Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Five Corners Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 8, 2020

Moonstruck took the cinematic world by storm in 1987 and more or less instantly made scenarist John Patrick Shanley into the "It" writer of that moment. Interestingly, the next film to bear his name on a screenplay credit, Five Corners, had evidently been sold and shot before the Oscar winning movie starring Cher and Nicolas Cage appeared, but the vagaries of the indie world meant it came out as Shanley's supposedly "sophomore" effort. Shanley's writing style can be an acquired taste, as perhaps exemplified most notably in films like Joe Versus the Volcano, and Five Corners may be a bit of an obstacle course for some viewers wanting a more relatively straightforward approach, as exemplified by Moonstruck itself, as a matter of fact. Five Corners is an ensemble piece documenting a couple of days in a variety of characters' lives, and one of its most winning attributes may be the chance to catch a handful of actors like Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins and John Turturro, in the relatively (especially in the case of Foster) early years of their careers.

Five Corners had a previous release on Blu-ray from Image Entertainment way back in 2011. For those interested in a plot recap, Michael Reuben's Five Corners Blu-ray review provides a summary. Michael's review is also a good resource for screenshot comparisons.

Five Corners Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Five Corners is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the MVD Marquee Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Unless my memory is failing me (which it may in fact be doing), I think this may be the first Blu-ray release I've reviewed from MVD Visual's MVD Marquee Collection that is encoded via MPEG-2, but based solely on screenshot comparisons (always a bit risky), I don't really see any hugely discernable differences between this release and the now long ago Image Entertainment Blu-ray release, other than the fact that this release is arguably just a tad darker looking. As Michael stated in his review of that release, the grain field here can be pretty chunky looking at times, especially in some of the darker scenes, but even with the "quaint" MPEG-2 encode, I didn't notice any ungainly resolution issues. The palette to my eyes looks pretty identical to the Image Entertainment release, with a solid accounting of the film's naturalistic tendencies.

Five Corners Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While I'm assuming this Blu-ray's LPCM 2.0 is more or less the same as on the Image Entertainment Blu-ray release, I am perhaps at least a bit more favorably inclined toward the overall sound of the track than Michael was. As Michael mentioned in his review, there's not a ton of separation here, and everything can tend to be pretty front and center a lot of the time, but fidelity is fine, supporting elements like the wonderful Beatles tune "In My Life," as well as dialogue and sound effects, which are especially noticeable in the many outdoor scenes.

Five Corners Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unlike the Image Entertainment release on Blu-ray from years ago, which only featured a bunch of trailers for Image Entertainment releases, this "new, improved" outing from MVD Visual does at least offer some supplements actually tied to the film itself.

• Actor Biographies (1080p; 1:29) leads to old style "DVD type" text pages featuring biographies of Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins and John Turturro.


• Audio Commentary features Mike McPadden, author of Teen Movie Hell, with Ben Reiser, University of Wisconsin - Madison.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:52)

Five Corners Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you're a fan of John Patrick Shanley's particular form of quirkiness, you'll probably like this odd but weirdly endearing film quite a bit. Even those not attuned to Shanley's more shall we say eccentric tendencies may well want to check this out due to its rather eclectic and interesting cast. Technical merits are on a par with the Image Entertainment release, and this Blu-ray at least offers a couple of supplements tied to the film itself, for those who are considering a purchase.