Amsterdamned
(1988/Blue Underground Blu-ray*)/Cruising
4K
(1980/Lorimar/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray*)/Love
& Crime
(1969/Toei/88 Films Blu-ray w/DVD/*all MVD)/Se7en
4K
(1995/New Line/Warner 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+/B+ Picture: B/X/B- & C+/X Sound:
B-/B-/B- & C+/B Extras: B-/B/B-/B+ Films: B-/B-/B-/B+
Now
for some serial killer thrillers, all restored and then some....
Dick
Maas' Amsterdamned
(1988) has been reissued by Blue Underground as a Blu-ray single,
versus one with a DVD, a set we covered a few years ago at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15061/Amsterdamned+(1988/Blue+Underground+Blu-ray
If
you can get past the Herrmann Psycho-like
music, which can be a little comical (unintentionally or not,) it is
a decent thriller. What at first seems like random killings turn out
to be linked, but is it revenge, a serial killer or something else?
The literature and poster art, et al, suggest a slasher film, but it
is not that formulaic, predictable or gory. It does have some
suspense and also knocks off a few shots and ideas from Spielberg's
Jaws,
but I will not say more except it is worth a look and turns out a
belated sequel is likely launching for 2025. We'll see how far they
get.
Extras
repeat the previous Blue Underground set listed at the link above.
William
Friedkin's Cruising
4K
(1980) remains the director's most controversial film, but the film
keeps getting a larger audience, more curiosity interest and further
discussion and analysis as Al Pacino plays a cop going undercover in
the gay and leather bar community to track down what apparently is a
serial killer. You can read more about the pros and cons of the film
with my review at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15529/Cruising+(1980/Lorimar/MVD/Arrow+Blu-ray
I
heard that since I posted the last review, Pacino said he always
thought it was an exploitation film and donated all of his salary at
the time to charity. The film is a mix of mystery, suspense,
Neo-Noir and some exploitation, but not outright exploitation,
especially considering the talent involved working hard to make this
work. Its just the script and its ending have some issues. Now that
you can see it this vividly, it is even more palpable and
suspenseful, so I recommend those who can see it in 4K, especially if
you have not seen it before, catch it this way now.
Extras
repeat the previous Arrow set, which are many and thorough, listed at
the link above.
Teruo
Ishii's Love
& Crime
(1969) is not only about female serial killers and crimes of passion,
but is also an anthology, brutal, graphic, bloody, but netter than
expected and one that holds up surprisingly well considering the
subject was usually treated an exploitive before The
Silence Of The Lambs,
Hitchcock's Psycho,
Powell's Peeping
Tom
and Mann's Manhunter.
One involves a woman castrating men, another who landed up being the
last woman beheaded in japan, a serial poisoner and an outright
serial killing gal.
Though
none of the four particularly stuck with me, and not because of some
desensitization to either violence or just seeing a ton of feature
films, I did think they worked well enough, were well made, look
good, are smart, mature, convincing and intelligently made for a
mature audience. You rarely see that in the genre now, so Ishii
(Yakuza
Law)
did pull off most of what he intended and this was even creepier then
considering the male-dominated Japanese culture and that were we just
seeing women's liberation. Its just another film that proves 1969
was one of the strongest years for film since 1939, worldwide!
Extras
include a reversible cover, a nicely illustrated booklet on the film
including informative text and an excellent essay by Jasper Sharp,
while the discs add a feature length audio commentary track by Jasper
Sharp & Amber T., an Image Gallery, Original Theatrical Trailer
and an intro to the film Kiss
Of Death: Mark Schilling on Love
& Crime.
To
add to the four great classics about serial killers, David Fincher's
Se7en
4K
(1995) continues to be one of the best, now restored by the man
himself from the original 35mm shoot, including recreating the more
expensive, darker 35mm prints that kept more of the silver in them
throughout to make the film ever more creepy. Our first time
covering the film, Morgan Freeman is a wise detective, book-wise and
streetwise, on the verge of retirement when he gets a surprise
arrival at the station in the form of a young, brash detective (Brad
Pitt) who happens to show up when their first case involves some
bizarre, gruesome killing.
Soon,
the patterns and clues start to add up, the mysterious killer (a
pre-scandal Kevin Spacey, who we luckily do not see much of here) who
is committing murders to line up with the concept of the seven deadly
sins. I becomes a palpable, cat and mouse game and one of the best
thrillers of the last 40+ years, with Fincher in excellent form and
it became an instant classic even beyond its genre. And no one knew
at the time, but the credits became one of the most imitated and
ripped-off since, even three decades later as this posts.
