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Screen Comparisons: Synapse’s new THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE Disc vs 2009 Blu-ray
Synapse Films released their newly restored Blu-ray of The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue this week. This article contains several comparisons which contrast Blue Underground’s previous Blu-ray transfer with the new release from Synapse Films. The frames aren’t necessarily exact matches, but should give a solid indication of the visual differences.
Viewing tips: For gauging clarity and resolution, these images are best viewed on a large monitor with widescreen aspect ratio — if viewing on a mobile device, pinch-zoom for closer inspection. Elements like color, brightness, and contrast are more easily compared in a narrow window or upright mobile.
For this selection it’s easy to see the superiority of the Synapse disc that appears to be a proper HD transfer, contrasted with Blue Underground’s earlier disc released in 2009. You usually don’t see such a night and day difference between two transfers on the same format, but it’s clear who the winner is. Exceptional color, clarity and contrast are all on display here and it’s easy to tell this might be a double dip worthy for fans of this title.
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STUNT ROCK — Rocks Out on Blu-ray!
Who wants wizard battles, death defying stunts, explosions, and rock music?
I first discovered Brian Trenchard-Smith’s (BMX Bandits, Dead End Drive-In) Stunt Rock on Trailer Wars, a feature length trailer Blu-ray compilation which was released by Drafthouse Films. It was the first trailer in the compilation and it was a thing of pure beauty to behold; you can witness its wonder below.
Wizard battles, death defying stunts, explosions, and rock music?
Dammit, I’m in!
I picked up long since out of print Code Red disc shortly thereafter and was finally able to bask in the glory that was Stunt Rock in standard definition. Thanks to Umbrella Entertainment, Kino Lorber recently released the film on Blu-ray in a much needed HD upgrade that really helps to show off the film’s cinematography and the larger-than-life stunts. The best modern comparison to Stunt Rock are the Jackass films, even though it feels very much channeled from the Mondo genre at the time. There is a scripted wraparound narrative that has world famous Australian stuntman Grant Page (Man from Hong Kong, Mad Max, Death Cheaters) coming to Hollywood to work on a TV show led by Monique van de Ven and hang with his cousin, who just happens to be the guitarist in an up and coming theatrical rock band Sorcery.
Interspersed in the story, which feels almost like something cribbed from syndicated episodic television is a series of stunts that include Page climbing down a five story hospital, lighting himself on fire and jumping off a cliff and crashing a van that’s on fire and crashing out of the windshield on fire. For those not in the know Grant Page was an Australian stuntman with over 107 credits to his name. After cutting his teeth on the likes of Danger Freaks and Man From Hong Kong the charismatic thrill seeker hit the mainstream in the 70’s/80’s as a double threat stuntman/actor. With appearances in films and late night television as himself, Stunt Rock was meant to catapult him into a bonafide leading actor roles. Sadly it did not. In the ample behind the scenes extras and interviews, most of the blame is put on the shoulders of the Danish distributors for the film’s shortcomings, who pushed the director to rush production when they failed to secure a big name for the music group for the film.
The wraparound story also has Grant extolling the history of stuntmen to a reporter/love interest doing an article on “jobs that overtake people’s lives”, while we are treated to the performance stylings of Sorcery, a band whose stage show is supplemented by magic, fire, and most importantly wizards!!! The film is a lean 86 minutes of frothy story interjected with some truly visceral thrills. Part of the allure of these stunts is since Page is acting/starring if you see him doing the stunt and the aftermath, when the stunt goes right and as it sometimes does, goes wrong. That being said, Sorcery is the kind of act that needs to be seen to be believed. As the musicians play on stage the audience is treated to a magic show that features an epic battle between Merlin and the Prince of Darkness who use fire and the power of illusion to fight to the finish.
The film here is presented in a new 4K restoration that really highlights the lighting and spectacle of the concert scenes, while giving some of the film’s stunt sequences a new clarity. Given the nature of the production, some stunts were shot before production had officially started and there is definitely a visible difference in quality of the cinematography in those sequences. There are also archival bits when we dig into the history or stuntmen that jumps all over the quality spectrum. That being the case, the disc still looks leaps and bounds better than the previous Code Red disc with some great color and contrast on display and an aggressive sound mix that highlights the musical stylings of Sorcery.
The extras here don’t carry over everything from the two-disc Code Red set, but definitely make up a somewhat comprehensive presentation as is with plenty of interviews with Grant and Brian candidly looking back on the production.
Check the full list of extras below:
- Audio Commentary by Director Brian Trenchard-Smith with Actors Grant Page and Margaret Trenchard-Smith
- NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD Interview with Brian Trenchard-Smith
- NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD Interview with Lead Actor/Stuntman Grant Page
- The Ultimate Rush: Conversation with Brian and Margaret Trenchard-Smith
- 2009 Interview with Brian Trenchard-Smith, Sorcery Lead Guitarist Smokey Huff and Producer Marty Fink
- Theatrical Trailer
- Select Songs From the Soundtrack (First Time in Stereo)
- Region A/B/C
- Optional English Subtitles
Stunt Rock is everything it needs to be. It’s got stunts and it’s got rock!
Overall the film is a brisk look at the art and history of stuntmen, punctuated by actual stunts and mind-bendingly surreal performances by Sorcery. The fascinating part is the stunt sequences are a bit padded for time so you get to see the setup, the stunt and the fall out if any. These documentary bits say volumes more than some of the in depth exposition we get on the history of stuntmen in Australia, because we see it. We also see Grant’s work on previous films and some of the bits are pretty harrowing since there’s a few that go south. Stunt Rock is a lot of fun and worth a watch if you dug the trailer or you’re into Ozploitation, the film is an odd hybrid of sub-genres that for the most part works.
