Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

September Storm 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Choppy waters, excellent 3D.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 28, 2018

September Storm has made its way to Blu-ray 3D thanks to the generosity of fans who contributed to 3-D Film Archive's successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised enough money to restore the film for another beautiful 3D presentation. While the film isn't particularly memorable, it's a success story in film preservation and fans' commitment to ensure it lives on in perpetuity, and with a fantastic Blu-ray 3D presentation at that. Those who contributed can find their names on the Archive's website, while the more generous donors have earned credits on the Blu-ray.

September Storm.

An American actress by the name of Anne Traymore (Joanne Dru) is enjoying the rest, relaxation, and warmth of a Majorcan getaway. Her alluring beauty draws many eyes, but perhaps none so infatuated as Manuel del Rio Montoya (Asher Dann), a handsome playboy who is immediately drawn to Anne's beauty and charms. He's a wealthy yachtsman, or so he claims. Later, the pair is approached by a couple of fortune hunters -- Joe Balfour (Mark Stevens) and Ernie Williams (Robert Strauss) -- who claim to know the whereabouts of millions of dollars worth of sunken treasure. They need Manuel's boat to reach the retrieval spot, which is deep underwater and far out beyond land. Can the foursome survive a perilous storm and their own avariciousness to retrieve the treasure?

September Storm is a slow and plodding movie of little dramatic consequence or characters of interest. Action is scarce; a severe storm rattles the boat and the crew's nerves, and ultimately results in one of them being attacked by a man-o-war, but there's nothing else particularly daring or exciting in store. Rather than some seafaring Adventure film, it's about a few people who dive in search of buried treasure. The drama stems from a case of unrequited love and a fairly straightforward tale of the human condition, which, unlike the sunken treasure, is very shallow. Diving sequences are enjoyable enough (particularly in 3D). Manuel's deception and the consequences thereof loom over the movie. But even at a relatively efficient 90-minute runtime, September Storm cannot put together an agreeable rhythm, despite a few individual moving parts of modest interest. It transitions from one scene to the next with enough connective tissue to tell a story, but it's one that leaves the viewer wondering why it was worth his or her time investment.

That said, the film's 3D visuals are a necessary component (more on that below) and the movie loses its flavor in the flat 2D format. The sense of place and space 3D offers certainly elevate the experience (though not really the essential driving narrative) and helps to hide the film's minimalist story and difficulty in bringing any personality or depth to its exploration of the human condition. If nothing else, 3D allows the viewer to better absorb the movie's beautiful locations, above and below the water alike.

Acting is by-and-large a plus; the cast commendably squeezes enough charisma and chemistry from four otherwise mundane parts to keep the movie flowing just well enough, but they're of course limited by a script that's overwrought and unable to capture the audience's attention with any consistency.

September Storm 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: the 2D image was reviewed on an LG OLED65C7P while the 3D content was reviewed on a Sony XBR65Z9D.

Obviously, 2D is the less ideal way to watch September Storm, generally pleasing as its technical prowess may be. This is a good filmic image, maintaining a modest grain structure throughout. Textural efficiency is rather high. Well defined skin and clothes, woods around the boat, rocky land masses, and other large-scale basics present with a generally strong level of intimate definition and clarity. The image boasts good coloring as well, though some faded shots and particularly faded black levels are apparent. Blacks do tighten up at times, notably during a nighttime outdoor stage performance at the 22-miunute mark (which lasts several minutes), or on the nighttime, stormy seas halfway through the film. Blue water finds enough intensity to please. Natural greens, bright yellow oxygen tanks, and other assorted clothing and support colors usually present with quality depth and vibrance. A few errant remnants of age and wear, including a few pops and static vertical lines, appear throughout, but September Storm is largely free of any debris presented in scene-destroying excess.

Before diving into the 3D review, a bit of context from the film's Kickstarter page: Both the left eye and right eye film elements will need to be digitally scanned, frame by frame. We will need to assess the level of damage to these existing elements, and determine how to best fix the images. This will require a stereoscopic re-alignment pass, left and right color restoration and matching, and clean-up of scratches and other damages to the film surface. This is very challenging post-production work.

