6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The owner of an Irish castle decides to attract visitors by falsely claiming that the building is haunted, only to have a pair of real ancestral spirits start causing trouble...
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Donal McCann, Mary Coughlan, Liz Smith (I), Tom HickeyComedy | 100% |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
1988 supernatural comedy High Spirits has no business being as disappointing and unfunny as it is. With a killer ensemble -- the late, great Peter O'Toole shares the screen with a veritable who's who of stars and up-and-comers, including Daryl Hannah, Liam Neeson, Beverly D'Angelo, Steve Guttenburg, Peter Gallagher and Jennifer Tilly -- and a script written by director Neil Jordan himself (who four years later would woo audiences, critics and the Academy with The Crying Game in 1992), High Spirits should have been a surefire hit. But fate, it seems, had a different future in mind for the soon-to-be bargain bin dud. Not only did it bomb at the box office and earn a critical drubbing, it was widely viewed as being one the worst possible things a comedy can be: boring. It didn't help that Beetlejuice, with which it shares more than a few similarities, released the same year. Even some thirty-five years later, I can't say it was ahead of its time. It wasn't. It remains as flawed, tiresome and dispiriting today as ever.
High Spirits looks pretty good in high definition. Oh, it could use a new remastering to bring it in line with the best catalog transfers we've seen this year, but its 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation managed to impress me nonetheless. It's most likely the same transfer Shout Factory utilized on its now out-of-print 2015 Blu-ray (a double feature release that paired Spirits with Vampire's Kiss), but I found my score, admittedly a subjective metric, drifting higher than that of my colleague, so I can't be certain. However, since it seems Sandpiper simply recycles transfers with its releases, this is more than likely the case. No matter, on to the analysis. There are shots plagued by sporadic grain spiking and even some dirt, particularly those involving optical FX, but I didn't find these blemishes to be all that distracting, as they were gone as quickly as they appeared. Colors remain fetching and lovely, skin tones are lifelike and nicely saturated, black levels are deep without crushing shadow detail, and contrast is striking, allowing the image to retain its slightly grainy, filmic qualities. Detail is remarkable too, thanks to consistently cleanly defined edges and refined textures. The film isn't sharp enough to draw blood -- it was 1988 after all -- but it holds its own. Add to that a lack of banding, macroblocking and other hauntings and you have a catalog transfer that delivers. High Spirits probably isn't going to receive a top-dollar restoration any time soon, or ever for that matter, so it's safe to say this is as good as it will foreseeably get.
Whereas my impression of High Spirits's video quality was more favorable than Jeff's, my take on the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix included with Sandpiper's release of the film is a bit less favorable. Prioritization issues are the villain du jour, with voices, sound effects and music sometimes competing for dominance. It wouldn't be so frustrating if these moments weren't so obvious. Thankfully, they're the exception rather than the rule. For the most part the track handles everything its given with more than adequate aplomb. No one will mistake the sound design for a modern production (it all but wears its '80s sonics on its sleeve) but clarity and fidelity are both quite good, and George Fenton's playful score is given room to deliver its wares. Dialogue is intelligible and ageless on the whole, meaning only the bits that show the wear and tear of the years and the shortcomings of thirty-five-year old sound design bring this one down to where it lands.
Sandpiper's Blu-ray release of High Spirits doesn't include any special features. To my knowledge, none have ever been produced. Rumors of a separate cut of the film have circulated for years, but no alternate version has been released domestically. From IMDB, though I have no way of verifying its accuracy: "There exists a print of the film that was Neil Jordan's original vision of the movie. It contains a much more serious tone than the theatrical release, and is much more of a fun mystery. There is a lot more footage of Liam Neeson's character, and the ghosts are allowed to have much more of a plot than in the theatrical release. Rumor has it that when the studio saw this initial cut, they had no idea how to market it, so they had it re-edited against Jordan's wishes after the director had allegedly been locked out of the editing room." The post adds, "There was a shortened version of this cut available on video in Japan," although I have yet to firmly confirm such claims.
I had such high hopes for High Spirits. Unfortunately, no amount of ensemble magic or clever wit lifts the comedy above its poorly penned bits. It's not all bad. But it stumbles far more often than it soars. Sandpiper's Blu-ray release is better, with a solid video presentation and decent DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. The 1988 comedy isn't accompanied by any extras -- boo -- but that seems to be par for the course when it comes to the film (not to mention just about every Sandpiper Pictures Blu-ray release). Is there much hope for High Spirits? Not if you're patiently awaiting a proper 4K restoration or a Criterion, Twilight Time, or Shout Factory-style release, teeming with gorgeous video and newly produced retrospective special features. But if you're just looking for a respectable presentation of High Spirits itself, you might find its humor and performances grow on you enough to make you a part of the film's small legion of vocal defenders.
1986
Slipcover in Original Pressing
1984
2013
2013
Collector's Edition
1984
Uncut
2003
2014
Unrated
2013
1985
2013
1989
MVD Rewind Collection
1988
1940
1939
2014
1992
1986
Collector's Edition
1981
1988
2019