Curb
Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series
(2000 - 2021/HBO/Warner Blu-ray Set)/Downton
Abbey: The Grand Finale 4K
(2025/Universal 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Gilded
Age: The Complete Third Season
(2025/HBO/Warner DVD Set)/Island
Closest To Heaven
(1984/MVD/Cult Epics Blu-ray)/A
Summer Place
(1959/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/Why
Didn't They Ask Evans?
(2022/Agatha Christie/Fifth Season DVD set)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: B+ Picture: B
(C: Seasons
1 - 6)/B-/C/B-/B-/C+
Sound: B/B+/C+/C+/B-/C+ Extras: B-/C/B/C/C/D Main
Programs: B-/C-/C-/C+/C/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The A
Summer Place
Blu-ray is now only available from Warner Bros. through their Warner
Archive series and can be ordered from the links below.
Next
up are a group of releases held together by melodrama, sometimes with
comedy, some comedy actually intended, and in other cases, a little
more...
As
Friends
and Seinfeld
have been issued in 4K box sets that (especially in the former's
case) that they were even better productions that we thought, they
remain two of the few TV series to get that kind of deluxe treatment
and certainly two of the few classic TV hits to do so. Though it had
a lower budget, Curb
Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Series
(2000 - 2021) is getting its biggest possible upgrade with a new
Blu-ray set. You can read more about the show, starting with our
coverage of the whole series on DVD at this link:
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16518/Curb+Your+Enthusiasm+(2000+-+2021/H
More
on the specifics of technical playback below, but extras
repeat the DVD set and are fine, though fans might have wanted just
one more new extra. Save the picture issue with the early seasons,
its a good set, but that problem is a huge disappointment and
hopefully, no home video company will ever make that mistake again.
Next
up are two titles that show how tired the 'I love caste systems'
formula from Julian Fellowes is going. Simon Curtis' Downton
Abbey: The Grand Finale 4K
(2025) is the (hopefully) end of an unexpected (unnecessary?) trilogy
of feature films based on the hit TV show (name the last time any TV
show produced three theatrical films) that started with these two
films:
2019
first feature Blu-ray/DVD set
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/15626/Ad+Astra+4K+(2019/Fox+4K+Ultra+HD+Blu-ray+w/Bl
A
New Era 4K
Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16151/Adventures+Of+Don+Juan+(1948*)/Cinderella+(2022/
So
now, Maggie Smith, the only reason I could get through these
borefests, is gone. The film sort of salutes her, but gets muddled
for its overlong screenplay and the rest of the cast (some of whom I
know and like) can only do so much here. I give these productions
credit where credit is due, but this is enough. For fans only is an
understatement and I look forward to seeing these actors in better
and other projects. You've been warned.
Extras
include Digital
Code, while the disc
(per the press release) adds:
Changing
Times:
Cast and filmmakers discuss how the changing times of the era helped
lay the groundwork for the characters' happy endings while providing
audiences with the optimism that they will continue on successfully
into the modern world.
Society
Season
- DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE takes audiences along as the
Crawleys participate in the London season, a traditional period of
prestigious events in British high society. Here, the cast and
filmmakers explore the details of how these events come together
throughout the film.
Lady
Petersfield's Ball
Ascot
Race
The
County Show
DOWNTON
ABBEY Celebrates THE GRAND FINALE: Hugh Bonneville invites the
entire cast of DOWNTON ABBEY to a high-tea celebration of their
global hit franchise. The beloved stars share stories, confessions,
and music as they bring their DOWNTON journey to a close with a
toast to the third and final film, including a world-exclusive
scene.