Also you can’t say no to a film where they feed a dog in a wizard hat Chinese food with chopsticks.
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THE BLACK PHONE, Nightmare Fuel From Two of the Best Horror Filmmakers Working Today
Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill adapt Joe Hill’s 2004 short story
Finney and Gwen during one of the few, uneventful moments in The Black Phone. Near the end of The Twilight Zone’s five-year, 156-episode run, Rod Serling debuted “Night Call,” a bone-chillingly adaptation of Richard Matheson’s short story, “Long Distance Call.” What seem initially like a series of crank calls turn into something entirely different, a call connecting the central character, a bedridden, elderly woman filled with a lifetime of regret, and her long-dead lover and fiancé, spending eternity waiting for her to answer his phone call. “Night Call” ends on an exquisitely eerie note, a morality-based twist typical of the series. Decades later, it likely inspired Joe Hill (Horns, 20th Century Ghosts) to borrow the premise for a taut, 30-page short story of his own, “The Black Phone.” That, in turn, inspired co-adapters Scott Derrickson (Deliver Us From Evil, Sinister, The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and C. Robert Cargill, to expand Hill’s memorably resonant story into a gruelingly, relentlessly effective addition to the survival horror sub-genre.
The Black Phone opens in a quiet, leafy suburb outside Denver, Colorado in the late 1970s, except it’s far from quiet (though the unnamed suburb qualifies as leafy). A child-kidnapping killer, dubbed the “Grabber” (Ethan Hawke) with characteristic obviousness by the local media, has been on the loose for several months or more and the typically inept police have gotten nowhere, always arriving too late on the scene of each disappearance, sharing mildly comforting platitudes with the families of the disappeared, and otherwise jotting down useless note after useless note. Oddly, the residents of this suburb react with numbed knowingness, stopping briefly here or there when they encounter yet another “Lost” poster before shrugging their shoulders and deciding to carry on with their suburban lives.
Never trust anyone who permanently wears a mask around the dungeon. What might seem odd to audiences on the other side of the digital screen, however, fall closer in line with the real-world than we’d like to admit, especially in a world where large swaths of Americans ignored a global pandemic and continue to ignore a gun violence epidemic that shows no sign of slowing down (the opposite, unfortunately). It’s that context, where even after several boys have disappeared, a Little League game pitting Finney (Mason Thames), a flame-throwing pitcher, and Bruce Yamada (Tristan Pravong), a home-run hitting slugger, becomes the singular, if temporary, center of attention for the players, their families, and everyone in attendance.
Not soon after, though, Bruce disappears, the Grabber’s latest victim. Once again, the police show up in full force, blocking off streets, running sirens and lights, and expressing real, if ultimately useless, concern. Mourning isn’t an option; only survival is. And for Finney, that’s harder than it looks. Between the usual, King-inspired bullies, an abusive, alcoholic father, Terrence (Jeremy Davies), and trying to get his crush to recognize his existence, he has a full life. Finney also has a reciprocally empathetic relationship with his younger sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), and protecting her, usually without success, from their father’s alcohol-fueled wrath.
Real or imaginary? Possibly, but not likely. As Derrickson and Cargill peel back the layers of Finney and Gwen’s fraught relationship with their father, we learn Gwen, like her deceased mother before her, has been gifted and/or cursed by frustratingly incomplete or vague premonitions involving the Grabber and his victims. Those premonitions randomly appear in Gwen’s dreams. While Terrence sees mental illness or worse (demonic or satanic) in Gwen’s dreams, Gwen sees them specifically as messages from Jesus. It often feels too cute by half, especially given a world where children disappear regularly, likely dying in gruesome ways, without anything or anyone, natural or supernatural, to stop the killer.
Gwen’s faith certainly seems naive, but Derrickson and Cargill accept it at face value and hope at least some members of the audience will, especially after Finney, the Grabber’s latest victim, finds himself in the killer’s sound-proofed dungeon, alone and with little chance of escape, with only the titular disused black phone connecting him to the Grabber’s previous victims. At least initially, Derrickson and Cargill leave the question open as to whether the voices Finney hears over the black phone are “real” or imagined, a self-defense mechanism as he attempts to uncover any tool or advantage that will allow him to survive his encounter with the Grabber.
Derrickson and Cargill interweave Finney’s dungeon experience with Gwen’s increasingly desperate attempt to convince the adults around her, including her father and two well-meaning, if ineffectual, detectives, Wright (E. Roger Mitchell) and Miller (Troy Rudeseal), to trust her premonitions before it’s too late. For some, Gwen’s separate storyline might seem like padding, added to turn Hill’s short story into a feature-length film. That might be functionally through, but it also doubles as the emotional through-line, adding a level of poignancy as Finney’s attempts to escape are paralleled by Gwen’s desire to save her brother. It’s no accident that the best, moving scenes in The Black Phone don’t involve Finney alone or Finney and the rather drably written Grabber character, but Finney and Gwen together, as deeply relatable as any siblings in or out of the horror genre.
The Black Phone opens in North American movie theaters on Friday, June 24th.
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Michael Bay Takes Us on a Thrill-Ride in AMBULANCE
Bayhem infused into a street level, action thriller [Blu-Review]
Michael Bay’s action bonafides are not in question. After decades of cultivating his reputation as the maestro of mayhem (aka Bayhem), his latest features continues that trend, but refreshingly differs in scale. Rather than the planetary level disaster of something like Armageddon or the Transformers series, this is a street level affair, but one that lacks little in the way of the filmmakers signature style.
