6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
A young woman from a Catholic school and a young man from a nearby prison camp fall in love and must run away together to escape the law, the church and their parents.
Starring: Virginia Madsen, Craig Sheffer, Jon Polito, J.J. Cohen, Kate ReidDrama | Insignificant |
Romance | 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
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Tales of star-crossed lovers fighting forces (at least partially) beyond their control are as old as—well, Adam and Eve. But the term “star-crossed lovers” appropriately evokes William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (the play where the phrase originated, after all), and it’s Romeo and Juliet that obviously plays an important subtextual part in Fire With Fire, a little remembered 1986 film featuring a very young Virginia Madsen (Sideways) as a modern day Juliet and an equally callow Craig Sheffer (A River Runs Through It) as her erstwhile Romeo. The Shakespeare allusions don’t end there, though, as the two young lovers actually “meet cute” when Sheffer’s character of Joe literally stumbles across Madsen’s character of Lisa as Lisa poses as Hamlet’s Ophelia in a forested river. How many doomed Shakespearean sets of lovers do we need to “get” that this is a film about mismatched paramours who will struggle against significant odd to try to achieve that ineffable happy ending. Given the finales of both Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, things might not seem especially promising, but when it’s understood this is an eighties “date movie”, things brighten up, at least a little bit. This is a movie that probably appealed largely to dewy eyed females back in the day, many of whom probably dragged their boyfriends or husbands along with them to experience the heart wrenching adventures of two young lovers who seem to have the whole world out to keep them apart.
Fire With Fire is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Despite being another Paramount catalog release of the same general vintage of the recently reviewed Firstborn, the results here are at least nominally better than in the Michael Apted – Teri Garr film. While contrast isn't especially strong here, and colors tend toward the same garishness they do in Firstborn, the overall image is minimally crisper and sharper, with good to excellent fine detail in close-ups. A lot of the midrange shots still exhibit general softness and some of the dark scenes lack sufficient shadow detail. Grain is natural, not nearly as overwhelming at it was at times in Firstborn.
Fire With Fire's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is awash in 1980s synth-pop from the likes of Prince and other big haired acts of the day. That's the best part of this soundtrack, which also has some pretty treacly moments in Howard Shore's dramatic underscore. Otherwise, while the film has its share of screaming and yelling, there's nothing else here other than simple dialogue scenes, which the mono track handles quite capably. Fidelity is very good, with fine reproduction across all frequency ranges.
This is a typical Olive Films release with no supplemental content.
Fire With Fire could have used a little more Shakespeare and a little less Aaron Spelling, to horribly mix creative types. This silly melodrama has two charismatic leads, but the film is just a mess of ludicrous situations and cartoonish supporting characters. I'm sure the film will probably bring back fond memories to women who were probably younger girls on dates when they first saw it, but for those not awash in rose-colored glasses memories, Fire With Fire is a pretty sordid train wreck. On the plus side, Madsen's hair looks incredible.
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