6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
When a wealthy publishing magnate is accused of murdering his heiress wife, a high powered attorney is called in to defend him. She succeeds and the two fall in love. Then she grows suspicious that she helped acquit a guilty man.
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, Peter Coyote, Robert Loggia, Leigh Taylor-YoungThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Mystery | 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 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Before Basic Instinct, which turned him into one of the highest paid screenwriters in Hollywood, and Showgirls, which subsequently cemented his reputation as an overpaid hack, Joe Eszterhas penned or co-wrote a handful of marginally successful movies throughout the 1980s. Perhaps the best of these is Jagged Edge, a taut whodunit-meets-courtroom thriller that hints at the pulpy erotic direction his later scripts would take. The film isn’t a masterpiece of its genre, but it is solidly constructed, and it keeps you guessing about the identity of the killer until the final frames, even though you know there’s only one option that’s dramatically substantive enough to really work. Most viewers will have figured out the twist long before the Scooby-Doo-like reveal—where the murderer is literally unmasked—but this is one of those the journey is more interesting than the destination scenarios. Besides, it says something about the quality of the filmmaking that Jagged Edge is still entertaining despite its rather obvious ending.
Image Entertainment brings Jagged Edge to Blu-ray with an impressive 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer, framed in the film's original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. You never know what you're going to get when it comes to catalog titles from the 1980s, so I was surprised by how good Jagged Edge looks here. The print Image used is immaculate, with only a few scattered white specks and no major debris, stains, or scratches whatsoever. Going along with this, grain has been preserved—no DNR atrocities—and there's no evidence of edge enhancement or any unnecessary boosting. Clarity is generally strong—if never tack sharp—and there's a good degree of fine detail, especially in close-ups, where you can make out clothing textures and facial features. Color is fairly typical for a 1980s drama—realistic, unstylized, and with a slightly creamy quality to skin tones and highlights. There's not much that you might deem "vivid" here, but neutral tones are rich—expect lots of courtroom mahoganies—and all colors are suitably dense. Likewise, black levels are as deep as they need to be and contrast is tight but not overpumped. Lastly, there are no overt compression problems to soil the experience. I doubt very much that Jagged Edge could look any better.
Image has also fitted the film with a solid, if unremarkable, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. The mix starts big, with thunderclaps, pouring rain, and violent stabs from John Barry's score in the first two scenes, but after that the track quiets down substantially. This is, after all, primarily a courtroom thriller, so most of the emphasis is on clear, crisp dialogue. And in this, the mix delivers. You'll notice no muffling, crackles, or hisses, and voices are always balanced and easy to understand. The mix is anchored almost entirely up front, but the rear channels are used sparsely for ambience— like ocean surf in the surrounds when Jack scatters his wife's ashes—as well as providing bleeding room for the score. The music has decent presence too, with a bit of low-end oomph during key sequences and clarity throughout the range. The disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.
The sole supplement on the disc is a two-minute, high definition theatrical trailer.
Jagged Edge is no unconditional 1980s classic, but it's worth revisiting for fans of whodunits, legal thrillers, and homicidal mysteries. I'm glad Image Entertainment is taking the time to license and release films of the sort, which would probably get overlooked in the Blu-ray market otherwise. They've done a fine job too, with a faithful and even occasionally impressive audio/video presentation. Worth at least a rental, but at this low price, I'd say if you're interested go ahead and pick this one up.
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