Veteran Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Candyman) is in dire straits. Financially crippled, and driven by desperation, he teams up with his brother Danny(Jake Gyllenhaal, End of Watch) to make one big payday to solve his problems. Danny, a criminal by trade, plunges the pair into a bank heist, but plans soon fall apart. In making their escape, are forced to hijack an ambulance, but on board they find a wounded cop and paramedic (Eiza González, Baby Driver). Left with little option, the duo try to escape the cops flooding the city in hot pursuit, as they reckon with their actions, and the escalating situation in and around their getaway vehicle.
The film is a propulsive affair, literally. Driven not only by this high speed getaway through LA, but also the characters, bottled up together. Car crashes, shootouts, emergency surgery on the move, and most significantly, brother on brother conflict. Will, who is doing this out of necessity, to pay for his wife’s urgently needed surgery. While Danny, a career criminal, is not driven by such moral needs. Between them, acting as a moral compass is Cam, a paramedic swept along in the chaos. It’s in this we find the quintessential Bayhem.
After the mashed up muddiness of the Transformers series, the more focused, street-level scope of the film is a potent reminder of the energy and havoc that Bay can construct and deliver to our screens. Swift cuts, energetic pacing, intense action, and an impressive, if often truncated, use of drone shots to bring us up close to the action. As well as delivering the action you expect, Bay brings along some of his more egregious trademarks. Some of the editing is choppy, there is a slathering on of puns and grating “comedic” moments, and the adrenaline comes in a big wild burst, rather than anything measured and controlled to play into the more thriller aspects of the narrative. The film refreshingly doesn’t rely on the runaway ambulance gimmick, mining depth out to the situation, but some of the script and character choices are reliant on built in dumb decisions just to keep things rolling along to the next explosion. More relentless than refined, but for sheer entertainment, Bay has you covered.
The Package
The Blu-ray showcases vibrant primary colors, a healthy range in the secondary, with inky blacks, and an impressive level of detail and depth of image. There is some minor aliasing in some of the wide shots, but nothing too detrimental. Overall, an impressive and clean transfer. There are several extra features included, but nothing too substantial in content or length:
- Bayhem: The lead trio chat about the experience of working with Bay, and his particular brand of action
- Pedal to the Metal: A rundown of the approaches to shooting the chase sequences, and pivoting between the ambulance interior and exterior
- Aerial Assault: There’s some pretty nifty drone camera work in the film, this offers some insight to the approach, but like the other featurettes, is only a few minutes in length
- Finding Ambulance: Cast and crew talk about the original concept of the film and what drew them to the project
- Chase Capital of the World: A rundown on using Los Angeles to set and shoot the film
- A Tribute to First Responders: Gives a shout out to paramedics and other first responders, and touches on some of the training González received in preparation for the role
- Digital download code
The Bottom Line
Engaging as well as entertaining, Michael Bay’s Ambulance delivers a refreshing slice of action, one that benefits from an immersion in street level stakes. Slick fare, with just the right amount of stupidity to propel things along. While extra features on the release are a little on the slimmer side, the visual presentation here is top notch, showcasing the wanton destruction you’re all here for.
Ambulance is available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, & digital now
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Screen Comparisons: THRILLER on New Vinegar Syndrome Disc vs. Earlier Synapse Films Blu-ray
Vinegar Syndrome released their newly restored Blu-ray of Thriller: A Cruel Picture this week. This article contains several comparisons which contrast Synapse Films’s previous Blu-ray transfer with the new release from Vinegar Syndrome. The frames aren’t necessarily exact matches, but should give a solid indication of the visual differences.
Viewing tips: For gauging clarity and resolution, these images are best viewed on a large monitor with widescreen aspect ratio. If viewing on a mobile device, pinch-zoom for closer inspection. Elements like color, brightness, and contrast are more easily compared in a narrow window or upright mobile.
These images were both pulled from Blu-rays to give more of an apples to apples comparison. There is most definitely more detail and clarity on the Vinegar Syndrome disc, since their transfer was a 4K transfer versus the 2K Synapse one. The grain is just gorgeous. The color on the Vinegar Syndrome disc overall does feel slightly oversaturated at times, but for the color timing, you can see below that some scenes transfer better than others and that the Synapse has an almost cyan tint to some of the scenes. So it’s hard to pick a clear winner for color. With some scenes I prefer the color timing from Vinegar Syndrome, and sometimes I think Synapse nailed it.
We definitely see that the true issue on both discs is the limitation of the source material rather than the transfer. The lack of focus in scenes and the fact that the film was a blow up from 16mm to 35mm means Blu-ray might have been just enough. While I welcome the extra resolution that the 4K transfer brings on a Blu-ray disc, it might have been enough for this presentation without the UHD. I think this is going to be the barrier for a lot of lower budget exploitation and genre films going forward. While the resolution is there for these transfers, is there any real advantage other than HDR to these more robust transfers and UHDs?