The
Gilded Age: The Complete Third Season
(2024) continues the revisionist history soap opera madness that
started with these earlier seasons, which we covered in their DVD
sets:
Season
One
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16160/Cocoon+(2020/Film+Movement+DVD)/The+Gilded+Age
Season
Two
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16524/About+Dry+Glasses+(2023/Criterion/Janus+Contempor
With
the stuffy rich world played out, the new season adds the Western
genre to its oeuvre and not very well, not melding with what they
were doing well enough to begin with the the revisionist history is
just plain bad, no matter how huge the budgets are for sets, clothes,
costumes, locales and the like. Now I get the idea of people
fantasizing about being rich or being in a different era, but these
shows are not that simple, even the opposite, yet they are also grand
enough in their budgets. However, it is still a form of trash
television (I will not get into plots and storylines as I already
have before and anything now would be in the spoiler zone) that is
really no better than the original Dynasty, Dallas or its many
imitators. Needless to say this is for fans only and I am not one of
them. Good luck, but if you have never seen the show, you better
start at the beginning.
Extras
include Digital Code, while the discs add featurettes The Black
Elite Of New York and Designing A Ball.
Nobuhiko
Obayashi's The
Island Closest To Heaven
(1984) continues Cult Epics rollout of the later films of the
director of the original House
(1977) that has included School
In The Crosshairs
and His
Motorbike, Her Island
(both reviewed elsewhere on this site and recommended) so I was
interested in seeing what he would do here and we get a coming of age
tale with a little special touches here and there.
It
still cannot escape the cliches of the tale it tells, but it is
smooth, consistent, honest, mature and even beautiful to see.
Yukihiro Takahashi is the daughter of a man who wanted to see her
happy and that brings her to New Caledonia and the island she was
told was there. She finds a young guy named Taro (Ryoichi
Takayanagi) and the island, leading to expectations unexpectedly met
and some they were both not expecting.
I
will add that I am not necessarily the audience for this one, but it
is well done and anyone interested should give it a good look. Never
dumb or condescending, I wish more films like this today were this
good, but most in the genre these days have been far from it, no
matter where they have come from. Those interested should definitely
give it a good look.
Extras
include a
Feature-Length Audio Commentary by film critic Derek Smith
Kadokawa
and Obayashi - Visual essay by Alex Pratt
Tomoya
Harada 28 Days in Caledonia: The Making of The
Island Closest To Heaven
Theatrical
Trailers
New
Slipcase art design by Sam Smith
Reversible
sleeve with original Japanese poster art
and
the First Pressing includes repro 24-page Japanese booklet
(pamphlet).
Delmer
Daves' A
Summer Place
(1959) is a similar melodrama involving the young, but this time, it
is the legendary pairing of Troy Donahue (his debut as a lead actor!)
and Sandra Dee (and not just because of Grease)
falling for each other and the love accidentally (SPOILER ALERT!!!)
goes too far (she gets pregnant, pre Roe V. Wade, almost sadly
relevant again) and what will they do?
Of
course it is still dated and gets unintentionally humorous at times,
but it remains consistent in tone and a few decades before The
Blue Lagoon, this is a far a movie could go (no pun intended) to
show young, beautiful, sexy people and no doubt the camera loved Dee.
Donahue had been an actor for a while and was more than a wort6hy
match for her, including some convincing chemistry.
The
cast is also solid, including Richard Egan Dorothy McGuire, Arthur
Kennedy, Constance Ford, Beulah Bondi and uncredited turns by Ann
Doran and Bonnie Franklin a few decades before One Day At A Time.
Though it can be trying at times, it is worth a good look just to
see what it is like and to get the experience in. It will also helps
you get that Stockard Channing Grease song more.
Extras
include Original
Theatrical Trailer and Technicolor classic animated Bugs Bunny
cartoon short A
Witch's Tangled Hare.
Last
but definitely not least, the great actor Hugh Laurie recently wrote
an adaption of and directed a new TV mini-series version of Agatha
Christie's
1934 puzzler Why
Didn't They Ask Evans?
(2022, aka The
Boomerang Clue)
with the underappreciated Will Poulter as a driver (Bobby Jones) who
finds a man near death, who then utters the title of the story. Then
he dies, but this will only be the beginning of all kinds of strange
and deadly happenings, yet he will not face this alone as old friend
Lady Frances 'Frankie' Derwent (Lucy Boynton) has reunited with him
in an unusually timely way and they both start investigating.
