6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
A cold-war spy parody. After the death of an armaments manufacturer, an international group of spies is drawn into a high-stakes battle of wits to obtain the valuable military patents which have been inherited by the lovely widow.
Starring: Lino Ventura, Francis Blanche, Bernard Blier, Mireille Darc, Philippe CastelliForeign | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The term “British humor” gets bandied about with a fair amount of regularity, but what exactly is so-called British humor? Is it fair to lump Benny Hill in with Tom Stoppard? Do Monty Python and P.G. Wodehouse belong in the same category? These examples merely point out the sometimes futile attempts to easily classify things in an easily understandable group, but they might also help to illuminate a somewhat related question, namely is there such a thing as French humor? That question is a salient query with regard to The Great Spy Chase (released in France under the title Les Bourbouzes), for this parody of James Bond-esque adventures has a distinctly Gallic flavor, though some (including this reviewer) would be hard pressed to adequately describe just what that flavor is. Without coming to any huge, overweening general conclusions, a lot of The Great Spy Chase features a rather childlike, even cartoonish, ambience, that sees a bunch of international espionage agents going after each other with a variety of mechanisms that might have come directly out of an old Tex Avery Looney Tune. We see exploding toilets, showers that drip acid, scorpions in beds, and falling chandeliers (shades of Phantom of the Opera) that have deadly spikes attached, all of which are greeted with a fair amount of fist shaking, grimacing and other patently silly reactions that may or may not be your particular cup of tea (or whatever French folks drink). The film has a certain lunatic charm that can’t be denied, but I have to admit I felt myself smiling wryly more than laughing out loud throughout vast swaths of this picture.
The Great Spy Chase is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. The bulk of this high definition presentation looks very good indeed, with only minimal and typical damage to report in terms of the elements. Most of this presentation features excellent contrast with some superb fine detail in the many extreme close-ups (peruse some of the screenshots accompanying this review for several good examples). What I'm assuming was second unit work suffers considerably by comparison with the bulk of the rest of the film. These sequences look pretty blown out and noticeably softer than the majority of the film. There's also one fairly noticeable instance of moiré that crops up on Lagneau's herringbone suit jacket in the scene where Lagneau receives his "marching orders" from his superior. As with most Olive releases, there's no sign of aggressive digital tweaking of any kind.
The Great Spy Chase features a perfectly serviceable lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track in the original French language. There are some odd sound editing choices throughout the film—abrupt cutoffs and some inartful segues—that were no doubt either intentional or at least endemic to the stems, and those are reproduced here in all their oddness. Dialogue is cleanly presented and the silly sound effects and occasional music cues also sound fine. Fidelity is fine if not outstanding and dynamic range has a few spikes courtesy of an explosion or two.
Perhaps rather than talking about so-called French humor we should instead focus more squarely on French farce, a more readily identifiable genre and one which The Great Spy Chase falls into fairly easily despite its modern espionage trappings. There aren't a bunch of slamming doors here (more like sliding hidden doors), but the silliness and arch behavior that is part and parcel of great masters like Feydeau are completely in evidence here as well. Some of the film's humor falls a little flat, but over all The Great Spy Chase is charmingly humorous, if not flat out hilarious. This Blu-ray offers nice looking video and serviceable audio, and comes with the original theatrical trailer. Recommended.
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