4.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Johnny is a freewheeling, motorcycle-riding musician who rolls into a small town with his band. There he meets Kathy, a high school honor student who catches his eye and his heart. Can a "good" girl like Kathy fall for such a "bad" guy? It's modern romance with a beat in this fast-paced film with stunning visual style and a hit soundtrack.
Starring: Vanilla Ice, Naomi Campbell, Kristin Minter, Michael Gross, Kathryn MorrisMusic | 100% |
Comedy | 35% |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.84:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
David Kellogg's "Cool as Ice" (1991) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include new audio commentary by critics Josh Nelson and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas as well as vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
No, you go first.
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Cool as Ice arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The release is sourced from an older master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. Unsurprisingly, overall the film does look dated, but there portions of it that look rather decent as well. The most problematic areas are the ones that feature plenty of natural lighting, which quickly exposes the weaknesses of the master. Some of these weaknesses are loose grain with shaky overall exposure; obvious clipped highlights; halo-like effects popping up around edges (but not conventional harsh edge-enhancement); light contrast boosting; and problematic shadow definition. However, darker areas tend to hide these limitations quite nicely, so while it is still quite obvious to tell that improvements can be made, they hold up pretty well. Fluidity isn't optimal, so if you have a larger screen, you will see that the proper tightness that we often see on new 4K masters isn't there. The color balance is very good, but the primaries and the supporting nuances can and should be healthier. There are no distracting age-related imperfections. So, darker areas can fall in the 3.25/3.50 area, but the daylight footage is in the 3.00 and below area. My score is 3.25/5.00. (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).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
The audio is clear, sharp, and clean. In many areas, dynamic intensity is also very nice. However, there is so much great music throughout the film plus some quite nice action footage that I feel like a modern mix could deliver plenty of decent improvements. (This film would be a treat to see restored in 4K and with a nice new Dolby Atmos mix). The dialog is stable, clear, nicely balance, and easy to follow.
Cool as Ice offers supersized old-fashioned MTV-esque fun of the kind that we will likely never see in mainstream cinema again. Oh yes, there is a ton of awesome music in it as well. As you can probably recall the film received some really, really bad reviews when it came out, and much later on as well, but I think that Vanilla Ice, David Kellogg, and Janusz Kaminski did some absolutely incredible work in it, like that brilliant segment for "Never Wanna Be Without You". It is too bad that it was not restored in 4K before it transitioned to Blu-ray because it would have been a feast for the eyes. But even in its current form, looking quite dated, it is still an awesome piece of vintage escapist entertainment. RECOMMENDED.
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40th Anniversary Edition
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Special Encore Edition
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