6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
On an expedition in Papua New Guinea, the Tropis, a tribe of apelike creatures, are being used as slaves by humans. When one of the Tropis is allegedly murdered, the following murder trial centers round the question of whether the Tropis a form of human or animal.
Starring: Burt Reynolds, Susan Clark (I), Roger C. Carmel, Paul Hubschmid, Chips RaffertySci-Fi | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Gordon Douglas' "Skullduggery" (1970) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include an exclusive new audio commentary by critics Howard S. Berger, C. Courtney Joyner, and Sergio Mims, as well as a vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
The opportunist
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Skullduggery arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The film is sourced from a very healthy recent 2K master. I don't have an older DVD release of this film in my library to point out specific areas where the upgrades in quality are most impressive, but this would have been a meaningless attempt anyway. Why? Because aside from some minor density fluctuations and perhaps sporadic flatness in wider panoramic shots, most of which is introduced by the original cinematography, nighttime and daylight visuals look very good. This is a type of consistency that would not have been present on any DVD release. Color balance is convincing as well. Perhaps there is a bit of room for improvements in terms of saturation, but the primaries and the supporting nuances already look quite good. There are no stability issues. Despite a few minor blemishes, the entire film looks healthy as well. My score is 4.25/5.00. (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).
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. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.
The audio is always clear and stable. The upper register is healthy as well. Dynamic intensity is pretty modest, but this isn't surprising because the film's original sound design isn't impressive. Oliver Nelson's does not produce any interesting contrasts either. There are no encoding anomalies to report in our review.
I wanted to give Skullduggery a try because I am very rarely disappointed by a Burt Reynolds film. I find something to like even in low-budget projects, like Shark!, so long as I view them late at night. Unfortunately, Skullduggery bored me to tears. It has some nice panoramic footage plus a few funny bits with Reynolds improvising while trying to convince Susan Clark to sleep with him -- in the jungle of course -- but its politics are awful. So, I would say that you should consider picking it up only if you are a hopeless Reynolds completist. Kino Lorber's release is sourced from a nice recent 2K master.
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1966
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