The 3D image is very strong and the restoration efforts well worth the money and time investment. The opening titles don't really appear to burst out of the screen, as one might expect of them, presenting rather flatly, but there is a good sense of depth to the background bubbly water. The film begins with fine, essential depth. Seaside vistas appear to stretch on with some significance, particularly when there is a land mass in the distance to gauge perspective, such as during a shot at the three-minute mark. Another such shot, with the distant land mass much closer, may be seen at the 1:14:41 mark for another example of perspective, here with the added benefit of a boat situated lengthwise form the viewer for additional screen stretching goodness. Many shots out at sea, even without the benefit of that land mass perspective, appear to stretch on for miles. Underwater shots, of which there are many, reveal a fine level of screen-stretching depth, with small bubbles and other little elements appearing to float beyond the screen's front panel limits. There are some cool one-off or irregular effects in the film, too. Tubes and tanks used for scuba diving are notably shapely, but there's an unmistakable feel for how they interconnect, how they pieces lay and situate about and around as the user wears them. Check out a xylophone at the 13:53 mark. It's a remarkable 3D shot, taken at a slight angle form one end, allowing the elongated instrument to really stretch far into the back. That same sequence inside a club shows, with great care and attention to detail, the space between tables and mingling individuals. As the action shifts to an island in chapter seven, there's new opportunity for the image to showcase fine spacing amongst characters, tree branches, rocky formations. and other natural delights around the locale.

Not every shot is an exercise in dynamic 3D, though such are few and far between when there isn't some superior sense of raw depth on display, whether along lengthy vistas or just various ropes and rails or other little details on the ship's deck. In 3D, the image appears very crisp. It's a textural delight, efficient and highly detailed. Colors are rich and true, though some underwater shots appear a little more washed out than ideal. On the flip side, the storm at night in chapter six delivers perfectly deep and accurate blacks. The image appears meticulously clean in 3D as well, and there was no significant crosstalk evident on the review Z9D displayely. This is a fine 3D restoration in total. It's not as dynamic as The Maze, but it's an enjoyable watch that expands the movie's scope, not only dimensionally but also considering its structural ebbs and flows, too.

September Storm 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

September Storm's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack lacks the fluidity, grace, and clarity of superior listens, but it's effective at the baseline in delivering a competent presentation that supports the movie well enough. Dialogue does well in its efforts to push towards the center. Music, contrarily, efforts to push to the sides, though it doesn't find as much success as the dialogue's push to the middle; it's often more stuck towards the center and cramped. Essential big-energy sound effects, such as raging waters and gusty winds as the storm hits halfway through the movie, unsurprisingly lack crispness and firm definition (not to mention immersive width) but the essential ebbs and flows are fine. There's a mild hiss noticeable underneath much of the track.

September Storm 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

September Storm contains several extras, including a newly discovered short film. The pair of short films in particular are a treasure. Both are available in 2D and 3D. They couldn't be any more different -- color claymation film about aliens and space travel and black-and-white 1950s dance number -- but are wonderful 3D bonuses that make this release well worth buying, much more so than the film, which is only really worthwhile for its 3D picture.

• Theatrical Trailer (2-D Only) (1080p, 2:02).
• Television Spot (2-D Only) (1080p, 1:02): In black and white.
• Asher Dann Interview (2-D) (1080p, 15:05): Dann, once the first manager for the Rock Band The Doors, discusses his arrival in Hollywood, landing the job on the film, shooting in Europe, his performance, working with the cast and crew, and more. From August 2016.
• Asher Dann Interview (3-D) (1080p 3D, 15:05): The same supplement as above, in 3D.
• Lewis Gilbert Interview (2-D Only) (1080p, 2:31): Tony Sloan interviews Lewis Gilbert concerning working in 3-D, with a very humorous anecdote in the middle. From 1995.
• Sam Space (2-D) (1080p, 9:12): Claymation characters battle alien spacecraft in the future and travel to a distant alien world. This short was paired with September Storm when it played theatrically.
• Sam Space (3-D) (1080p 3D, 9:12): The same supplement as above, in a highly enjoyable 3D presentation. Pop-out titles, shapely characters, strong location depth, good color, and fine detail are hallmarks.
• Harmony Lane (2-D) (1080p, 28:08): 3-D Film Archive's Bob Furmanek breaks down this wonderful short, which was originally projected flat as it released in the waning days of the 3D craze, in a detailed Blu-ray.com forum post here.
• Harmony Lane (3-D) (1080p 3D, 28:08): The 3D video quality is really quite stellar. The screen stretches back quite far, and space between characters, buildings, fake clouds hanging in the sky, and so on are all appropriately situated. Image clarity and grayscale definition are excellent, too.

September Storm 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

September Storm may be a relatively weak film, a curiosity more than anything else, but it does at least play rather well in 3D as its vistas become tangible places, as the viewer suddenly feels a part of the four-person treasure hunt. The restoration has yielded a solid 2D image, a fantastic 3D presentation, and an effective, albeit very essential, two-channel soundtrack. A nice little burst of bonus features are also included, highlighted by a pair of vintage 3D shorts. Recommended for the amazing 3D work on the film and certainly for the pair of wonderful 3D short bonuses.