Number One with a Bullet Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Number One with a Bullet Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov July 23, 2023

Jack Smight's "Number One with a Bullet" (1987) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the release include exclusive new audio commentary by critics Mike Leeder and Arne Venema and vintage trailer. In English, with optional Engish SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

If the silliness and excess of the 1980s never gave you the butterflies, skip Jack Smight’s Number One with a Bullet because it is not for you. This film, like most of the urban action films The Cannon Group funded during the 1980s, is about characters with special attitudes and a special atmosphere. But you will miss what makes both special if the silliness and excess of the 1980s never gave you the butterflies.

The screenplay is a predictable disaster. You can tell from a mile away that it borrows heavily from Miami Vice and then adds up bits from Freebie and the Bean, Busting, and Hickey & Boggs. Possibly from a couple of other films, too. It is difficult to know for sure because the screenplay was tweaked by four different writers -- Gail Morgan Hickman (who was also the film’s associate producer), Andrew Kurtzman, Rob Riley, and Jim Belushi. (The film’s official credits mention James Belushi, but this is a bit of a curve ball). Smight did not follow closely the screenplay either because two-thirds of Number One with a Bullet look like improvised material.

The stars of Number One with a Bullet are two narcotics detectives from LA who could not be any more different. Det. Hazeltine (Billy Dee Williams) is a semi-professional saxophone player with a perfect grasp of the classical era. (Did you know that spending time with Igor Stravinsky is like listening to Charlie Parker?) He is a smooth operator, too. When he is not working, he is a magnet for the hottest lonely women in LA. Det. Barzak (Robert Carradine) is so different that out on the streets everyone calls him Berserk. He cannot stand his mother. He is a carnivore that loves consuming raw steaks. He is still in love with the woman who used to be his wife (Valerie Bertinelli) but keeps on blaming her for misinterpreting his feelings. Most importantly, he has a seemingly never-ending arsenal of opinions that are offered as undisputed facts.

While working on an ordinary case, Hazeltine and Barzak accidentally stumble upon a large drug-smuggling operation involving serious players. It appears that the man calling all the shots is DeCosta (Barry Sattels), a prominent businessman, but the more they try to get close to him, the more they compromise each other. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Hazeltine and Barzak then begin improvising, and once again accidentally discover that one of their own has been sabotaging their work.

The entire investigation is a most transparent pretext to dispatch Hazeltine and Barzak to various seedy areas of LA where just about anything goes. But you should not expect to see the type of dark and intimidating places that emerge in similar genre films like Trackdown and Hardcore. The investigation is infused with a lot of unfiltered humor that creates a completely different and frankly quite enjoyable atmosphere.

The best material in Number One with a Bullet features Barzak’s antics, which range from hilarious to flat-out weird. This is the material that immediately makes it obvious that Number One with a Bullet was funded by The Cannon Group during the 1980s as well. Indeed, if examined individually, this material does not have a good reason to exist, but it adds so much color and energy that it becomes essential. For example, in a nightclub famous for its female mud wrestling, Barzak is thrown into the ring and then forced to chase a baddie. Elsewhere, while going after a drug dealer, Barzak enters a bingo hall dressed as a woman and carrying a rifle and a gun but no one panics until he gets on the stage. Annoyed by his partner’s success with the ladies, Barzak pulls several bad pranks, too.

Number One with a Bullet Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Number One with a Bullet arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an exclusive new 2K master that was struck from an interpositive. I liked it a lot. The entire film looks very healthy and color balance is outstanding. Is there any room for improvement? Yes. Even though darker areas do not reveal any troubling crushing, there are a few spots where some darker nuances could be more convincing. I noticed tiny white specks and even a few scratches, so there is room for minor cosmetic work. I think that there is even room for additional encoding optimizations. Image stability is very good. There are no traces of problematic digital corrections. All in all, on my system the film looked lovely and I was enormously pleased with the presentation. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Number One with a Bullet Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

Early into the film, right before Hazeltine and Barzak arrive at the popular nightclub with the mud wrestling matches, I noticed some obvious thinning and unevenness. However, elsewhere clarity, sharpness, and depth were fine. I did not encounter any audio dropouts or distortions to report in our review.

Number One with a Bullet Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - presented here is a remastered vintage U.S. trailer for Number One with a Bullet. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).

• Commentary - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Mike Leeder and Arne Venema. The commentary follows a very familiar format. The two gentlemen share their thoughts on Number One with a Bullet, quite a few of which are as hilarious as they are illuminating, and of course have plenty of comments about the era it emerged from, the people that made it, and The Cannon Group.

Number One with a Bullet Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Number One with a Bullet is impossible to place toward the top of the ultimate list of buddy cop films. It has The Cannon Group logo and comes from the 1980s, so it is allergic to just about everything that could have made it a great film. This is precisely why I enjoyed it a lot late last night. It unleashes its two stars in a very colorful, slightly nutty LA, and then produces plenty of the silliness and excess that made genre films from the 1980s different. It reminded me a lot of Busting, a favorite of mine, but it is very obvious that it borrows from several other genre films and of course Miami Vice. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a wonderful exclusive new 2K master. RECOMMENDED.