6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Jake Speed is the lead character in some of the biggest page-turners of the 1940s. When a young girl is kidnapped and her sister begs the real-life Speed for help, he must find a way to be as gallant as the book hero whose creation he's inspired.
Starring: Wayne Crawford, Dennis Christopher, Karen Kopins, John Hurt, Leon AmesComedy | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: LPCM 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
One of the kind of funny subtexts of Romancing the Stone was that Kathleen Turner played a romance novelist named Joan Wilder, a mousy woman who has built a successful career out of creating gung ho, completely heroic men with whom her equally adventurous female characters understandably fall in love, while Joan herself finds herself spectacularly incapable of handling similar adventures (not to mention a gung ho, kinda sorta heroic man) when they more or less fall into her lap. The back cover of Jake Speed actually references Romancing the Stone, and it’s not hard to see a through line from that well remembered 1984 opus to what is arguably a much less well remembered effort from a couple of years later. There’s still a kind of quasi-literary “meta” aspect to this film as well, though, one which is perhaps weirdly reminiscent of the main conceit of a film which came out in the year between Romancing the Stone and Jake Speed, 1985’s The Purple Rose of Cairo. In this case there aren’t movie characters jumping out of the screen into “real life”, but instead two supposedly fictional characters from a series of pulpy books from a bygone age who suddenly show up to help a damsel in distress who, much like Joan in Romancing the Stone, is desperately attempting to rescue a kidnapped relative.
Jake Speed is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:
Jake Speed was restored for this release by Arrow Films. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with mono audio.As perhaps alluded to in Arrow's verbiage, this is a somewhat variable looking presentation that is nonetheless largely organic looking with generally decent detail levels. The grain field can appear rather gritty and even splotchy at times, especially in darker sequences, and there are some passing issues with crush in the darkest moments that can deflate fine detail levels. The palette is generally decently suffused, but does show some signs of fading at times, with somewhat brown flesh tones. The bright outdoor material in Zimbabwe pops the best, with a rather nicely vivid palette and generally very good detail levels. There are a number of optical dissolves scattered throughout the picture where the imagery understandably muddies a bit. Again as alluded to above in Arrow's verbiage, there are still signs of age related wear and tear which have survived whatever restoration gauntlet the IP was put through.
The original 35mm interpositive was scanned in 2K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director Scanner at EFilm, Burbank. Picture grading and restoration was completed at Pinewood. The grading was completed on a DaVinci Resolve and picture restoration was performed using PFClean software. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques. Some instances of wear remain, in keeping with the ocndition of the film materials. The audio was remastered from the original magnetic reels.
All materials were provided by Lakeshore Entertainment.
Jake Speed features an agreeable sounding LPCM 2.0 track. The IMDb lists this as having been released in stereo, but I'm not hearing much if any separation here, and Arrow's verbiage (above) indicates a mono track, though they're not always completely accurate in their listings in that regard. One way or the other, fidelity here is fine, offering good reproduction of dialogue and what amount to a lot of ambient environmental effects once the story moves to Zimbabwe. Elements like explosions and fighting deliver sufficient force, and there are no problems with regard to a clear accounting of dialogue.
I think if Jake Speed had played up the "magical" element of Jake and Desmond appearing out of thin air (and/or a pulpy paperback), the film might have resonated with a more consistent whimsical ambience. There's still some enjoyable interplay here, and the performances are generally quite winning all around. Video encounters a few issues along the way, but audio is fine, and the two interviews included as supplements are very enjoyable, for those considering a purchase.
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