Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Hit Man Returns: David Foster & Friends Blu-ray Movie Review

Coming to a PBS Pledge Week near you soon.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 6, 2011

There was a time in the not so distant past when the right record producer guaranteed the difference between a massive hit and an also ran. Producers were the real powers behind the recording industry through the 1950’s and much of the 1960’s even though only a very few, like Phil Spector, managed to rise to the level of fame that the artists they were producing reached. With the advent of more self-directed artists like singer-songwriters, the all powerful producers seemed to fade into the background. There are still “star” producers around, people like Trevor Horn, but probably no one has met the high bar set by those moguls of the immediate post-war through early rock years, unless one considers David Foster. Foster is simply one of the most protean talents of the past several decades in the international pop-rock arena, a writer, producer and arranger who has an absolutely immense impact on virtually all aspects of the music business. As a writer he’s either written or co-written some of the most gorgeous tunes to ever hit Top 40, songs like “After the Love Has Gone” and “Through the Fire.” As an arranger, his expertly crafted orchestrations have graced too many records to even try to mention. And as a producer, Foster has worked with just about everyone who’s anyone in the pop music pantheon of the 1970’s on, people like Streisand, Dion, Seal, Bublé, Earth, Wind & Fire, Josh Groban, and on and on. A couple of years ago Foster starred in his first Hit Man venture, an admittedly glitzy Las Vegas affair that seemed to have “PBS Pledge Week” written all over it. As with any top-selling pop enterprise, Hit Man’s success virtually guaranteed a sequel, and so we have this new collection of Foster collaborations, Hit Man Returns, which offers well over two hours of amazing performances from a bevy of people whose careers have been inimitably impacted by Foster’s presence. Foster gets some (unwarranted in my opinion) criticism for supposedly foisting sonic pabulum off on an unsuspecting public, but this special admirably proves just how versatile Foster is any of his chosen pursuits.

Foster hugs his mentor Maurice White in a touching moment from this concert.

Though Foster works fairly exclusively in a pop-rock idiom, his changes often reveal a quasi-jazz sensibility which hinges on unexpected modulations and often asymmetrical phrases, something that has endeared him to the cream of vocalists over the past generation or so. Following the lead of the first Hit Man, where Foster was introduced by Andre Agassi, Hit Man Returns gets off to a blazing start with an introduction by Olympians Kristi Yamaguchi and Brian Boitano, who bring Foster on to launch into his 1988 theme for the Calgary Olympics. Working in the same sort of genial, highly syncopated vocabulary as another well-known composer-arranger named David—Grusin—Foster acquits himself admirably enough on the piano and helps make every punch by the crackerjack band on the anticipated sixteenth notes part of his own little dance move.

After that “solo” moment, we’re off on a whirlwind tour through Foster’s long composing, arranging and producing career, with a huge variety of artists coming onstage in the cavernous Mandalay Bay arena in Las Vegas to share a few moments with the man who provided most of them with gigantic hits. A complete set list is provided below, but what emerges over the two hours plus of this concert is just how vast Foster’s contribution to popular music has been. Anyone who can segue more or less seamlessly from Kenny Loggins to Donna Summer to Ne-Yo to Chaka Khan to The Canadian Tenors to Martina McBride to Seal to (11 year old) Jackie Evancho must be doing something right.

Probably the emotional highlight of the evening, as brief as it is, comes during the Earth, Wind & Fire segment. Foster’s first real Top 40 action came when he co-wrote EW&F’s gorgeous “After the Love Has Gone,” and the latest iteration of that group helps Foster’s wavering voice make it through a snippet of that song before they launch into a mini-medley of some of their other hits. But then Foster stands up from the piano and addresses the audience directly in a heartfelt little monologue where he proclaims his love for an innovator who was his chief mentor as he was getting his start in the music industry. He then invites original Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White, who no longer performs with the group, to rise—however shyly and unwillingly—from the audience to take a bow. White seems genuinely overcome with emotion and also does not seem to be expecting Foster’s sudden appearance by his side to give him a hug. It introduces a nice piece of humanity into this frankly slickly produced package.