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Arrow Heads #100: ROBOCOP 4K UHD [Review/Unboxing]
![Arrow Heads #100: ROBOCOP 4K UHD [Review/Unboxing]](https://i0.wp.com/cinapse.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/1cfZF-tqTupJZ5ix65uTSUQ.gif?resize=1140%2C599&ssl=1)
Verhoeven’s 80s satirical Christ metaphor on steroids hits home video in the most complete and comprehensive edition available
It’s hard to undersell the pop culture phenomenon that was Paul Verhoeven’s 80s satirical Christ metaphor on steroids, Robocop. It was released on VHS roughly around the same time as Predator in 1987. (And that honestly was one hell of a double bill the night my family rented both of those from my local mom and pop) From there, the film seeped into the pop culture zeitgeist — there was a toy line, arcade games, a Nintendo game, and even a Saturday morning cartoon. In fact, my birthday party that year was Robocop themed in honor of my favorite film. This very R-rated film was shamelessly marketed to kids in a move that’s not too far from the bizarre reality depicted in the film. Thanks to Benedetta, I’ve been on a bit of a Verhoeven kick and jumped at the chance to review the disc on this new release, having previously purchased it on VHS, Criterion DVD, Criterion Laserdisc, and Blu-ray, and now finally on UHD.
Arrow Video recently released a 4K UHD version of Robocop in its regular, uncut form, which was previously was only available on the Criterion laserdisc and DVD and dubbed the “X-Rated” cut. This version most noticeably lengthens the notorious ED-209 boardroom massacre, where an unlucky board member paints the room red during a botched demonstration in which a droid fails to acknowledge that he had been disarmed. This new footage lets the horrific scene play out to an almost comedic length, taking the hyper-stylized violence that was already garish and pushing it to a whole ‘nother level—the bullets just don’t stop coming and the squibs just keep exploding.This is the most noticeable difference in the cut, except for a few seconds on most of the gun shots in the film, adding a little more carnage here and there.
Robocop takes place in a surreal alternate future where the evil mega-corporation Omni Consumer Products has privatized the police force and is looking to run it into the ground so that they can deploy robots and save a few bucks. This is why cop and family man Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is transferred to the Old Detroit police department and almost immediately killed, gunned down in a nightmarish, blood-drenched set piece meant to mimic the crucifixion. Murphy is later resurrected by OCP as Robocop, part man, part machine, all cop — who, after encountering one of his killers by chance, begins investigating his own death, which of course leads him right to the top. It’s not a groundbreaking narrative by any stretch, but the film is an action masterwork because of how Verhoeven expertly wields the viscera on screen, peppering hyper self-aware violence with sex and drugs to lock in that ‘80s action asthetic. The film grabs you out of the gate with its sheer audacity and doesn’t let go, while fully imbuing itself with the spirit of the ‘80s.
The film is intercut with fake commercials in a commentary on our media-obsessed society; once a warning, it now feels like it has come to full fruition. The film’s odd premise and its themes of corporate greed and corruption are as razor sharp as ever. Meant to be a commentary on the decade of decadence, the film feels timeless, since not much has changed. Weller seals the deal here, taking the role seriously and imbuing Murphy with a raw humanity and rage, even after OCP has stripped him of both. This film would catapult Verhoeven into the big leagues; his next two films were Total Recall for the blockbuster juggernaut studio Carolco, and the one that would once again become a pop culture sensation, the erotic thriller Basic Instinct. Of course, after that would come Showgirls, a film I will vehemently defend but that would end Verhoeven’s illustrious run in American film and put the Dutch director in movie jail.
Robocop would start a franchise of twomore theatrical films, a cartoon series, and a live action TV series in Canada, which just recently hit Blu-ray. If you still had any question that this film was secretly aimed at kids, Robocop 2 featured a teenage hoodlum antagonist who hangs out in arcades, and the film was paired with a music video that was relentlessly played on MTV. Both films feature some excellent stop motion work by maestro Phil Tippett, especially when Robocop battles his possible replacements. Today, Robocop is still as popular as ever, showing up as toys and T-shirts and recognized as one of the most iconic action films of the ‘80s. It’s kind of jarring when you watch it now to realize how it was a transgressive gateway drug for a lot of young cinephiles like myself.
The scan presented on 4K UHD is the same shown at digital repertoire screenings. Both versions of the film (regular and unrated) are relegated to their own discs. Arrow is utilizing the same 4K transfer from the camera negative done in 2013, supervised by Verhoeven and executive producer Jon Davison, that previously hit Blu-ray via MGM. This is another instance of a previously existing transfer getting the full room to breathe, and it looks astonishing, with an amazing level of clarity and detail to the image. This is most noticeable when looking at the Robocop suit, which sometimes looks great, and sometimes shows the seams, zipper and duct tape, thanks to the resolution. Arrow has opted to boost the brightness a bit compared to the previous Blu-ray, but given the deep blacks present from the HDR, the choice only helps to highlight the full spectrum of colors and contrast on display. The color palette is extremely robust, with HDR used to amp up the blues of the suit. This is all rounded out with a new Dolby Atmos track that is true to the original mix and bumps up the clarity and the audio stage use.
Extras-wise, this disc is packed to the gills with everything a fan could want— all the previous special editions extras from MGM are included and some new ones are even added to the mix. Extras presented include multiple commentaries, storyboard comparisons, featurettes, and panels with the cast and crew. They dig really deep into not only the basics of the film, but its deeper meaning, with some of the newer interviews peppered with Verhoeven’s perspective. Everyone from Weller to Allen, Phil Tippett, and even Michael Miner gets a moment to shine, with interviewers going over rumors and careers with a fine tooth comb and really giving fans every perspective they could possibly want.
