6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Ernest hired a pair of exterminators. He had a rat in his place of security system business – his partner. Unfortunately, the exterminators dispatched the wrond rat and they frame a poor security guard for the murder of the company boss......
Starring: Bruce Campbell, Brion James, Louise Lasser, Sheree J. Wilson, Edward R. PressmanDark humor | 100% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Fans of Sam Raimi were waiting with bated breath for the release of the “new, improved” Evil Dead reboot, wondering if one of Raimi’s signature pieces would be destroyed by inexperienced hands, this despite the fact that Raimi was one of the co-producers. Many if not most fans walked away from the remake heaving a huge sigh of relief, but for those who might want to take a look backward at a Raimi project that was wrested from his control and by many accounts suffered for it, there’s no better example than the goofy 1985 film Crimewave. Crimewave has attained a certain cult status over the years not just due to Raimi’s involvement, but also due to the fact that the film was co-written by none other than Ethan and Joel Coen (along with Raimi himself) and from ongoing reports, including from Raimi and co-star Bruce Campbell, about the almost ludicrous difficulties the film underwent during its development, filming and post production. Crimewave might in fact be held up as one of the prime cinematic examples of Murphy’s Law, for certainly just about everything that could go wrong did, and despite its promising genealogy, the film ended up being released only in Kansas and Alaska (something that’s perhaps more funny than anything in the movie itself) and then quickly disappeared, not even raising much of a ruckus in the nascent days of cable television. (Campbell famously quipped in his autobiography that Crimewave “wasn’t released, it escaped”.) Looking back now from the vantage point of some 25 years-plus, not to mention the rather impressive subsequent filmographies of Raimi and the Coen Brothers, it’s hard not to see Crimewave as something of a disaster, but there are still glimmers of what might have been running through the film and it will probably forever remain an object of fascination (and, perhaps, ridicule) for fans of its famous creators.
Crimewave is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Considering the tumultuous history of this film, the elements here are in surprisingly good shape, with no damage of any major import to report. While colors seems to have faded a bit, for the most part the image boasts a reasonably saturated palette and above average fine object detail. There are some issues with contrast, which is variable at times and which leads to some loss of shadow detail in the many dark sequences. Things are fairly soft looking throughout this presentation, most if not all of which can be traced to the original look of the film. Grain is quite evident and no aggressive digital tweaking seems to have been done to this release.
Crimewave features a DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track pumped out over two channels. Fidelity is just fine if obviously constrained. Dialogue is cleanly presented, sound effects are quite boisterous and the score (which includes some musical numbers) sounds fine.
Raimi, Campbell and Coen Brothers fans are among the most ferocious in the film world, and this trifecta has always been an object of more than passing interest for many of them. If the anticipation is perhaps greater than the realization, there's still enough goofy humor here to at least warrant a viewing or two. What really makes this release indispensable is the involvement of Campbell in the commentary and an interview. Both of those elements are stuffed to the gills with hilarity and arch reminiscences. The video quality here is fine if unspectacular and the audio is very good. Recommended.
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