Hard Core Logo 2 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Hard Core Logo 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 13, 2012

Note: This film is currently available only in this set: Hard Core Logo/Hard Core Logo 2.

Bruce McDonald’s odd little quasi-verité mockumentary Hard Core Logo has been something of a cult sensation since its release in 1996, with its appeal helped immeasurably once Quentin Tarantino stepped into the fray and helped distribute the film internationally. It took McDonald years (fifteen, but who’s counting?) to revisit the conceit of his early film, and on paper at least, Hard Core Logo 2 would have seemed to have perhaps even more material ripe for the skewering than “merely” punk rock music. McDonald’s second Hard Core Logo film bites off a good deal more than it can easily chew, taking on everything from overnight Hollywood success (namely McDonald’s, supposedly anyway) to ridiculous cable television dramas to sex scandals involving young boys to psychic phenomena (including possession) to, finally, punk rock music. The result is a sometimes fitfully amusing mishmash that doesn’t ever really rise to the level of the original Hard Core Logo in terms of investing the characters with enough reality to make the audience care about them. That’s ironic on a couple of levels, since the lead character in Hard Core Logo 2 is named Care, though her surname is Failure, which is perhaps too on the nose for its own good, and just as ironically, Ms. Failure is indeed a real life musician from Canada playing a faux version of herself in this film.

Part of the weird “charm” (for want of a better term) of Hard Core Logo is how unassuming it all was, but there’s a decidedly arch “meta” quality to Hard Core Logo 2 that is meant to be compelling but which in fact ends up distancing the audience from the events in the film. First of all, the entire film is narrated by McDonald (with a supposed “twist” at the end that is pointless and really doesn’t even make a whole lot of sense if you think long enough about it). Second of all, McDonald and his “crew” figure much more prominently in this film than they did in the first Hard Core Logo. It’s like watching The Making of The Making of ‘Hard Core Logo 2’ in a way, and it robs the film of what could have been a more visceral experience.

The major conceit of Hard Core Logo 2 is that Care Failure is insisting she’s been possessed by the spirit of Joe Dick, the punk rock icon who was the focus of the first Hard Core Logo. Failure’s “people” have reached out to McDonald for help, wanting to document their charge’s trials with the poltergeist. McDonald initially isn’t interested as he’s been successfully helming a cheesy series called The Pilgrim for the Home Bible Network. But when the star of that series is caught in an overseas child prostitution scandal, suddenly he’s persona non grata in La-La Land, and he has a ton of bills to pay as well since he’s been living the high life there without really having the income to support it. So suddenly a new documentary tying into his long ago work seems like a good idea and he sets off with a psychic investigator named Liz (Shannon Jardine) to see what they can see. When they arrive at a backwoods resort that evidently has a long history of its own (think of the setting of this season’s American Horror Story), they’re surprised to find none other than Bucky Haight (Julian Richings) there as Care’s erstwhile producer. (Haight was another major character in the first Hard Core Logo.)

This second Hard Core Logo would seem to be perfectly set up to be a much more outright funny film than the first, a film which was fascinating but hardly laugh out loud hysterical (at least to this reviewer). And yet something is undeniably off in this outing, which may simply boil down to everyone being too self-aware for their own good. Humor works best when it’s unforced, but there’s such a mirror held up to everyone and everything here that the entire film seems like a film school exercise rather than an organic creation. It’s kind of surprising, actually, because the concept is okay (if not fantastic), the performances tend to be acceptable at least, and McDonald’s filmcraft is substantially more polished than it was in the first Hard Core Logo.

The film ends on a rather melancholic note, much like the first Hard Core Logo, with a patently ridiculous conceit that puts everything that’s gone before into a supposedly new light. McDonald would have done much better to have simply played this second Hard Core Logo straight, which ironically probably would have delivered more powerful laughs.

Hard Core Logo 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hard Core Logo 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Video Service Corporation with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The video quality here is head and shoulders above that of the first Hard Core Logo. The image here is nicely crisp and very well detailed, with well saturated colors and a sharp and well defined image, especially in close- ups. McDonald is much more playful with the video presentation in this Hard Core Logo, including lots of little "bells and whistles" like text superimposed on the image and various color gradings and other gimmicks that significantly up the interest in this from a purely video standpoint.

Hard Core Logo 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hard Core Logo 2, like the first film, has only a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mix that may significantly lessen interest in this title from audiophiles, especially since this film, much like the first, features some great music. That said, this Dolby presentation is fairly vivid, with decent fidelity, clear dialogue and a relatively fulsome account of the musical elements. As with the first film, the musical sequences provide the most compelling surround activity.

Hard Core Logo 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary featuring Bruce McDonald and Simon Less.. This is another fairly interesting commentary, though like the film itself, it tends to be on the self-aware and even self-serving side at times.


• Hard Core Logo 2 Featurette (720p; 18:49) is kind of mockumentary itself and is actually more fitfully amusing than the actual film.


• Original Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:52)


• Director Bruce McDonald Interview (1080i; 17:39)


• Producer Rob Merilees Interview (1080i; 4:49)


• Care Failure Interview (HD; 4:12)


• Actor Julian Richings Interview (1080i; 6:55)

Hard Core Logo 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hard Core Logo 2 could have been a really funny, sharp follow up to the first Hard Core Logo film. But somewhere along the way, things got off the tracks and this second outing never really achieves its inherent potential. There are some passingly well done moments here, but the entire film fails to hang together very convincingly, and the finale is so ludicrous that some people may actually be rolling their eyes in disbelief.