6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Set in suburban New Jersey the 1960s, a group of friends form a rock band and try to make it big.
Starring: John Magaro, James Gandolfini, Bella Heathcote, Jack Huston, Dominique McElligottMusic | 100% |
Coming of age | 13% |
Period | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
David Chase took the old reliable Mafia genre and morphed it into something nobody had ever seen before, shying away from noir stylings and physical and dramatic genre clichés and embracing a new wave attitude where the crime bosses were the folks down the street. They were folks with their own problems, inner conflicts, and complicated family dealings, not just in their "extended" mob family but within their own flesh and blood. It played with richly developed characters in a beautifully crafted world, the two merging to form the perfect canvas for one of the best thing ever to grace either the big or small screen. His The Sopranos redefined a genre and forever helped shape the future of television drama. Unfortunately, Chase doesn't find the same success with Not Fade Away, his first foray into writing and directing for the big screen. The film tells a dramatically hollow coming-of-age tale in Vietnam-era New Jersey. It works around an endless parade of genre cliché -- dreams of making it big, young love, group strife, family quarrels -- and rewards viewers not with old pieces freshly reshaped à la The Sopranos but just rearranged with different faces filling in the same tired lines. It's technically sound, but Not Fade Away lacks the charisma and captivating cadence of Chase's best and historically significant work.
One day, this could -- will -- be me.
Not Fade Away features a stellar high definition presentation. Paramount's latest offering shows the studio at its best. The opening black-and-white footage gives way to color soon enough, and with that a truly splendid, full, crisply defined viewing experience. Though there's a slight natural medium-influenced smoothness to the image, there's also an incredible sharpness and vividness to it. Details are positively striking, reinforced by impeccable clarity and definition all around the frame, foreground and background alike. The period set pieces and clothes stand out beautifully, whether in bright, sun-drenched exteriors or low light or nighttime conditions. Facial and clothing details are extraordinarily revelatory, showing the finest textures and lines in close-up shots. The color palette is superb, too. Every shade is captured and presented flawlessly, reinforced by perfect skin tones and wonderfully deep black levels. Of course, there is no unwanted digital tinkering or other flaw of which to speak. This is an excellent presentation from Paramount.
A music-oriented film needs a top-tier losses soundtrack, and Not Fade Away earns just that. Paramount's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presentation is excellent, featuring balanced, rich sound to the opening Rock beats and through the entirety of the film, be the notes as heard in the film from a prerecorded record album or performed "live" by the band. Instrument detailing is particularly good in those "live" sessions; the band sounds fantastic no matter its experience level or the venue in which it plays as the sound relates to pure audio playback quality. The track features little beyond music and dialogue, however. There is some fine intermittent ambient sound effects and gentle surround immersion, notably in the rumbly train to open the film in black-and-white, but not a steady stream of extracurricular elements to fill in the gaps. Fortunately, the film rarely calls for such things, given most of the locations are localized or closed-off with little natural opportunity for extended environmental elements, anyway. Dialogue comes through cleanly from the center and is never lost under music. All around, this is an excellent soundtrack from Paramount.
Not Fade Away contains three supplements, one of which is a three-part making-of.
The fixation with The Twilight Zone that creeps in from time to time in Not Fade Away may be one of the most errant in film history. Rather than the picture winding up somehow out of the ordinary, it instead moves through with nary a thread out of place. Everything in the movie is as it seems, from the basic plot arc to the shell of the dramatic character elements that never move on beyond the expected teen angst routine. The picture lacks the soul of the best musically inspired films but it does offer sound technical qualities while it traverses its well-beaten path with nary a single footfall astray. Paramount's Blu-ray release of Not Fade Away is a little thin on extras but it does offer gorgeous picture and excellent sound. Worth a rental.
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Lennon NYC
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Director's Cut | 40th Anniversary Edition
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