Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		4.0

The Fly Blu-ray Movie Review

"Be afraid. Be very afraid." - Veronica Quaife

Reviewed by PeteR December 2, 2007

Brilliant, charming, and eccentric scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) meets journalist Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis) at a party thrown by his financier, Bartok Science Industries. Brundle convinces Veronica to accompany him back to his lab, a loft in a rundown area of town. Unimpressed by what she thinks are two designer phone booths, Seth demonstrates what he calls “telepods”: teleporting her stocking from one pod to another at the speed of light. Now impressed, Veronica’s journalistic instincts take over to Brundle’s horror. He insists that she should not report the story, but Veronica leaves the loft.

Brundle tracks her down to the offices of Particle magazine, which is edited by Veronica’s ex-boyfriend Stathis Borans (John Getz). Borans believes Brundle to be nothing more than a con man and scoffs that Brundle’s invention is just a magician’s trick, a hoax. Brundle and Veronica have lunch, where Brundle convinces her to chronicle his attempts to complete his main objective: teleporting a living being. So far, he has only been successful with inanimate objects. Later, Stathis attempts to aggressively reconcile with Veronica, much to her disgust. She tosses him out of her apartment and soon afterwards begins to observe Brundle at work. As they spend time together, a romance develops between them.

An attempt to teleport a baboon ends with the animal horrifyingly turned inside out: the computer has trouble understanding living tissue. Inspired by her interpretation of a piece of teleported steak, Brundle teaches the computer how to deal with flesh. Soon this results in the successful teleportation of another baboon. Their celebration is cut short by the arrival of a Particle magazine cover depicting Brundle’s quest for teleportation. Veronica rushes off to confront Borans, leaving a confused and jealous Brundle. Believing that she wants to be with her ex-lover, Brundle gets drunk and decides to teleport himself. He is successful, but unfortunately Brundle does not notice that a housefly was inside the teleporter at the same time as well.

Veronica reunites with Brundle, and return to their work and romance. Brundle feels euphoric: he believes the teleporter acted as a filter for all his weaknesses. However, Brundle’s moods are becoming dangerously erratic, and his body begins to mutate. Brundle consults the computer records of his initial teleportation: the computer fused the genes of the fly with his. Terrified, Brundle begins searching for a cure to his condition before his humanity is completely consumed.

Veronica offers a personal gift to Seth.

Daid Cronenberg’s The Fly is a remake of the 1958 original, which in turn was based on a short story by George Langelaan. Other than the concept of a man using a teleportation device and becoming fused with a housefly, there is almost nothing in common between them. Cronenberg’s story begins slowly, emphasizing the budding romance between Seth and Veronica. Cronenberg keeps the film intimate: you feel like you are peeking into the lives of real people. When Brundle begins to transform, we are as horrified as Veronica is. Cronenberg builds up the horror slowly and there are only a couple shocks in the first hour. Later when the Brundlefly transformation begins to accelerate, so does the horror. Only towards the end do I feel that it gets a bit over the top as far as gore is concerned. I remember being quite disgusted back when this was released, and it colored my perception of the film for a long time. However, revisiting it on Blu-ray 20 years later, the experience is almost a completely different one. After seeing many so-called “horror” films in the meantime, and witnessing the rise of the whole “torture porn” genre, I can appreciate the film much more now. Sure, some of the cable actuated puppets may seem a bit hokey in an age where CGI can conjure up photorealistic creatures… but the heart of the story is an ageless one: that of a doomed romance.

Being an intimate film, the cast is small, and very good. Real life couple (at the time) Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis have real chemistry. In the commentary Cronenberg says Goldblum recommended Davis. Not only did she impress the director with her acting talents, but Cronenberg comments that the casting was perfect since she was so tall…Goldblum is 6’ 5” and it made it easier to film them together! John Getz has the thankless role of the antagonist. As unlikeable as the character is, Getz is able get the audience to feel sympathetic to him, and by the end of the film we understand when Veronica goes to him for help.

The Fly Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Fly is presented in 1080p 1.85 video encoded in MPEG4 AVC. The film itself is fairly clean, with no major damage or defects. Grain is present, but is natural and not too obtrusive except in the few optical effects where the teleporter is used. Some may mistake it for video noise. Most of the film takes place inside Brundle's loft, where it is rather dark: it's here where the grain is most apparent. Shadow detail is very good. The few exterior and daytime shots are much cleaner. Colors are saturated, with natural fleshtones. Blood is a proper bright red. My only real complaint is that the film is rather flat looking, the age of the film non-withstanding. The Blu-ray of Close Encounters of the Third Kind proves older films can have as much depth as recent theatrical releases. However, it is still a good upgrade over the DVD version, and even looks better than the version recently shown on HD cable. Short of a major Lowry-style restoration, I don't see how much more the film can be improved.