The only misstep in the evening—an a relatively minor one—is the excerpt from Foster’s supposedly upcoming Broadway musical Betty Boop. Though it’s fun seeing Desperate Housewives’ Orson Bean and Kathryn Joosten in roles very unlike their television characters (Bean was in Illya, Darling!, the Broadway musical version of Never on Sunday, in 1967), the piece is so unlike the rest of the evening it sticks out like a sore thumb, and let’s just say Stephen Sondheim shouldn’t exactly be quaking in his boots at Foster’s arrival on the Great White Way scene.

Otherwise, though, this is a stellar evening of entertainment that includes one dynamite performance after another, including some unusual duets. The complete set list is:

Kenny Loggins and Kenny G “Heart to Heart”
Kenny Loggins “Forever”
Gary Wright “Dream Weaver”
Chaka Khan “Through the Fire”
All-4-One “I Can Love You Like That/I Swear”
Natalie Cole and Ruben Studdard “When I Fall in Love”
Natalie Cole “This Will Be”
Jackie Evancho “Pie Jesu/O Mio Bambino Caro”
The Canadian Tenors “Because We Believe”
Seal “Secret” Michael Bolton and Seal “When a Man Loves a Woman/It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”
Chaka Khan “I’m Every Woman”
Earth, Wind & Fire “In the Stone/September/After the Love Has Gone”
Lara Fabian “Caruso”
Orson Bean, Megan Hilty, Kathryn Joosten and Mark Masri “Say You Remember It”
Ne-Yo “Miss Independent”
Ne-Yo, Charice and Robert Randolph “Earth Song”
Martina McBride “Smile/We’ve Got Tonight”
Ruben Studdard “Home”
Charice “To Love You More/All By Myself”
Lara Fabian and Michael Bolton “The Prayer”
Donna Summer and Seal “Unbreak My Heart/Crazy/On the Radio”
Donna Summer “Last Dance”

Hit Man Returns: David Foster & Friends Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hit Man Returns is presented with a sparklingly bright and well detailed AVC encoded image in 1080i and 1.78:1. This is one of the sharpest looking concert Blu-rays in recent memory, with fine detail offered in sometimes startling clarity. Everything from what appears to be a scar on Chaka Khan's arm to the, shall we say, overly smooth forehead and cheeks of a certain former Top 40 heartthrob is on full display for everyone to see. Colors are especially vivid throughout this production, with a riot of bright blues, reds and purples erupting from the impressive light array behind Foster and the band, and also from the colorful apparel that stars like Khan and Natalie Cole wear. Foster's minor beard stubble and weathered face are revealed, for better or worse, in several close-ups interspersed throughout the concert.

Hit Man Returns: David Foster & Friends Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio on Hit Man Returns is simply flawless, there's no better way to put it. Two lossless tracks, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and an LPCM 2.0, offer sterling reproduction that captures every nuance of the great singers' contributions, but just as importantly, the incredible finesse that the aces backup band brings to the stage. Separation is wonderfully realized, with enough discrete channelization on the 5.1 to really allow the listener inside the music and hear all of those nicely sinewy inner lines Foster is able to craft in his arrangements. Fidelity is miraculously clear, and dynamic range is off the charts. This is certainly reference quality audio, at least insofar as pop music titles go.

Hit Man Returns: David Foster & Friends Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Behind the Scenes (1080i; 12:03) shows a lot of rehearsal footage, some bloopers which were excised from the final product, and also features quite a bit of "confessional" interview content with Foster himself. A CD of some of the performances is also included.

Hit Man Returns: David Foster & Friends Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Yes, it's big and glitzy and immaculately produced. Much like a Foster record. But what's really wrong with that? David Foster brings such intelligence, grace and finesse to his projects that it's downright hard to outright dismiss him, unless you're a complete curmudgeon. This wonderful concert is filled with such a staggering array of talent that even if you don't particularly care for Foster, you have an embarrassment of riches with which to otherwise occupy yourself. Highly recommended.