7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Frank Pierce is a veteran paramedic active in Hell's Kitchen in the early 1990s. He has become burned out and is haunted by visions of the people he has tried and failed to save over the course of his career.
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, Ving Rhames, Tom SizemoreDrama | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
I can't begin to explain how Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out the Dead (1999), an overindulgent, ahem, "ecstatic sensory experience" (quoth the San Francisco Examiner), ends up being such a strangely benign, weirdly forgettable film. And not because more than two decades have passed since its theatrical release. I rewatched it just two days ago, the moment my screener arrived in fact. And even now, type type typing away at my laptop, I'm struggling to remember large swaths of the movie; a rocky off-ramp of a dark dramedy that plays like a mid-career Oliver Stone flick colliding head on with an Abel Ferrara neo-noir. But here I am, skimming my notes in an effort to determine why an arguably decent, long lost Scorsese experiment isn't, in any way, good or ill, latching onto my brain. That's a rarity for one of the prolific director's films. Even his biggest swings and misses have still managed to at least cobble together something memorable. Perhaps it's Nicolas Cage, who pulls inward and goes morose in a picture all but designed to showcase his delightfully devilish eruptions. Or maybe it's the film's tone, which wobbles and bobbles like a cheap plastic Jesus on an ambulance dashboard. Is it overwrought? Over-written? Under-written? Overcooked? Half-baked? Over-stylized? Overly ambitious? Is it too bland despite all its spice? Too slow despite its speed? Too much of a downer despite its coked-up verve? Or is it just a middling film that struck Scorsese and company as a more intriguing idea than the final product proved to be?
Newly remastered from the original camera negative and reviewed by director Martin Scorsese, cinematographer Robert Richardson and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Paramount's 2160p 4K presentation of Bringing Out the Dead may not be a traditional stunner but, good Lord, does it perfectly capture everything the filmmakers wanted to put on the screen. Grain is filmic and surprisingly consistent, without much in the way of elevation and nothing in the way of being tamped down. Detail is terrific as well. The film may not be the sharpest spike strip on the road, but Richardson's photography is represented faithfully without flaw, even in moments where style surges (or even over-surges) and threatens to wreak havoc on the image's integrity. In these moments, though, only the cinematography and editing are to quote-unquote blame. I didn't catch sight of anything out of sorts with the encode; banding, blocking or otherwise. Color, saturation and contrast, meanwhile -- while by no means always lifelike -- are striking and precise. Black levels crush but it traces back to the original source, nothing more. Skintones are often pale and sickly, but it's intentional, and stark whites and flashes of light make for an at-times unsettling but satisfying series of rapidfire emergency-response sequences. Nitpick the film's style all you want. You'll be hard pressed, though, to find any fault with Paramount's remastering efforts or the disc's encoding.
Bringing Out the Dead features a killer Dolby Atmos track (with a standard TrueHD 7.1 core), one that offers a startlingly enveloping, panic-inducing experience primed to bolster everything Scorsese throws at his audience. Dialogue is reasonably intelligible (despite the fact that the filmmakers allow more natural leveling to dominate the mix), narration is warm, full and nicely centered throughout, music slices through the insanity of Frank's night shifts without overwhelming other elements (aside from when it's meant to do just that), and prioritization is masterful. The film sounds more chaotic than it actually is, as method dominates madness time and time again. Never scattershot, always artistic, the mix transforms an after-dark New York City into an alien world full of strange creatures and rough-hewn citizenry. Directionality is exacting to the point of realism, pans are slick and smooth, and the soundfield wraps around the listener without so much as a nod to the deliberate crafting of the soundscape. Moreover, LFE output is bold and aggressive, lending plenty of bark to the film's bite and even adding a depth to Frank's despair and desperation through a series of sternum-thumping outbursts that are as powerful as they are startling. Bringing Out the Dead sounds fantastic.
Uneven and divisive, Bringing Out the Dead wasn't a movie ahead of its time, nor has it revealed itself to be a misunderstood gem that only now is ready to be received with open arms. It's a problematic experiment; an oddity in Scorsese's filmography, for sure, but one that remains wholly watchable, even if it somehow falls away from memory days after watching it. But it's finally earned a high definition release, so watching it is at least far less painful -- thanks to an excellent 4K/Dolby Atmos presentation -- than it was when the only way to watch it was via a standard DVD.
1987
1951
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2014
1950
1949
Includes Elia Kazan: Outsider 1982 Documentary
1954
1973
2017
1948
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1950
Collector's Edition
1992
1936
Warner Archive Collection
1951
1954
1985
1957
1955