The Fly Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The film is encoded in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless format. It is not a spectacular soundtrack, with most envelopment going to Howard Shore's somewhat overwrought, 1950's horror genre styled score. The sound is clean, there is no major distortion and dialogue is easy to understand. This is especially important because Jeff Goldblum's Seth character is very quiet and soft spoken. As far as surround sound, aficionados searching for a demo disc may want to look elsewhere. Keep in mind that in 1986 films were still being released in either mono or Dolby Stereo sound, and there were very few 70MM discrete 6-track releases. The book Widescreen Movies lists The Fly as having 70MM prints made, but I cannot find confirmation of that from Dolby. The intimacy of the story does not call for a showy surround track anyway, and the director's intent comes across well in this track.

The soundtrack is also presented in Dolby Digital (DD) 2.0 @ 224 kbps in Spanish and French. Not listed on the box, the disc also contains a 5.1 Dolby Digital (DD) track @ 448 kbps. Those of you who wish to play the disc at night or on small systems will appreciate this.

The Fly Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Wow. The Fly receives the full treatment from Fox, including all the extras from the Special Edition DVD and adding a couple Java based extras. All video based extras are in standard definition (SD) MPEG4 AVC @ 480i/p, with DD 2.0 stereo audio @ 224 kbps.


There are a LOT of extras here, subdivided into several categories.

Documentaries are divided into two major sections:
Fear of the Flesh: The Making Of The Fly (2:16:02): Feature length documentary of the making of the film. Extremely thorough and a must see, with interviews with everyone involved in the production, including Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. Divided into chapters and also included an "Enhanced Viewing Mode" where an icon appears at select points. Pressing the icon branches off into additional interview clips which can be viewed independently.
The Brundle Museum of Natural History (0:11:52): Interview with creature & makeup designer Chris Walas, who shows off various prosthetics.

Deleted Scenes (various): Scenes cut for pacing or were never filmed: some are available in script or storyboard form only. Includes the infamous "Monkeycat" sequence, which preview audiences found too disturbing (it made Brundle a lot less sympathetic). Also presented are some scene extensions and an alternate ending. Some material has been lost and reconstructed from the remaining materials available.
Film Tests (various): Preproduction shooting tests of various makeups, lighting, and the opening sequence. Includes a humorous clip of director Cronenberg testing of the special sets constructed for the film.
Written Works (various): Everything from the original Langelaan short story, to the screenplay, to Cronenberg's rewrite, to magazine articles originally published in Cinefex and American Cinematographer. Presented in text and photo slideshow format.
Promotional Materials (various): Trailers and TV spots, promotional featurettes, one sheet and lobby cards, and promotions for other Fox horror/sci-fi films in DVD format.
Still Galleries (various): divided into Publicity, Behind The Scenes, Concept Art, and Effects. Presented in slide show format.

Also included:
Commentary (feature length): Director David Cronenberg discusses the film. He discusses the film from concept to the reception and effect it's had over the past 20 years. Originally Cronenberg was the first choice by producer Mel Brooks (yes, *that* Mel Brooks) but he was originally slated to direct Total Recall! Cronenberg is very interesting and is very candid about the film. A must listen.
Trivia Track (feature length): Pop-up trivia on the making of the movie. Accessible thru the menu or subtitle #7 during playback.

Java Features
Fly Zapper Game: Silly Java game where you control either an electric zapper or flyswatter and attempt to kill a fly that buzzes around the screen while the film plays underneath. Since this is not a kid's movie I wonder who the intended audience for this feature is.

Also included are Fox's now standard Search Content and Personal Scene Selections.

The Fly Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One of the better horror films of the past 2 decades, Fox has treated The Fly with respect. Although the video and audio are limited by the source, this is still the best the film has looked or sounded outside the theater. The supplements are exhaustive and and a great value for fans of the film and of filmmaking in general. You could literally spend days with this disc: the still galleries and articles alone will take hours to go though. Combined with a great commentary and a must-see feature length documentary, you have one terrific package here on a single Blu-ray BD50 disc.