6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
In San Francisco, one victim in a mass murder is a police detective. His partner and a new partner investigate in the city's seamy side.
Starring: Walter Matthau, Bruce Dern, Louis Gossett Jr., Albert Paulsen, Anthony ZerbeDrama | 100% |
Crime | 42% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 16-bit)
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
1972’s “The Laughing Policeman” is all about procedure. Director Stuart Rosenberg maintains a chilly atmosphere of observation for this thriller, with stars Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern as San Francisco cops on the hunt for a killer who samples terroristic intent as he commits mass murder on city buses. Although the premise encourages hysterics, “The Laughing Policeman” keeps its cool, hoping to achieve the unexpected through patience, which allows the effort to explore rather sophisticated characterization.
Arriving with noticeable age, the AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation for "The Laughing Policeman" isn't dire, but it certainly could use a more recent scan and general refreshing. Colors retain period limitations, favoring yellows and browns, but vividness is dimmed, with hues lacking snap. Skintones remain natural. Detail is acceptable without overall cinematographic sharpness, preserving set decoration and thespian close-ups, and urban distances remain open for inspection. Delineation battles solidification on occasion. Source shows some wear and tear, with minor scratching and speckling detected throughout.
The 2.0 DTS-HD MA sound mix is also limited by age, finding dialogue exchanges mostly thin, making surges in emotion more crispy than defined. Scoring cues fare a little better, locating the jazzy mood with passable instrumentation. Atmospherics are fine, finding crowd activity and street encounter intelligible.
"The Laughing Policeman" is dated, with an iffy but period-specific view of San Francisco gay culture, but ugliness isn't encouraged. The picture is more invested in the path to justice, which is populated with antagonistic types and oddballs, complicating the slow crawl of police work. While it doesn't satisfy cravings for sustained excitement, "The Laughing Policeman" finds more nuance and grit than the average procedural.
1971
1973
1993
1970
2006
2016
1973
2014
1992
2006
2003
1989
Tengoku to jigoku / 天国と地獄
1963
2007
1946
2010
2013
2013
Import
1978
1998