One
of Christie's
more underrated early stories (the only other TV adaption is the
equally well done Francesca Annis/James Warwick version) and somewhat
influential like most of her works, the pace is just right, the leads
match well and have some chemistry, the supporting cast is solid and
it takes its time setting it all up, so have patience if you take it
on. This builds up with more twists and turns, while also placing
murder and criminal behavior in the realm of the upper classes, a
Christie trademark (shared with Mary Roberts Reinhart) that is still
with us today.
Why
this did not get more attention when it first came out is a head
scratcher, but there is a much larger audience for this and save a
few contemporary touches I did not think worked, I very much
recommend this one, especially if you like a good mystery.
There
are sadly no extras.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby
Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition
image on Abbey
4K is
the best performer here, but only by a narrow margin, even over the
1080p Blu-ray version since this has the same sometimes flat look of
the previous films and TV series. In some cases, the image is softer
than it should be in both formats and the
lossless Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown for older systems) on
both discs are also sonically the best sounding releases here, but
this tends to be dialogue-based with its usual music score. Don't
expect much out of a for-fans-only affair.
We
happened to have never covered the early seasons of Enthusiasm
produced on standard definition, professional video and in the 1.33 X
1 frame, but this set takes the extremely unfortunate liberty of
zooming in on that now low-def image and it is a disaster. Colors
are now weak, definition poor and since those early seasons were
produced for cable in the flat picture-tube era, the idea of headroom
you would have for older classic TV into the 1980s was no longer
being observed. Therefore, people heads and other important objects
are being cut off at the top of the frame and other important
information at the bottom of the frame.
Ironically,
this is an issue with classic feature films until the 1950s in 1.33 X
1 until Hollywood (et al) permanently brought us widescreen movies,
so this is history that should have never been repeated.
The
remaining seasons are shot in HD and all here looking fine and much
better than their DVD counterparts in 1080p 1.78 X 1 framing that
works well and is as good as this show will ever look. Color, detail
and definition are consistent and the shows are much more enjoyable,
so fans can at least be happy about this. Whether there will be a
recall of this set of replacement discs issued for the first six
season remains to be seen, but the only way to see those seasons
correctly (for now?) are the old DVDs.
The
sound is here in DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Stereo lossless mixes
for the first six season and DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless
mix for the rest do the series. The first six seasons have Pro Logic
surrounds and are fine for it, but the latter in 5.1 sound a little
better, though it is all dialogue-based, so the differences are only
so big. All are an improvement over the DVD versions and are as good
as the series will ever sound.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Island
can have its softness, but a good bit of that is also the look of the
film, though some is not. Color is decent and the
original Japanese analog monophonic sound is here in both DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 2.0 Mono and PCM 2.0 Mono lossless sound. The DTS was
a little better, but the audio is still on the older side as
expected.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Summer
can show its age a little bit, but also its softness is more than
intended at times. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix sounds as good as it
ever will and the Warner Archive team has done the best restoration
job possible.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Gilded
is soft throughout once again, though some of that is its look a
little bit, some of it is the CGI digital visuals and some of it is
this format, so we would need Blu-ray or 4K to see how good or poor
this series could or should look. The same goes for the somewhat
active, lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes on each show, which would
resolve much better in a lossless format. This is passable for fans,
but others might be unhappy with viewing the show in this format.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.90 X 1 image on Evans
is a smooth, nice, High Definition shoot that captures the look, feel
and era along with the genre without looking phony, which is not easy
in the format. It also holds its own against the remarkable 70mm
work on the Branagh Poirot feature films, as palpable as the older
1980 mini-series adaption and as authentic as the 1982 TV production.
Would love to see this in HD or 4K and it is at least out on Blu-ray
in Germany apparently. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo
mixes are not bad, with the 5.1 having an edge, but the soundmaster
sounds like it would yield more in a lossless mix. Still, very well
recorded and mixed with good music and when you add the picture, a
real pleasure to watch.
To
order the A
Summer Place
Warner
Archive Blu-ray, go to this link for it and many more great
web-exclusive
releases at:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/ED270804-095F-449B-9B69-6CEE46A0B2BF?ingress=0&visitId=6171710b-08c8-4829-803d-d8b922581c55&tag=blurayforum-20
-
Nicholas Sheffo
