The Count of Monte Cristo / Man Friday Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

The Count of Monte Cristo / Man Friday Blu-ray Movie Review

The Odd Couple.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 10, 2013

Shout! Factory has been going whole hog lately with a slew of double (or more) features under several of its imprints, including Timeless Media Group. Some of these offerings, such as Movies 4 You: Timeless Westerns, at least had a genre knitting the disparate films together, though even supposed genre siblings like The Hot Spot / Killing Me Softly might seem at least a little odd to some. Taking the cake in this recent sweepstakes of forced disc-mates is the rather unlikely pairing of The Count of Monte Cristo, a made for television opus starring Richard Chamberlain which was quite well received in its day but which has languished in the home media department, and Man Friday, a fascinating reboot of the hoary Defoe epic Robinson Crusoe, a big screen effort teaming Peter O’Toole and Richard Roundtree in a decidedly different telling of the famous tale. Aside from the fact both of these entries are part of the ITV catalog, there really isn’t much recommending a pairing of them, other than that they both are circa mid-seventies.

Complete reviews of both of the films on this double feature Blu-ray can be found here:

The Count of Monte Cristo Blu-ray review

Man Friday Blu-ray review

The Count of Monte Cristo / Man Friday Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For complete reviews of the video quality of these films, see the separate releases:

The Count of Monte Cristo Blu-ray review

Man Friday Blu-ray review

The Count of Monte Cristo / Man Friday Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For complete reviews of the audio quality of these films, see the separate releases:

The Count of Monte Cristo Blu-ray review

Man Friday Blu-ray review

The Count of Monte Cristo / Man Friday Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

For complete reviews of the supplemental features on these films, see the individual releases:

The Count of Monte Cristo Blu-ray review

Man Friday Blu-ray review

The Count of Monte Cristo / Man Friday Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is certainly one of the odder pairings of two disparate entries in recent memory, but it will no doubt hold some allure for some fans. My hunch is The Count of Monte Cristo will actually be the larger draw here, but for all its flaws, I was actually more captivated by Man Friday, if only because it was so intentionally bizarre and revisionist. Both of these films were sourced from elements which have occasional issues, and neither frankly looks sharp as a tack, but the price is right.