. I
expect this looks better in 4K to be issued as some point, but still
does lose some appropriate visual darkness and color the older TV
version has on it. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix is not a bad mixdown from
the 12-track soundmaster, but still has some sonic limits in
comparison. This sounds fine otherwise.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image DVD version is a little
compressed and can be soft, but is as good as it is going to get in
the format, as is the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, which is a
passable mixdown from the original 12-track soundmaster.
Extras
include a Digital Code, while the discs add three Making Of
featurettes: We're
Altogether Addams,
Courage
To be Kooky
and The
Addams Family Road Trip Checklist.
During
the 1970s, you had the satanic panic period where there many devil
themed movies abound such as the Robert Fuest cult classic The
Devil's Rain
(available on Blu-ray from Severin Films).
The
Brotherhood of Satan
(1971) gets a nice release here from Arrow Video that captures this
colorful and weird satanic movie that has a dash of Village
and Children
of the Damned
in its DNA. In the film a small town is being overtaken by a satanic
cult that is abducting its children and killing others!
The
film stars Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Charles Bateman, Ahna Capri,
Charles Robinson, and Alvy Moore. The film is directed by the
capable journeyman Bernard McEveety (1970s The
A-Team).
The
Brotherhood of Satan
is presented in 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an MPEG-4
AVC codec, a 2.40:1 widescreen aspect ratio and an audio mix in
English LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit). The film has been restored nicely
by Arrow and has a clean and nice sounding transfer that preserves
the film the way that it was meant to be seen.
Special
Features:
Brand
new audio commentary by writers Kim Newman and Sean Hogan
Satanic
Panic: How the 1970s conjured The Brotherhood of Satan,
a brand new visual essay by David Flint
The
Children of Satan,
exclusive new interview with actors Jonathan Erickson Eisley and
Alyson Moore
Original
Trailers and TV and Radio Spots
Image
Gallery
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Richard
Wells
and
First
pressing only:
Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Johnny Mains and Brad
Stevens.
The
Brotherhood of Satan
isn't as good as The
Devil's Rain
and is a bit dated. As a time capsule piece for the time it was
made, it is interesting to look back on in this nice Arrow release.
At
long last, the definitive edition of Lamberto Bava's Demons
1 and 2 4K
(1985 and 1986) has landed on the 4K UHD format courtesy of Synapse
Films. Produced by Dario Argento, the Demons
films are considered cult classics and are great to watch back to
back. Demons
are sort of Argento's answer to zombies, only a bit more ravenous
into their transformation and actions. Once you get attacked by a
demon you shortly turn into one itself as the sort of virus spreads
from person to person. The films have simply never looked better
than they do here, and this restoration is certainly one that is
notable and impressive.
In
the gore soaked first film, a weird masked man hands out movie
tickets to a small audience who attend the Metropol movie theater,
which shows a bizarre horror film. In correspondence to the actions
of the film, an ancient demonic force is awakened and passes from
person to person leaving a small group of survivors to escape the
theater whilst in pursuit. The film stars Natasha Hovey, Geretta
Geretta (Shocking
Dark),
Urbano Barberini, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento, and many others.
In
the lesser but still fun sequel, a high rise is the new location for
a demon infestation. While not as good as the original, there's
still pretty of memorable moments. The film stars David Knight,
Virginia Bryant, Bobby Rhodes, and Asia Argento.
Both
Demons
films are presented in 1.66 X 1, 2160p 4K with impressive new
transfers from the original 35mm camera negative and Dolby Vision/HDR
that leave a crystal clear presentation. Both films have
uncompressed, lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) English 5.1 &
Italian 5.1/2.0 audio mixes derived from the original archival audio
masters. There's also uncompressed, lossless DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) English 2.0 Mono U.S. theatrical audio newly remastered in
2021 by Synapse Films as an option as well. The soundtrack to the
first film is notorious and features music by Goblin, Billy Idol, and
many other hot artists of the time. The restoration is jaw
droopingly good when comparing it to previous releases as the colors
(which are very Argento-like) are more vibrant and more detail is
seen in the image overall.
Special
Features:
Demons
1
Two
versions of the film: the full-length original cut in English and
Italian, and the shorter U.S. version featuring alternate dubbing and
sound effects
New
audio commentary by critics Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain, co-hosts
of the Hell's
Belles
podcast
Audio
commentary with director Lamberto Bava, SPFX artist Sergio
Stivaletti, composer Claudio Simonetti and actress Geretta Geretta
Produced
by Dario Argento:
a new visual essay by author and critic Michael Mackenzie exploring
the legendary filmmaker's career as a producer
Dario's
Demon Days:
interview with writer/producer Dario Argento
Defining
an Era in Music:
interview with Claudio Simonetti
Splatter
Spaghetti Style:
interview with long-time Argento collaborator Luigi Cozzi
Carnage
at the Cinema:
Lamberto Bava and His Splatter Masterpiece
Dario
and Demons:
Producing Monster Mayhem
Monstrous
Memories:
Luigi Cozzi on Demons
Profondo
Jones:
The Critical Perspective
Splatter
Stunt Rock:
interview with Ottaviano Dell'Acqua
Stivaletti
Q & A at the 2019 UK 'Festival of Fantastic Films'
Original
Italian and English international theatrical trailers
U.S.
theatrical trailer
Newly
translated optional English SDH subtitles for the English version
and
newly translated English subtitles for the Italian version
Demons
2
New
audio commentary by film critic Travis Crawford
Bava
to Bava:
interview with Luigi Cozzi on the history of Italian horror
Creating
Creature Carnage:
interview with Sergio Stivaletti
Demonic
Influences:
Federico Zampaglione Speaks
The
'Demons' Generation:
Roy Bava discusses a legacy in lacerations
The
New Blood of Italian Horror
featuring Sergio Stivaletti
Screaming
for a Sequel: The Delirious Legacy of DEMONS 2
with Lamberto Bava
A
Soundtrack for Splatter:
interview with composer Simon Boswell
Together
and Apart:
a new visual essay on the space and technology in DEMONS and DEMONS 2
by author and critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
and
Original Italian and English theatrical trailers.