Full list of bonus features as follows:
- 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative by MGM, transferred in 2013 and approved by director Paul Verhoeven
- Newly commissioned artwork by Paul Shipper
- Director’s Cut and Theatrical Cut of the film on two 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray discs with Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original lossless stereo and four-channel mixes, plus DTS-HD MA 5.1 and Dolby Atmos surround sound options on both cuts
- Optional English subtitles on both cuts
- Six collector’s postcards (Limited Edition exclusive)
- Double-sided fold-out poster (Limited Edition exclusive)
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork (Limited Edition exclusive)
- 80-page Limited Edition collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Omar Ahmed, Christopher Griffiths, and Henry Blyth, a 1987 Fangoria interview with Rob Bottin, and archive publicity materials (some contents exclusive to Limited Edition)
Disc One — Director’s Cut
- Commentary by Verhoeven, executive producer Jon Davison, and co-writer Ed Neumeier, originally recorded for the theatrical ut and re-edited in 2014 for the director’s cut
- Commentary by film historian Paul M. Sammon
- Commentary by fans Christopher Griffiths, Gary Smart, and Eastwood Allen
- The Future of Law Enforcement: Creating RoboCop, an interview with co-writer Miner
- RoboTalk, a conversation between Neumeier and filmmakers David Birke (writer of Elle) and Nicholas McCarthy (director of Orion Pictures’ The Prodigy)
- Truth of Character, an interview with star Nancy Allen on her role as Lewis
- Casting Old Detroit, an interview with casting director Julie Selzer
- Connecting the Shots, an interview with second unit director and frequent Verhoeven collaborator Mark Goldblatt
- Analog, a featurette focusing on the special photographic effects, including new interviews with Peter Kuran and Kevin Kutchaver
- More Man Than Machine: Composing RoboCop, a tribute to composer Basil Poledouris featuring film music experts Jeff Bond, Lukas Kendall, Daniel Schweiger, and Robert Townson
- RoboProps, a tour of super-fan Julien Dumont’s collection of original props and memorabilia
- 2012 Q&A with the filmmakers, a panel discussion featuring Verhoeven, Davison, Neumeier, Miner, Allen, Weller, and animator Tippett
- RoboCop: Creating A Legend; Villains of Old Detroit; and Special Effects: Then & Now, three archive featurettes from 2007 featuring interviews with cast and crew
- Paul Verhoeven Easter Egg
- Four deleted scenes
- The Boardroom: Storyboard with commentary by Tippett
- Director’s Cut production footage, raw dailies from the filming of the unrated gore scenes, presented in 4K (SDR)
- Two theatrical trailers and three TV spots
- Extensive image galleries
Disc Two — Theatrical Cut
- Commentary by Verhoeven, Davison, and Neumeier (originally recorded for theatrical version of the film)
- Two Isolated Score tracks (Composer’s Original Score and Final Theatrical Mix)
- Edited for television version of the film, featuring alternate dubs, takes, and edits of several scenes (95 mins, SD only)
- Split screen comparisons between the director’s cut and theatrical cut, and the theatrical cut and edited-for-TV version
- RoboCop: Edited for Television, a compilation of alternate scenes from two television versions, including outtakes newly transferred in HD from recently unearthed 35mm elements
Robocop is surprisingly shocking and relevant as ever. It’s hard for any American to deconstruct our culture the way Verhoeven did as an outsider peering in, and I think that’s where the unfettered truth in his take lies. The Christ metaphor still works, and given our current barrage of media, the film’s hyperkinetic reality doesn’t feel like fiction today. This film also works thanks to its cast, led by Weller, who takes the material seriously and imbues Robocop’s journey to rediscover his humanity with a weight and emotion that I still find as engaging as I did when I first saw the film. It was shocking to revisit this film now, given our current socio-political climate, and think about how the film was marketed at kids and families with a razor-sharp edge that cuts into our Christianity-obsessed country while chugging a six pack draped in the red, white, and blue. It’s something that is almost too brilliantly subversive and on the nose to believe that it was even made and became the cultural touchstone that it is today.
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THE NORTHMAN is a Valhöll-Worthy 4K UHD
Robert Eggers’s vengeance-fueled Viking saga astounds on home video
With his petrifying 2015 debut The Witch and his hilariously grim and grimy The Lighthouse in 2019, Robert Eggers’s work has scratched a primal itch when it comes to genre films. The dread-ridden forests of New England or the endlessly raging torrents of the sea have paled in comparison to the dark desires lurking within Eggers’s characters, and his masterful calibration of character and tone reap chilling and cathartic rewards for his audiences. The Northman sees Eggers’s unique vision at its most expansive yet, tackling the ambitious goal of creating a blood-soaked Viking saga inspired by the texts that would later be adapted into Shakespeare’s Hamlet. A globe-trotting epic rich with the exacting period authenticity his films are known for, the scale of Eggers’s film also extends to the inner depths of his characters—who must reckon with their varying thirsts for vengeance amidst a folkloric tapestry of fate, magical omens, and unstoppable consequences.
Amleth (Oscar Novak) is just a boy when his father, Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke), is slaughtered by Amleth’s uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang). Fjölnir captures Amleth’s mother, Queen Gudrún (Nicole Kidman), and sends his men to kill Amleth by any means necessary. Amleth escapes, dedicating twenty years to his drive for vengeance under the mantra, “Avenge Father, Save Mother, Kill Fjölnir.” The adult Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) is forged into a bear-wolf of a man, aiding fellow Vikings on bloodthirsty raids across Europe, when divine intervention (in the form of singer Björk) puts him in the path of Fjölnir, now a deposed ruler hiding away in the lower reaches of Iceland. Amleth poses as a slave so that Fjölnir can possess him, and plots with fellow slave Olga of the Birch Forest (Anya Taylor-Joy) in order to bring his decades-long quest for revenge to a savage and fiery conclusion.
