7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Arthur and Anatole are two little robbers. They want to rob money, money that will travel in a special train from Paris to Bruxelles. They don't know that other people have planned to do the same thing.
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Bourvil, David Niven, Eli Wallach, Silvia MontiForeign | 100% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The 1967 version of Casino Royale proved that you could have a bevy of top name stars (and in the case of this particular film, even a bevy of top name directors), everything that money can buy including a then very trendy composer, and still end up with one of the most agonizingly bad films of (at the very least) its era. Despite having been that odd duck that could claim parentage by Ian Fleming (due to some labyrinthine rights negotiations that went back a good decade or more), Casino Royale had very little to do with the “real” James Bond (at least as he was then thought of in the person of Sean Connery), and perhaps even more pointedly, very little to do with real comedy (no quote marks around real this time). Part of what made Casino Royale such an unmitigated disaster was its relentlessly manic quality, something that seemed rather ill suited to the likes of David Niven and Deborah Kerr (and only passably more appropriate for the likes of Woody Allen). That same manic quality is on tap in The Brain, another late sixties film full of a sort of “mod” ambience and once again offering David Niven in a late career role. However, fear not: The Brain manages to use its own frenetic quality for good, not evil, and the film is a brisk and often quite funny farce that deals with several people trying separately and together to pull off a massive heist of untold wealth from a train making its way from Paris to Brussels. The Brain features an international cast, and part of this film is in English, but it appears that it may actually have been released in an all English language (dubbed) version stateside back in 1969, at least according to some data available online. If that’s the case (online information is a bit sketchy), this must be the original European cut of the film, for all of the principal actors speak either in French or in combinations of French and English and their lip movements clearly follow those languages.
The Brain is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. This is another great looking transfer from Olive, albeit one whose elements seem to have faded ever so slightly and whose flesh tones occasionally tilt just a tad toward the brown side of things. Otherwise, though, colors are generally very robust, and some of the exterior shots of the train feature some fantastic depth of field. Contrast is solid and black levels are good if not incredibly deep. Fine object detail is quite pleasing, especially in the many close- ups of the actors. As with all Olive releases there doesn't appear to have been any digital tweaking and the transfer retains a natural layer of grain (noticeably increased in a couple of opticals).
The Brain features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix in French and English with forced subtitles. Fidelity is quite good throughout this track, with dialogue cleanly presented and Georges Delerue's pop laden score sounding great. The title tune by The American Breed fairly screams 1969 (in one of the vagaries of the music business, the band went through a series of personnel changes and reformed later as Rufus, which ultimately hired Chaka Khan as their lead singer).
No supplements of any kind are included on this Blu-ray disc.
You might be tempted not to stick with The Brain, as it's awfully redolent of the worst self-indulgent excesses of Casino Royale in its early going, but have a little patience and you'll be rewarded with an often quite winning little farce that manages to pack a good number of sizable laughs, including some great sight gags, into its manic proceedings. The film would have been better had it gotten to the heist element sooner, but once all the plot mechanics have been set into motion, things are brisk and often very funny. This Blu-ray offers very good video and audio and comes Recommended.
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