I
forgot how effectively dark, brutal and raw this film could be in the
wake of so many bad and lame serial killer films, most of which were
shallow, lame, forgettable and even pointless and formulaic. Fincher
later avoided all of that and even imitating his film here with
Zodiac
(2005, now on 4K disc) a decade later. The use of the scope frame
impresses, the acting underrated and mood so thick it still affects
its viewers. I got to see it in one of those silver-retention 35mm
prints (see more on that below in the tech section) when it first hit
theaters back then and this is easily the best the film has looked
since.
As
impressive as ever, I highly recommend Se7en
4K
and you'll be impressed more than you think.
Extras
remarkably tend to retain most of the ones we've seen since Criterion
did that old 12-inch Criterion LaserDisc, save some of the nice
graphics and big gatefold cover. Those extras later landed up on a
Warner/New Live DVD. There are now four audio commentaries and
because of the new 4K upgrade, three featurettes and a stills gallery
are no longer here since they are older and do not apply anymore,
sadly. What we get includes
those four feature length audio commentary tracks...
The
Stars:
David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman
The
Story:
Richard Dyer, Andrew Kevin Walker, Richard Francis-Bruce, Michael De
Luca, David Fincher
The
Picture:
Darius Khondji, Arthur Max, Richard Francis-Bruce, Richard Dyer,
David Fincher
The
Sound:
Ren Klyce, Howard Shore, Richard Dyer, David Fincher
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Cruising
4K is
a little more impressive than even I expected, looking like
Friedkin's best films and those on 4K so far (I liked The
Exorcist 4K
more than most, as the 4K review elsewhere on this site will confirm)
and as I noted in the regular Blu-ray review, the theatrical
monophonic sound has been nicely upgraded to a DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 5.1 lossless mix and besides sounding the best it ever will
form its original monophonic elements, it will be very hard to find a
film print as good as the 4K scan here.
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra
High Definition image on Se7en
4K is
from a new 8K scan of the original 35mm camera negative, featuring
50D and both 200T Kodak EXR color film stocks of the time and shot
for Super 35. At the time of the film's original theatrical release,
Deluxe Labs and the studio (now defunct Fox) sent select movie houses
with better projection (known for the best projectors and changing
the bulbs regularly) special CCE prints that left silver in the
prints that increased grain and resulted in darker film black.
Fincher and Director of Photography Darias Khondji, A.F.C., A.S.C.,
purposely shot the film a certain way for this to deliver the maximum
impact in such prints.
The
old 12-inch Criterion LaserDisc version even had special instructions
on how to adjust your old analog TV to recreate such prints. Fincher
has remastered this to look as good and as close to such prints as
possible and though there are very slight differences like watching a
Technicolor film in 4K versus an actual dye-transfer Technicolor film
print, this is about as close as we are going to get to that kind of
rare, priceless print versus all previous video versions and the
resulting impact is still as stunning as it was when the film first
arrived. Would Dolby Vision have made this even closer to such
prints? Hard to say, but its impressive enough.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix from the original
theatrical release
sounds as good as it can or ever will, with Fincher deciding not to
upgrade it or spread it out with formats like DTS: X or Dolby
Digital. What he never gets credit for is having a movie with
multi-channel sound that knows when to be strategically silent and
quiet, something few films of any kind these days has a clue about,
so I am very happy he left it alone. It was done effectively to
begin with and while some films I love have done great upgrades in
similar situations, he made the correct call here.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on the Amsterdamed
Blu-ray repeats the solid transfer from the older Blu-ray and looks
just fine, but I love the shots of Amsterdam and bet this will shine
more if it gets 4K treatment. The three soundtracks from the
original theatrical monophonic sound include a lossless Dutch DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 5.1 track, a somewhat weaker DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless track and an unimpressive dubbed English
version in DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo lossless track. The 5.1 impresses
the most and is as good... as the film will ever sound.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Blu-ray
of Love
and Crime
is really decent, has often really good color and holds up well,
restored and only minor signs of age or light distortions from the
anamorphic lenses used to shoot the film. Glad the original camera
materials held up as well as they did. The
Japanese PCM 2.0 Mono shows its age, but has been well restored and
is as good as the film will ever sound. The anamorphically-enhanced
2.35 X 1 DVD is weaker and passable, but does not show as well the
restoration work here, as is the case with the lossy Dolby Digital
2.0 Mono sound. Its just here for convenience at this point.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