Stepping far out of his comfort zone with elaborately-choreographed action sequences across multiple locations, the world of The Northman is vividly realized on many levels. Eggers and his usual collaborators, cinematographer Jarin Blaschke and production designer Craig Lathrop, go far beyond the isolating single locations of their previous efforts with aplomb, crafting a film that’s so confident and arresting in its vision that one would think all involved are seasoned veterans of high-budget action cinema. But what truly sets The Northman apart is how Eggers strives to immerse his audience not just in the epic world of his characters, but in the myths and magic that provide the foundation for their morals and subsequent mayhem.
From the opening sequence welcoming Amleth’s wandering conquerer-king home, to a psychedelic ritual initiating Amleth into an honor-bound line of succession, The Northman makes no qualms about exactly what kind of film it is. Pitching it as Conan the Barbarian meets Andrei Rublev, with epic sword fights given equal weight as visions of Raven-cloaked Odin or thread-spinning seeresses, Eggers infuses his fastidiousness with equal reverence for the mythology that provides the foundation for the film. It’s not an unfamiliar approach for Eggers, harkening back to The Witch’s shocking opening and finale, but never before has the director reckoned with magical realism on such a scale.
It’s a gambit that similar films would play up into either camp or self-referential cynicism. But Eggers and co-writer Sjón (of 2021’s Lamb) are ever conscious that all of the bloodshed in The Northman comes from a sincere origin of belief, much like everything else in the characters’s Viking society. If an audience is going to care about Amleth’s lifelong quest for revenge, it’s just as important to ground us in what makes him, Fjölnir, Olga, and Gudrún tick. While there are occasional moments of ambiguity—notably a burial mound sword fight seemingly ripped straight from the sagas—Eggers never shies away from moments of divine intervention or godly wrath throughout. Our characters’s beliefs are well-founded: he-witches and seeresses keep us on our ordained paths, spirited ravens circle the doomed like storm clouds of impending judgment, and if we die a glorious death, the sparkling gates of Valhöll await.
Our reward for investing in this magical world is access to the richly-crafted inner worlds of Eggers and Sjón’s characters, all well-realized by Eggers’s best ensemble to date. Amleth’s primally simple goal is constantly complicated throughout the film, whether by his deepening affection for fellow slave Olga, a dubious trust from his enemies Fjölnir and son Thórir (Gustav Lindh), or jaw-dropping confrontations with mother Gudrún. Each provides their own foil for Amleth’s fears and frustrations, but all remain fascinating characters in their own right. No matter how spectacular Eggers’s film may get, The Northman remains committed to creating a grippingly complex world that’s as fleshed out as it can be in period accuracy, emotional depth, and the realm of magic and fate that binds the story together.
Video/Audio
Universal and Focus Features present The Northman in its original 2:1 aspect ratio in Dolby Vision HDR on the 4K UHD disc, and 1080p HD on the accompanying Blu-ray disc. On the 4K disc, audio options include an English track in Dolby Atmos, a Spanish 7.1 Surround dub, and a French 5.1 Surround dub. Accompanying subtitles in these languages are available for both the feature film and special features, save for the audio commentary.
From the way the flames lick dark cave walls, to the endless rainy misery of the film’s forests and fields, to the gnarled peat that roofs wood-walled huts, there’s no minute detail in Eggers’s film that goes unheeded in this reference-quality UHD transfer. Like The Witch and The Lighthouse, much of The Northman is spent in darkness, but where many subpar transfers would crush details in background blacks and grays, the details of the production design still stand out on both the 4K and Blu-ray transfers. In sequences shot in moonlight, the 4K grading honors the orthochromatic photography in preserving details without any red light in the image. That said, The Northman is also by far the most colorful of Eggers’s films, with lush greens and fiery red glows popping off the screen—especially during the volcanic finale.
The default English Dolby Atmos audio is a fittingly epic barnburner of a track, providing resonant bass and charging, direct dialogue and music that uses every channel present to provide an unmatched immersive experience.
Special Features
- Audio Commentary: It’s always a treasure to get a commentary from Eggers where he can spend the entirety of the film’s runtime discussing the historical origins of the many intricate details that went into the character and production design. Notable details include the exact drug that Young Amleth and King Aurvandil War-Raven do with Heimir the Fool (Willem Dafoe), the geographical origins of various stolen garb worn by the Vikings, where a werewolf is hidden amidst Amleth’s Tree of Kings, Björk’s input on her character’s costume design, how the cinematography of The Lighthouse led to how The Northman shot its night sequences, and how old languages were reconstructed thanks to the input of many regional poets and authors.
- Deleted/Extended Scenes: These thirteen minutes of moments removed from the film are in remarkably good quality, suggesting that they were excised late in post-production. The most surprising quality of these scenes is how much they focus not just on Bang’s Fjölnir, but on Kidman’s Gúdrun, whose role as a Lady Macbeth figure is pushed further into beguiling ambiguity. As Amleth’s warpath of vengeance descends upon Fjölnir’s farm, Gúdrun is given more chance to react to the goings-on, reckoning her past life with her present and being driven to protect her current family from what she suspects is a visitation from the deceased Aurvandil. While it’s understandable that these scenes were cut to streamline the film’s focus on Amleth, they further the emotional maturity of many of the film’s characters, and further fulfill Eggers’s ambitions of crafting a well-wrought Viking saga. Broken into Fjölnir and Hallgrímr at the Slave Shed; Yule Mummer Dance and Aurvandil’s Speech; Vikings Hide Langskips; Fjölnir’s Dream; Bosa Saga Extended; Aurvandil’s Ghost; Fjölnir and Gudrún; Gudrún Tucks Gunnar In; and Hel’s Gate Open.
