Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Clean Slate Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov May 17, 2017

Mick Jackson's "Clean Slate" (1994) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Olive Films. The only bonus feature on the disc is an original trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The clueless detective

It is possible that my initial expectations of Clean Slate might have been a bit too low, but the film still turned out to be unusually good. In fact, I would argue that with a few minor improvements it probably would have been excellent.

Dana Carvey plays an LA-based private detective named Maurice Pogue who suffers from some very rare form of amnesia. Each night when he goes to sleep, Maurice’s brain hits the reset button in the back of his head and in the morning he wakes up without any memories. The only way he can reconstruct his past is by listening to a small tape recorder that he uses as his permanent memory bank -- he keeps recording himself and updating his life story so that on the following morning he can resume being Maurice.

But the recovery system begins to crumble when Maurice reconnects with a beautiful model (Valeria Golino, Rain Man) with a murky past, and then some very persistent high-roller named Cornell (Michael Gambon, Layer Cake) and his bodyguards come knocking on his door demanding that he agrees not to testify in an upcoming trial. Initially Maurice decides to play it safe and basically do what he is asked because he has absolutely no idea who are the people that he is dealing with, but when his actions create an even bigger mess he begins looking for a permanent solution to his troubles. This of course turns out to be a very serious challenge because the important trial is just days away and each morning he has to rebuild his life from scratch.

Director Mick Jackson completed Clean Slate a year after Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day so obviously it is impossible not to draw at least some comparisons between the two, but the truth is that they are very different films. Clean Slate is sort of a goofy neo-noirish thriller that really feels most comfortable when it functions as a romantic comedy. In other words, there is a lot more genre overlapping in Clean Slate, with Carvey essentially undergoing a couple of different character transformations to make all of the contrasting material stick together.

The film works quite well. Because the narrative is fractured into multiple pieces it takes a bit longer to reveal the big picture, but the material isn’t repetitive and more importantly the viewer’s intelligence isn’t assaulted. Indeed, there are nicely scripted twists and logical revelations that essentially allow various relationships to evolve in believable ways and make the motives of different players easy to understand.

Carvey is charming and genuinely funny and at the end leaves the impression that he was in fact the right person to play the clueless detective. Golino is also convincing as the exotic femme fatale (the accent is real), though it is probably fair to say that her moment of revelation comes a bit too soon. The supporting cast includes a number of familiar faces, including James Earl Jones playing a veteran cop who has suffered a serious accident, and Kevin Pollack as a jealous attorney who is trying to find out who is the mysterious playboy that has been entertaining his wife, though Gambon is probably the best of the bunch.

The pooch that lives with the detective is a superstar. It wears an eye-patch and does some absolutely phenomenal things in front of the camera.

Clean Slate Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Mick Jackson's Clean Slate arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

The release is sourced from an older but quite nice master. Indeed, just about all of the close-ups convey pretty good depth, while fluidity remains pleasing throughout the entire film. The wider panoramic shots revel the mot obvious limitations of the master; delineation in particular could be better and there is also some light black crush that ideally should be eliminated. There are no traces of recent degraining adjustments, but grain exposure can also be improved. Edge-enhancement is not an issue of concern. Colors are stable, but ideally saturation should be better, and there are even some nuances that are missing. Image stability is excellent. There are no distracting debris, scratches, stains, dirt spots, warped or torn frames to report. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Clean Slate Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are not provided for the main feature.

The audio may not have been recently remastered, but it actually has plenty of oomph and depth is very good. There are no balance issues to report either. There are a few segments where it seems like the background noise could be managed a bit better, but overall the lossless track seems to serve the film quite well. (I don't have a DVD release of this film to make direct comparisons).

Clean Slate Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original restored trailer for Clean Slate. In English, not subtitled. (3 min).

Clean Slate Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Clean Slate turned out to be a much better film than I expected it to be. It is funny, energetic and full of small but very nice surprises that make quite a difference. If you are a fan of Dana Carvey and his work but do not have Clean Slate yet, I'd say that there is a pretty big gap in your collection. This is the type of feel-good summer film that works even after you have already seen it and know how it ends. Olive Films' Blu-ray release is sourced from a decent master, but the only bonus feature on it is a theatrical trailer. RECOMMENDED.