A
Man On His Knees
(1979/Radiance Blu-ray*)/Torso
4K (1973/Arrow 4K Ultra
HD Blu-ray*)/The Threat
(1966/Arrow Blu-ray/*all MVD)/Vikings:
Valhalla: The Complete First Season
(2022/MGM/Warner Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B/X/B-/B- Sound: B-/B-/C+/B
Extras: C/B-/B-/D Main Programs: C+/C+/B-/C+
Now
for a new set of thrillers revisiting familiar genres and even
franchises...
Damiano
Damiani's A
Man On His Knees
(1979) arrived at the end of a solid decade of very violent, brutal
Italian crime thrillers that were hell-bent on outdoing Coppola's
Godfather
and every other equally brutal American, Japanese and French New Wave
crime drama they could. The energy was running out and like
Blaxploitation and Martial Arts films, so was the trend. Nino
(Giuliano Gemma) is a family man just trying to run his cafe stand
when he is mistakenly accused of witnessing a key crime.
It
is mob-related and all of the sudden, a mysterious man is asking
about him and might be trying to assassinate him! He's also got his
son in tow and is trying to figure out what is going on. With less
violence, but semi-serious situations with sometimes ironic touches
of humor, the film has its moments, but becomes uneven and worse as
the director does not know what he wants to show or say. It makes
things worse for those of us who have seen his earlier mob films,
where his views are totally different than what we get here.
Though
well cast, acted and filmed, it becomes to Damiani what Family
Plot
became to Alfred Hitchcock, a film of note from the director that is
not totally realized and not in keeping with his body of work.
That's a shame because this could have been a nice coda to that whole
Italian cycle, but just falls apart a bit and never recovers. The
result is like its Hollywood counterpart, Italian filmmaking would
also regress in the 1980s and not in a good way.
Extras
are many
and (per the press release) include:
An
archival interviews with stars Giuliano Gemma, Tano Cimarosa and
assistant director Mino Giarda
New
interview with Alberto Pezzotta, author of Regia Damiano Damiani
Original
Theatrical Trailer
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Filippo
Di Battista
Booklet
featuring new writing by Roberto Curti
and
in the Limited Edition of 3000 copies,
presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip
leaving packaging free of certificates and markings.
Sergio
Martino's Torso
4K
(1973) has been restored so well, it is like watching a whole new
film, though this 4K version comes form the same scan used in the
regular Blu-ray edition we previously covered the film in Arrow's
regular Blu-ray edition here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15296/Torso+(1973/MVD+Visual/Arrow+Blu-ray
And
here is my coverage of the older Blue Underground Blu-ray edition
here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11236/Alien+Vault+(2011/Hardcover+Book/Voyageur+Pre
Featuring
some of the odder trailers for the horror/slasher genre of the time,
the film never lived up to its promise,
but Suzy Kendall and Tina Aumont
are still a plus here, even when the screenplay and plotting fail.
At least looking so good and much better than anything outside of a
pristine 35mm or 16mm film print, it can be enjoyed more than ever on
a purely cinematic level no previous video release could capture. If
you want to see it, this is the way to go!
Extras
repeat the Arrow
edition and fans will want to get this version while supplies last.
Kinji
Fukasaku's The
Threat
(1966) is one of the best 'domestic invasion' films where criminals
invade, kidnap, intimidate and more, an innocent family chosen by
random or because they discover they can use one of the family to
pull a robbery. If you are not familiar with such films, you can
read about the two versions of The
Desperate Hours
as we reviewed on Blu-ray, staring with the original 1955 version:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16349/Beast+From+Haunted+Cave+(1959+w/Ski+Troop
Or
the underrated 1990 remake:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16152/Desperate+Hours+(1990+remake/MGM/UA*)/Dual
Or
Suddenly
with Frank Sinatra, in two different Blu-ray editions by Image
Entertainment:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11937/Dead+Ringer+(1964)/The+Postman+Always+Rings
Or
the earlier Film Chest/HD Cinema Classics release:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11893/Dark+Star+(1974/VCI+Blu-ray)/Fire
Being
the newest of the three originals, Director Fukasaku takes things a
step further by making them more personal, more violent, more brutal
and colder. All were in black and white, but Fukasaku makes it
darker and more surreal while keeping it all connected to the high
stakes of the narrative. He later directed the ever-controversial
(and a bit overrated) Battle
Royale
(reviewed elsewhere on this site,) but I think this is the better
film. Now you can see for yourself in this impressive restoration.
Extras
are many and (per the press release) include:
Lastly,
we have Vikings:
Valhalla: The Complete First Season
(2022) and our only TV entry here, a continuation/spin-off/sequel to
MGM's hugely successful Vikings
TV series with Travis Fimmel, et al. He is not here and like many
such projects, you get an all-new cast, the actors not bad. To their
advantage, the makers do find a way to continue and recreate the look
and feel of the previous hit series, but they do not find a way to
take the next step after it either.
I
admit this is not my kind of television, but it is one of the better
examples of a production in the genres it covers and the original
series was a worthy competitor to Game
Of Thrones,
so its got that going for it. However, this is still for fans only
or those REALLY interested in this kind of storytelling. We'll see
how the follow-up seasons unfold.
There
are oddly no extras, but you can read about our coverage of the
previous seasons of the first series and more on Vikings in general
at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/new/viewer.cgi?search=vikings
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.66 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Torso
4K is
so good that I actually thought it improved a problematic film that
did not work as well asm all those trailers suggested. Now the film
really looks much more like a 35mm dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor version of the film, so that's a nice plus
and the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 1.0 lossless mixes in English and
Italian are the same as the Blu-ray set. They are good, though I
wished they were 2.0 Mono.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Man is from a
new 4K restoration and is the second-best looking release on the list
with fine color, detail and depth. The
PCM 2.0 Mono is also as good as the film will ever sound, so it is a
fine combination with the restoration work well worth it.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 black and white digital High Definition image transfer
on The Threat can show the age of the materials used a little
bit, but the anamorphic lens adds some dated distortion. However,
Video Black, Video White, detail and depth are impressive enough
otherwise and the PCM 1.0 Mono
sounds good, but maybe would sound a bit better in 2.0 Mono.
Otherwise, it is very clean and clear for its age. The combination
is more than effective and compelling enough to work.
The
1080p 2.00 X 1 digital High Definition image transfers on Vikings
looks good for all the CGI plastered all on it, but is just a little
softer throughout than I would have liked, though I wondered if a 4K
edition would be better. The DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes on all the episodes are better
and mixdown or not, are the default highlight of the set.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