- An Ageless Epic: The cast and crew discuss the genesis of The Northman, Eggers’s dedication to period accuracy, and how the rest of the film’s production team rose to the challenge of creating an epic that’s as true to its characters’s emotions as it is to the long-gone world they lived in.
- The Faces of Vikings: The film’s cast break down their characters and what drew them to play their roles.
- Amleth’s Journey to Manhood: A mostly first act-centric featurette featuring Hawke and Dafoe discussing their role in forming our first impressions of protagonist Amleth, notably in the design and execution of the surreal Henbane trip sequence.
- Shooting the Raid: The film’s production team discusses the logistical necessities and near-insurmountable challenges of coordinating and executing the Land of Rus raid sequence, including moving a giant hut three-and-a-half feet in the midst of camera setups to get the timing right.
- Knattleikr Game: The production team discusses how they hauled their resources three miles into the remote Irish mountains and recreated an ancient Viking sport, which culminates in a duel to the death between Amleth and Game of Thrones’ Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson.
- A Norse Landscape: Eggers and production designer Lathrop talk about the excitement of shooting in Northern Ireland as a double for Iceland, and how modern techniques and Mother Nature worked hand-in-hand to create an authentic Viking village for the film.
The Northman is now available on 4K + Blu-ray Combo Pack courtesy of Universal and Focus Features.
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NEPTUNE FROST: Music as Protest
The Afrofuturist sci-fi tale of love and resistance is now playing in select theaters.
Neptune Frost is a visual marvel of neon and recycled computer parts. Reminiscent of other musical films which don’t follow typical conventions of the genre — Woman at War and One Sings, The Other Doesn’t particularly come to mind — the 2021 work incorporates songs as a form of resistance. Hip-hop numbers and call and response songs delve into themes like gender identity, environmental racism, living in a postcolonial country, mining, and more. The imagery is hypnotic and imaginative, and the pacing is all over the place. Even when I wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen.
Matalusa (Bertrand Ninteretse, also known as Kaya Free), a miner, is inspired by a dream to join a group of hackers while dealing with the death of his brother. In a hide-out among like-minded folks, he meets Neptune, a genderqueer individual (played by two separate performers at different points, Elvis Ngabo and Cheryl Isheja), and their partnership gives the group a new power.
A cohesive story seems less vital to filmmakers Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman than the messages that come through the music and fever dream imagery they have created here. From scenes of miners hammering accompanied by drumbeat to a quick song as Neptune runs to find the hide-out — and even during a quieter scene of nuns working in a garden — the pivotal moments all involve song. There’s a bit of fourth-wall breaking in the performance of a few of the numbers, as the actors look directly at the camera as they sing or rap to the viewer. This pulls the audience further in, enchanting us even more. Co-director Williams composed the original music for the visionary film.
Cinematographer and co-director Uzeyman does marvelous work here; the night scenes are particularly vibrant. Neptune Frost pulses with fluorescent hues and looks like nothing else I’ve seen before. This overall look includes the bizarre, futuristic costuming by Cedric Mizero. Mizero’s costumes in the hacker camp are astonishing—Matalusa’s jacket covered in keyboard keys is a memorable touch.
Although a sci-fi tale, Neptune Frost is planted in our times and confronts the after effects of our world history. It may veer from a traditional narrative path, but the visual and musical elements of the work make for compelling viewing. The filmmakers have a distinct storytelling voice and I’m eager to see more from them.
Neptune Frost opens at AFS Cinema in Austin on Friday, June 17 and is playing in select theaters elsewhere.
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Revisit RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK on 4K-UHD Steelbook
Indiana Jones gets a visual upgrade and new Steelbook package
It’s been over 40 years since Raiders of the Lost Ark was released. In all that time, few films have come close to matching it’s sense of adventure. An iconic character, daring set pieces, and a wry sense of humor, largely thanks to a star making turn (his second after Star Wars) from Harrison Ford. The collaboration between director Steven Spielberg, and creator George Lucas was propelled by the former’s love for (and inability to helm) a James Bond film. Moreso, it came from Lucas’s childhood, one informed by action adventures like The Adventures of Robin Hood, and serial entertainment like Flash Gordon.
Indiana Jones. An academic, whose archeological interests plunges him into swashbuckling, and often sticky situations. Criss-crossing the globe, with ancient tombs, mythical artifacts, booby traps, and a series of opportunities to punch Nazis. The film, like the others in the series is propelled by a MacGuffin, in this case the Ark of the Covenant, a chest holding the remnants of the stone tablets that took down the Ten Commandments. A relic the Third Reich believed could to guarantee victory in their war efforts. Certainly a plot to get behind, Nazis need putting in their place whatever era they crop up in. Raiders distills that action adventure movie into perhaps its more refined form. Deftly blending thrilling action with comedy, and wrapping it all around memorable characters, from the whip-cracking, sardonic charms of Harrison Ford in the lead, to Karen Allen as the firecracker Marion Ravenwood. What truly makes it special, is the magic of Spielberg. Exquisitely shot and paced, moving beyond a simple action film, but never losing a second of entertainment. The film crackles with an unreal sense of energy and life from start to finish, feeling as vital today as it did when it hit the screens 40 years ago.
The Package
The allure here is of course the 4K presentation of the film. Restored from a 4K scan of the original film negatives, overseen by Steven Spielberg himself. A rich image, with vibrant colors, and deep inky blacks. The depth of image impresses, not just in the palette, but the details and texture of the film. The film crucially looks natural, lacking any signs of over-processing, and retaining a filmic appearance and natural grain. There’s a few places where the image goes a little soft, this is likely from the source material for the scan. Overall, you’re not going to find a better visual representation of the film for home viewing.
