Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Desperate Hours Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov April 30, 2016

Michael Cimino's "Desperate Hours" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of French label Carlotta Films. The only supplemental features on the disc are an original trailer for the film and a brand new video introduction by French critic and film historian Jean-Baptiste Thoret. In English, with optional French subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

I can't wait to see you again

Michael Cimino’s Desperate Hours is loosely based on the famous novel by Joseph Hayes which was first made into a film by William Wyler in 1955. Ted Kocheff also used Hayes’ novel for a fairly modest TV production in 1967.

Mickey Rourke plays the dangerous gangster Michael Bosworth who has been captured by the police and is about to get a tough sentence that could keep him in jail for the rest of his life. While he is in court, his sexy attorney (Kelly Lynch, Road House) secretly hands him a gun and he manages to escape. His brother Wally (Elias Koteas, Exotica) and good friend Albert (David Morse, The Crossing Guard) then pick him up and drive him away before anyone can figure out what is going on.

Their plan is to find a safe place, wait for the lawyer to join them and then head down to Mexico. Michael can barely wait because he has fallen madly in love with the lawyer and is ready to start a new life with her.

They choose a quiet house in a beautiful suburb and take Nora (Mimi Rodgers, Someone to Watch Over Me), her daughter and son hostage. Nora’s husband, Tim (Anthony Hopkins), who has started seeing a different woman and left the family, is also captured when he unexpectedly appears with gifts for the kids. For a while, everyone remains relatively calm, but when the police begin tracking down the lawyer tensions rise, and Michael is forced to abandon the original plan and begin improvising.

Cimino’s film will likely disappoint anyone expecting to see a strong remake of the original film with Humphrey Bogart. Excluding the basic elements of the original story which are fairly similar, Desperate Hours is very much a film with unique characters and identity.

The film is structured as a chamber play that allows its big stars to shine without distractions. (There are only a couple of sequences with brilliant panoramic shots that remind of Cimino’s classic dazzling style). However, in a way, it feels like a boxing match without any rules. Rourke and Hopkins are forced into the middle of the ring and then left to exchange punches in ways that could be both fascinating to behold and quite perplexing at the same time. Their acting styles are so different that when they clash it frequently looks like they are either forced out of their comforts zones or unable to fully control their emotions. There is tremendous energy on display that at times threatens to collapse the entire film.

The lack of conventional structure and balance, however, also give the film a special, borderline surreal atmosphere. It is not at all difficult to predict how it would end, but there are plenty of genuine surprises in the middle where its stars are let loose. There are plenty of plot holes as well, but their relevance is largely eliminated because at this point the boxing match is already well underway. What matters is the precision of the punches; the stronger and more atypical they are, the more effective the entire film begins to look.

There have been rumors that the current version of the film isn’t the one Cimino wanted. According to different sources, the film’s producers were largely responsible for it.

Desperate Hours 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, Michael Cimino's Desperate Hours arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Carlotta Films.

The release is sourced from the same master that Shout Factory accessed when it prepared its Blu-ray release of the film for the U.S. market. It is an older master, but a very good one. Indeed, the majority of the close-ups boast nice depth; small details and even background nuances are quite easy to see. The outdoor panoramic vistas also look wonderful. A newer master would certainly introduce some improvements in terms of sharpness and fluidity, but the basics qualities of the current master are indeed quite strong (see screencaptures #5 and 19). Colors are stable, well balanced and natural. There is a good range of nuances as well. During the darker/indoor footage shadow definition could be better, but the current range of blacks, grays and browns is already quite good. There are no traces of recent degraining or sharpening adjustments. Image stability is excellent. Finally, there are no distracting large debris, cuts, damage marks, or stains to report in our review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Desperate Hours Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and French DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional French subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track does not appear to have been recently remastered, but I think that it is actually very good. David Mansfield's intense score has plenty of room to breathe and during the action sequences the dynamic intensity is probably as good as it can be. If improvements are to be made, the mid- and/or high-registers is where some minor balance optimizations can be performed, but I don't believe that there will be a noticeable shift in terms of fluidity and clarity. The dialog is stable, clean, and always easy to follow. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions to report.

Desperate Hours Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Preface de Jean-Baptiste Thoret - new filmed video introduction by French critic and film historian Jean-Baptiste Thoret. In French, not subtitled. (8 min, 1080p).

• Bande-annonce - original theatrical trailer for Desperate Hours. In English, with optional French subtitles. (2 min).

Desperate Hours Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I am a big admirer of Michael Cimino's work and frequently revisit his films. I have discovered that the older they get, the clearer it becomes that they all have special identities that immediately separate them from the many other films that competed with them, looked right and were praised by the critics because they did. Whether this is enough to consider them good or great is something that will likely be debated for as long as these films are available to see, but I think that it is largely irrelevant. There will always be people who will appreciate what Cimino's films offer and respect the fact that they never tried to play by the conventional rules. Desperate Hours is a flawed but fascinating to behold film which should appeal mostly to people who already like Cimino's fluid style. The French release which we have reviewed here and the U.S. release are sourced from the same master. RECOMMENDED.