5.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
A curmudgeonly man is mistakenly told that he has 90 minutes to live by his doctor and promptly sets out to reconcile with his wife, brother and friends in the short time he believes he has left.
Starring: Robin Williams, Mila Kunis, Peter Dinklage, Melissa Leo, Hamish LinklaterComedy | 100% |
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
English, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
If it were possible, would you want to know the exact hour of your death? There have been attempts through the years to capitalize on the unknowingness surrounding our imminent mortality with such devices as the so-called Tikker, a wrist watch which takes data about your lifestyle and then “computes” your death hour, letting you know exactly how much time you have left. But even that is obviously riddled with the potential for inaccuracies. What if an actual medical professional were to be able to inform you of your expected death moment? Would you want to know? And what would you do with that knowledge? That’s the general premise underlying the fitfully amusing but ultimately surprisingly flaccid The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, a 2014 remake of a 1997 Israeli film called The 92 Minutes of Mr. Baum. The Angriest Man in Brooklyn charts the supposedly last hour and a half of the life of one Henry Altmann (Robin Williams), a middle aged curmudgeon who isn’t having just a bad day—he’s having a bad life. An early snippet of the film details a happier time in Altmann’s history some 25 years previously, when he plays rapturously with his wife Bette (Melissa Leo) and their children. Things have not gone well in the interim, though the film only doles out that information in dribs and drabs as it goes along. In “current” time, Henry first finds himself stuck in a horrible traffic jam next to Washington Square in lower Manhattan, and then finds himself broadsided by a taxi van which runs a red light. When he goes to his doctor’s office for a quick check up, he finds out his doctor has taken a long weekend and he is therefore forced to deal with a young physician named Sharon Gill (Mila Kunis). Sharon has the unenviable task of informing the irate Henry that he’s suffering from a terminal brain aneurysm and has very little time left to live. When Henry flies into a rage and demands to know how much time he has, Sharon, who is dealing with issues of her own and is strung out on painkillers (physician, heal thyself, anyone?), panics and simply blurts out “90 minutes”, something she sees on a magazine cover on the counter next to her. That sets the film on its supposedly madcap course of Henry trying to make amends with his estranged family while Sharon, who suddenly realizes the professional implications of her indiscretion, chases after him to try to ameliorate whatever damage she’s done and get Henry into a hospital as soon as possible.
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Robinson works with cinematographer John Bailey here, delivering some great location work in and around Manhattan (and Brooklyn, of course). Depth of field in the outdoor shots is often very good, providing a sense of space that the claustrophobic emotional content tends to undercut. Midrange shots and close-ups reveal very good to excellent detail, including the kind of ruddy complexion that Williams has started to assume at this point in his life. Colors, while not overly vibrant, are accurate looking and well saturated. There's a bit of color grading (leaning toward the sepia side of things) in several flashbacks which recur throughout the film. Those elements have somewhat less detail and clarity than the bulk of the film. The image is stable with no overt compression artifacts to cause concern.
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which, while not overly showy, supports what is essentially a dialogue driven film. Ambient environmental sounds are very well placed throughout the surrounds, adding some nice realism to the busy urban cityscapes. Fidelity is excellent on this problem free track.
The Angriest Man in Brooklyn is a surprisingly tone deaf affair from such a vaunted director. Alternately vehement and lachrymose, the film careens so wildly at times that it's next to impossible to hold on, let alone care about any of the characters. Williams runs the gamut of his shtick here, for better or worse, but it's largely for naught in an ironically underbaked and overcooked combination of melodrama and comedy. Technical merits are generally quite strong for any fans of the film who may be considering a purchase.
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