5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Burt Reynolds leads the horse-powered horseplay of a race spanning some 3,000 breakneck miles. Among the players in this joyride: Jackie Chan, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Catherine Bach, Dom De Luise, Dean Martin, Marilu Henner, Shirley MacLaine...the list goes on.
Starring: Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jamie FarrComedy | 100% |
Action | 45% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Hal Needham's "Cannonball Run II" (1984) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Australian label Umbrella Entertainment. There are no supplemental features on the disc. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.
Surprise, surprise
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Hal Needham's Cannonball Run II arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment.
The release is sourced from an older but for the most part rather decent master. Its age shows mostly during the darker/indoor footage where the grain appears mixed with some light noise and occasionally light black crush sneaks in (see screencapture #10). However, when there is an abundance of natural light the visuals are typically pleasing, occasionally even boasting decent depth. The best news here is that there are no traces of recent attempts to digitally resharpen and repolish the film, so while the age of the master does show there are no awful anomalies of the kind that we have seen on many releases of catalog titles from Universal's vaults. Colors are natural and stable, but saturation should be better and ideally there ought to be wider range of nuances. Overall image stability is good. There are no distracting large debris, cuts, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player or PS3 regardless of your geographical location).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature, but you will have to use your remote control to turn them on. (The disc does not have a main menu).
A lossless track would have been the ideal option, but the lossy track is actually very good. In fact, I was quite surprised because it has very nice depth and dynamic movement is more or less where I expected to be. The dialog is very clean is always easy to follow. Also, there are no distracting age-related anomalies to report.
Most unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this release.
I am tempted to say that Hal Needham's Cannonball Run II is a guilty pleasure of mine, but this would imply that I accept that the film is the disaster that over the years many critics have argued it is. I don't. The truth is that it is not a masterpiece -- it is definitely silly, and a bit too chaotic as well -- but it is very sincere about what type of entertainment it aims to deliver and I find this very attractive. Also, a lot of these supposedly 'bad' vintage comedies from the 1970s and 1980s were done without fear that they are likely to insult someone's feelings, which is another reason why I enjoy them so much. This very recent release from Umbrella Entertainment does not have any bonus features, but it is Region-Free. RECOMMENDED.
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