Demons
1 and 2
are classic Italian horror films and look and sound better than ever
in this limited 4K UHD release!
Denis
Villeneuve's Dune
(2021) is the third time in 37 years (and not for lack of trying)
that the same Frank Hebert classic has been brought to live action
life, following the 1984 David Lynch version (see the 4K review
elsewhere on this site) and two TV mini-series in adapting what
turned out to he a series of respectable, influential books.
Timothee Chalamet is the new lead, who might be 'the one' as a
potential intergalactic war starts brewing for an extremely valuable
substance over-simply dubbed 'spice' that means power and will drive
evil people to genocide.
With
the advantage of better-of-digital visual effects than either of its
predecessors, the makers tried to avoid being like Star
Wars,
but that would be impossible for how often Lucas was influenced by
the Herbert books. Other influences include 2001,
Blade
Runner,
Terry Gilliam's sci-fi trilogy, plus less obvious films like The
Man Who Fell To Earth
and Eisenstein's Battleship
Potemkin
(which it oddly samples too briefly for an action sequence) and we
still get some interesting scenes and moments.
Another
plus is the supporting cast, including Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson,
Oscar Isaac, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Chang Chen, Javier
Bardem, Charlotte Rampling and a great ace of a choice in Stellan
Skarsgard. Of course, there are many more, but that is a very, very
strong cast. So the film is good, but also has a few off moments
(including a last comment that was bad) that you would never see in
the earlier versions. We will get at least one sequel, so we'll see
where this goes, but if you are interested, it is very much worth a
look.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer was shot on
4.5K Ultra HD cameras, transferred to photochemical film, then
scanned back from there, giving it a unique look that may not be as
distinct and expressionistic as the Lynch version or as more vivid
than usual for a TV mini-series than what Vitorrio Storaro lensed for
the mini-series. Director of Photography Grieg Frazer, A.S.C.,
A.C.S., works this new, slightly darkened look well to no end, but it
works enough for what they are trying to do. There is some softness
and slight motion blur here, but we gather the 4K edition should
mostly correct this.
UPDATE:
I have now seen the 4K edition and the differences between the 1080p
Blu-ray (also included in the new set) and this 2160p edition a wider
than expected. We still get some soft moments, but the Video Black
is much richer and color range much better, for what is a dark film
visually. The unexpected thing is that, to be able to see the film
in the old Blu-ray or any format lower than 4K, the black has to be
faded down in a way that makes it a totally different picture
visually, with a flatter presentation that almost look gray by
comparison and no where as impressive as the 4K, which is the only
way to be able to see what they accomplished here visually, whether
you like the final result or not. Now you get to see that it is
almost as distinct as the Lynch version, so now I see why it won the
Academy Award for Best Cinematography, though I like his work on The
Batman
(see the 4K review elsewhere on this site) even better.
The
Dolby Atmos 11.1 (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown of older systems) has some
great demo moments on it and may be the default highlight of the
release, no matter what you think of the film. The Lynch film
certainly tried to have interesting sonics and this does as well,
with Composer Hand Zimmer having a great year that also included the
Bond film No
Time To Die.
Some parts work better than others for me and might be overly loud
to some, but the sound design and editing do their best to enhance
the narrative.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is much softer than expected
for whatever reasons, making it as difficult to look at as the DVD
set of the old TV mini-series version, while the lossy Dolby Digital
5.1 on the DVD is no picnic either. This is here for convenience at
best.
Extras
include a Digital Code, while
both discs add The Royal Houses and the Blu-ray only adds:
Filmbooks:
House Atreides
Filmbooks:
House Harkonnen
Filmbooks:
The Fremen
Filmbooks:
The Spice Melange
Inside
Dune: The Training Room
Inside
Dune: The Spice Harvester
Inside
Dune: The Sardaukar Battle
Building
the Ancient Future
My
Desert, My Dune
Constructing
the Ornithopters
Designing
the Sandworm
Beware
the Baron
Wardrobe
from Another World
and
A New Soundscape
Lastly,
The
Penthouse
(2021) starts out as a spin on the Rear
Window
formula and ends up being a generic thriller as it's about to get
interesting. A couple goes to a Penthouse on vacation at a resort
and ends up spying on a fighting couple in a boat nearby. One day
they notice that the woman is missing with the man being suspected by
the couple as being a murderer. Of course it isn't long but this
dangerous man ends up coming after them.
The
film stars Michael Pare, Vanessa Ore, Krista Grotte Saxon, and
Nicholas Turturro.
The
film is presented in standard definition on DVD with a 1.78:1
widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy, English 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
mix. The film looks modestly made with a few million at the budget
most likely.
No
extras.
The
Penthouse
is an average thriller that isn't anything you haven't seen before.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Addams,
Dune)
and James Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
