6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Music | 100% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Note: This film is currently available only in this set: Hard Core Logo/Hard Core Logo 2.
The end of the year is frequently filled with holiday gatherings, family reunions, and, for young ones, visions of sugar
plums (and perhaps costlier items) dancing in their heads. It’s also the time that all different kinds of Ten Best lists. Film lovers are used to seeing not only these
annual lists from all sorts of sources, but other lists from such vaunted organizations as The American Film Institute
which has given us everything from The Greatest Movies of All Time to, well, The Greatest Movie Quotes of All
Time. What those of us in the United States probably don’t think about very often is that other nations have their own
“best of” traditions, and in fact there are actual lists devoted to the best films of any given country, as incredible as that
may sound to the more chauvinistic (in the true sense of the term) among us. A lot of film fans who probably consider
themselves at least relatively well versed in the history of the art form have probably never even heard of Hard
Core Logo (despite the fact that none other than Quentin Tarantino helped distribute it around the world), and yet
this 1996 Canadian film is routinely listed among the best films that country has ever offered
the world, at least if those lists are being compiled by Canadians. Hard Core Logo might be thought of
as a distant Canadian cousin to the iconic mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, but large swaths of Hard Core Logo are not only not funny on
their face, but seemingly intentionally skewed more toward elegy and even melancholy, a perhaps fitting epitaph to the
punk era the film’s (fictional) titular band was supposedly a legendary part of. Few will probably find much to laugh at in
Hard Core Logo, despite the assertion of the filmmakers and many critics that Hard Core Logo is indeed
a comedy. And some curmudgeons may even question if this slight but weirdly effective piece has any business being
on any “all time greatest” list at all.
Hard Core Logo is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Video Service Corporation with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This film was shot on the fly with an absolutely miniscule budget, and it looks like it. Even given the less than stellar filming conditions and money involved, the elements here have either not been properly curated or are in pretty ragged shape for other reasons. Color is very badly faded, to the point where some of the color segments actually look little more variegated than the actual black and white segments. Detail is often negligible in all but extreme close-ups, but in those close-ups, things improve dramatically, as can be seen in a couple of the screenshots accompanying this review, but overall this is a pretty soft and fuzzy looking presentation. Other than the fading issue, there isn't any horrible damage to report, and despite the interlaced presentation, there really aren't any major artifacting issues either.
Hard Core Logo features only a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix which may be a deal killer for longtime fans of this film who have probably wanted to hear some of the very well done music in a lossless setting. That said, if you can get past the Dolby Digital hangup (not always an easy thing to do in the Blu-ray age), things sounds pretty spry here, with a decent midrange and nice thundering low end. The surround activity tends to be most effective in the snippets of songs that dot the landscape, though occasionally there are ambient environmental effects and even some dialogue that spills into more than just the front channels. Fidelity is very good and dynamic range is quite wide.
I have often been accused of having one of the most politically incorrect senses of humor this side of Bill Maher, but for some reason I just found little to laugh at in Hard Core Logo. That shouldn't be interpreted as meaning that I found the film to be a failure, simply that I was so drawn into the sad little world of Joe Dick and his cohorts that I really felt like I was watching an actual documentary, not a mockumentary. This Blu-ray has questionable video quality and its audio is lossy, so even fans of the film may think twice about springing for this release, unless they're excited to see the long talked about sequel, which is also included (see our review of Hard Core Logo 2).
(Still not reliable for this title)
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