6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Semi-urban detective duo Ross and Wilson have been charged with taking down local drug kingpin, Blasi. After busting a low-level pusher, they convince his girlfriend, Sheila, to start working for them as an undercover operative in exchange for avoiding prison. But as Ross finds himself becoming romantically interested in his new, perpetually spaced out informant, Blasi continues to strengthen his crime empire, setting his sights on even loftier, and deadlier, ambitions.
Starring: Charles 'Harpo' Adkins, Mark Ammons, Chuck Russell, Richard C. Watt, Frank HimesAction | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
BDInfo
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It all began in the early 1970s when a gang of students at the University of Illinois decided they wanted to move from making short documentaries to a major motion picture. Devouring the supercop movies of the day, writer/director Mitch Brown and producer Nate Kohn settled on “Shot,” which attempts to make a “French Connection”-style ruckus with only a $15,000 budget to work with, leaning on University resources to see the project to completion. Created solely by college students (one of them being Chuck Russell, who would go on to a wildly uneven directorial career) trying to create a calling card for Hollywood employment, “Shot” is a weird but engaging compilation of stunts, shootouts, and cops and robbers, watching Kohn and Brown working within their means to assemble a smashmouth actioner while in the middle of rural Illinois, giving the feature the first of many distinctive marks.
"Newly scanned and restored in 2K from 16mm reverse original," "Shot" comes to Blu-ray via Vinegar Syndrome, who do their very best to treat an obscure $15,000 production created 45 years ago with care. Obviously, age is apparent on the AVC encoded image (1.33:1 aspect ratio) presentation, with mild scratches and speckling detected, along with some jumpy frames. However, details reaches as far as the original cinematography permits, picking up on the feature's spare locations, delivering textured buildings and satisfactory distances. Facial particulars are healthy, clarifying actors without makeup, and costuming retains period tailoring. Colors are tastefully refreshed, keeping their wintry edge and fashion sense, and bloodshed pops with a paint-like red. Skintones are natural. Delineation is communicative. Grain is thick but filmic.
There's a note at the start of the movie from Vinegar Syndrome explaining that inherent popping issues are present during the listening experience. It's certainly easy to hear the issue during the 1.0 DTS-HD MA track, but "Shot" isn't exactly polished work to begin with, leading with a muddier sound that encounters mild hiss and some sibilance issues. Dialogue exchanges are as strong as possible for a production like this, with heated conversations managing some level of clarity, supporting police procedure and drug dealer antagonisms. Music doesn't have sharpness, but there's power, giving soundtrack use some presence on the mix, adding to the mood. Sound effects lack crisp definition, but gunplay and car chases register with intensity.
As super-cheap cop movies made by University of Illinois college students in 1973 go, "Riot" is one of the best of its kind, delivering unvarnished thrills and thickly defined characters pitting somewhat evil vs. evil for control of the Midwest drug trade. It's not fancy and it can't compete with the more refined productions it's trying to emulate, but "Shot" has moxie and a distinct desire to launch a role-playing experience for young professionals trying to figure out how to make a film, marching forward with an appealingly low-fi sense of street justice and bad cop authority.
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