This release comes in a fancy new Steelbook format. The front, depicts the classic artwork for the film, by artist Richard Amsel, while another of the images used for original promotion, comes on a folded mini-poster inside the case.
The release includes access to a digital copy of the corresponding movie, beyond this, there are no extra features included beyond three separate trailers (teaser, theatrical, re-release). A shame if you wanted supporting material, and a decision likely taken to drive some to purchase to full set of these films, no doubt looming on the horizon.
The Bottom Line
While lacking in any supporting extras, the release is delivered in the sturdy housing of a steelbook, one adorned with the original Richard Amsel poster art. The key sell here is the 4K presentation, which is resplendent. Raiders of the Lost Ark is simply an iconic work, one that continues to entertain and impress even after 40 years. “So good, it belongs in a museum”.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is available on 4K-UHD Steelbook from June 14th
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Kino’s DR. FU MANCHU Double Feature Offers a Look Back into a Far Less Enlightened Past
Sax Rohmer’s singular creation, Dr. Fu Manchu, makes a much belated appearance on Blu-ray
Someone is about to take a tragic tumble down a flight of stairs. Despite a prolific output starting in the 1910s and ending with his imminent departure from this mortal coil in 1959, Sax Rohmer didn’t exist. He was (and remains) the brainchild, a fictional persona, a pseudonym created by Arthur Henry “Sarsfield” Ward, a working-class Brit blessed with a semblance of writing talent and a seemingly uncanny ability to tap into the attitudes, prejudices, and biases of English-speaking audiences, specifically, though not entirely, a series of novels starring Rohmer’s primary literary creation, Dr. Fu Manchu, a Chinese-born supervillain of brilliant, unfathomable mind and fiendish, amoral plots who embodied, if not outright personified, the “Yellow Peril,” a racist idea that exploited unfounded Western fears of Asians and Asian culture (often stereotyped or distorted beyond recognition).
For Rohmer, writing about Fu Manchu and his exploits was simply the easiest, best means of amassing a personal fortune, but for his readers, it fed into, amplified, and often magnified racist beliefs and ideas. That, of course, didn’t stop Rohmer from softening or altering his depiction of Fu Manchu, not as long as there was a waiting and willing audience for his work. And once his novels reached saturation popularity, adaptations in the still nascent cinematic medium were all but a certainty. After two silent-film serials based on Rohmer’s novels, the advent of sound during the pre-code era give Rohmer’s creation another life, first in the Rowland V. Lee production of The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, starring the Swedish-born Warner Oland as the title character in 1929 and second, the aptly named The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu.
Less a battle of wits or of minds than … An obvious product of the early sound era, The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu introduces Oland’s iteration as a deliberately slow-talking figure prone to faux-aphorisms and a not unexpected talent for hypnotism, including his ward, Lia Eltham (Jean Arthur), a young English girl Fu Manchu originally saved during the Boxer Rebellion but who, through a subsequent twist of fate (i.e., the loss of his wife and son to an errant artillery shell), becomes the instrument of his vengeance on the men he considers responsible for his loss. Despite Oland’s enervating presence in the title role, a typical choice made by contemporary studios when casting Asian-themed films (i.e., Caucasians in yellow face for the lead roles, Asian-Americans in the supporting ones), Fu Manchu’s motives are both universal and unexpectedly relatable.
Of course, Rohmer and Lee expected the audience to side against Fu Manchu and his extra-judicial efforts to obtain revenge, but given his original place in the film as an erstwhile ally or, at worst, refusing to take sides during the Boxer Rebellion (a decision he wrongly believes will spare his family from hardship or worse), it’s difficult not to root for Fu Manchu to succeed or at least evade capture by the end of the film. The inclusion of a wan, bloodless romance between the perpetually semi-comatose Lia and Dr. Jack Petrie (Neil Hamilton), the youngest member of the Petrie clan, and due to his family’s involvement and/or tangential responsibility in the deaths of Fu Manchu’s family, one of the title character’s targets, does little to soften or change the idea that Fu Manchu isn’t morally or ethically wrong.
Somehow it doesn’t look like our 10th-billed character will make it out of this scene alive. While the Fu Manchu we meet in the first film commands an army of sorts in London, he’s far from the more familiar supervillain he would become in later entries in Rohmer’s series and the multi-media adaptations that would follow in the coming decades. Fu Manchu’s antagonist, Inspector Nayland Smith (O.P. Heggie), makes more than a token appearance here, turning The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu into a rudimentary procedural, though the lackluster plotting, the stilted, unsophisticated direction, and the relatively small/low stakes does the dull, unengaging Smith character few, if any, favors. Lacking his opposite’s brilliance, Smith is also seemingly one or two steps behind Fun Manchu at practically every turn.
The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu improves slightly on its predecessors’ story- and cinematic-based deficiencies, but Fu Manchu’s motivation (i.e., revenge) remains practically unchanged, making the sequel at times feel more like a stealth remake. Lee’s direction improves the second time around, though the limitations of the early sound era result in drably static dialogue scenes, little editing or cutting within scenes to enhance visual interest and keep audiences engaged, and little of the dynamic, experimental camera movement that the best, most memorable entries of the silent era offered moviegoers just a few years earlier.
In the end, the two films included on the Blu-ray set are best seen not as as cultural or cinematic landmarks (far from it), but as cultural or archeological artifacts, best viewed critically as examples of a hopefully bygone, less enlightened era, one which, through continued effort and measured introspection, we will leave where they belong, in the past and not in our future.
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu and The Return of Dr. Fu Manchu are available as part of a Blu-Ray set released by Kino Lorber.
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