7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A former criminal lawyer is getting his life back together and now spends his days as a part-time investigator, debt collector, apprentice cabinet maker, drinker and finding those who don't want to be found - dead or alive.
Starring: Guy Pearce, Marta Dusseldorp, Aaron Pedersen, Roy Billing, Damien RichardsonCrime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Film-Noir | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
When Jack Irish returned to Australian TV after an eighteen-month hiatus, the creative team didn't waste time reintroducing him to the audience. Except for a brief flashback to the death of Jack's wife, Jack Irish: Dead Point assumes familiarity with the character and his world and expects that the viewer will supply essential context when Jack walks into the King of Prussia pub or meets up with Harry and Cam at the track or encounters reporter Linda Hillier after a long absence. ("So we've successfully moved on from that relationship, have we?", says Harry with withering sarcasm.) The team's faith in the audience was certainly justified in Australia, where Peter Temple's Irish novels remain as popular as ever and Guy Pearce's incarnation of the former attorney and occasional detective was universally praised. In America, however, where the Irish adaptations have been shown only on Acorn Media's pay-TV service, Dead Point met with mixed reception, and it was pretty clear that those who didn't get it were new to the series. It's certainly true that Dead Point labors under the handicap of having to do without a major character, because actor Vadim Glowna, who played Jack's woodworking teacher, Charlie Taub, died shortly after filming his scenes for the first two Jack Irish episodes. For Dead Point, Charlie's absence is explained by a trip to "the old country", and his presence is invoked by having Jack imagine what his former master might say if he were there now, casting a critical eye over his apprentice's work. But anyone who recalls the twinkling gravitas that Glowna brought to the role will recognize that there's no substitute for his scenes with Pearce. Still, for those who already know the world of Jack Irish, there is much to savor in Dead Point. For those who don't, there's a lot that will go right past them. They should return to Series 1 and start from the beginning.
Cinematographer Martin McGrath returned for Jack Irish: Dead Point, along with director Jeffrey Walker and most of the original production team. The shooting style on this third installment of the series is consistent with that of the first two, as is the image on Acorn Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. The opening aerial shot of Melbourne at night establishes the sense of a contemporary film noir, with its digital clarity and deep blacks, but much of Dead Point takes place in daytime hours, where the palette remains naturalistic and the fleshtones ordinary. Locations such as the docks with their looming containers and the Snug club with its whispered conversations and clinking glasses supply plenty of atmosphere, but one of the recurring themes in Jack Irish is that evil knows no boundaries. Some of the worst violence in the story occurs in well-lit and wide open, empty spaces. Regardless of the locale, the image remains sharp and detailed. With a single episode on a BD-25, the average bitrate clocks in at 23.05, which is slightly higher than Series 1 and more than sufficient to avoid compression issues on this digitally originated project.
As with previous episodes, Jack Irish: Dead Point comes with a stereo track, supplied here in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0. When played through a surround decoder, the track provides a decent sense of ambiance for locales like the race track and the docks, and the dynamic range is wide enough, with solid bass extension, to do justice to scenes involving the huge cranes used to move cargo containers, as well as a different kind of crane that appears in another location and is used for purposes I will leave for the viewer to discover. Scoring duties for Dead Point have been taken over by David McCormack and Antony Partos, who worked together on the superb Australian crime film, Animal Kingdom. The dialogue is clearly rendered, and subtitles are available if the Australian pronunciation or slang becomes too thick for American ears.
It may disappoint fans that the second "set" of Jack Irish contains only a single episode, but it's not surprising that both cast and crew declined to repeat the grueling experience of filming two episodes simultaneously, which was the only way that Bad Debts and Black Tide could be completed and aired together in Series 1. Producer Ian Collie has assured the public that Jack Irish will return. Collie is currently working on an adaptation of the fourth novel in the series, White Dog, and has also announced plans to option a fifth book whenever Peter Temple finishes writing it. Meanwhile, Dead Point is a worthy entry in the series, but anyone new to the world of Jack Irish will miss reams of subtext. With that warning, highly recommended.
2012
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2016
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2021
(Still not reliable for this title)
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