6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Malcolm Anderson is a reporter for a Miami newspaper. He's had enough of reporting the local murders and so promises his school teacher girlfriend (Christine), they'll move away soon. Before Malcolm can hand in his notice, the murderer from his latest article phones him. The murderer tells Malcolm that he's going to kill again. The phone calls and murders continue, soon Malcolm finds that he's not just reporting the story, he is the story.
Starring: Kurt Russell, Mariel Hemingway, Richard Jordan, Richard Masur, Richard BradfordThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | 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
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
The mind of a deranged human being is at once both a fascinating and a terrifying thing. The singular focus and drive towards an end goal is admirable in a vacuum though certainly not when it comes to someone, usually a very intelligent someone, bent on mayhem and murder for their own complex, convoluted, and criminal gains. That steadfast determination and endless pursuit of twisted goals yields a formidable opponent, someone who has dedicated their lives -- or, at least, a large portion of their lives -- to planning, essentially, the perfect crime, which often leads to a foolproof plan. Often, it seems that the only thing that can put an end to such a person's misguided activities is their own hubris, their need to find vindication for what they do, usually by way of making inroads with someone capable of stopping them, challenging them, essentially, to a meeting of the minds and a battle of wits they're sure that they cannot lose. Think of the killer in Zodiac or even Dennis Hopper's sicko turn in Speed and get an idea of what these individuals do, what they're capable of doing, and their need to involve external parties in their shenanigans. OK, so that very brief and very, very crude analysis probably wouldn't pass muster even in Psychology 101, but it's certainly what's at the ticking heart of The Mean Season, a 1985 Thriller that centers on the cat-and-mouse game between a maniacal killer and a burned-out newspaper reporter with whom the killer is in regular contact.
This can't be happening...
The Mean Season's 1080p transfer won't turn any heads, but it's a solid enough effort for a lower priority thirty-year-old title. The image certainly shows some bumps and bruises throughout in the form of speckles, pops, stray lines -- general wear and tear. The good news is that grain is present with only a few scattered scenes appearing even the least bit processed for removal with a mild flatness and a far less intense field. Details are satisfactory; image clarity is healthy enough and faces, clothes, odds and ends around the newspaper office, Christine' classroom, and exteriors yield some nice basic textures. The best images come in extreme close-ups of single objects, like a tape recorder or the killer's 1911-pattern pistol, that reveal fine evidence of wear and broader details alike with little effort. Colors are a bit drab, generally, but brightly lit outdoors enjoy some nicely vibrant shades, such as seen on natural greens or a blue golf shirt near film's start. Flesh tones push a bit warm at times and find a more natural balance at others. Black levels are fairly deep in some scenes but noticeably pale and covered in a spiky grain field in others. Light banding appears in a few places. It's far from a perfect image, but Olive Films' presentation looks fairly good for an aging movie given little TLC in the transfer to Blu-ray.
The Mean Season features a technically lackluster, but nevertheless serviceable, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. Music enjoys decent definition but plays with cramped-in-the-middle imaging and little to show for its efforts in terms of agility, separation, or robustness. Highs are a little shrill and lows aren't very impactful. The track does produce some healthy and invigorating atmospherics; the newspaper office springs to life in several scenes with a well-rounded din featuring clanking typewriter keys, ringing telephones, background chatter, and other little bits. It's a shame it's all cramped with no breathing room to enjoy the real fruits of its sounds, but it at least helps to give the listener a basic sense of the environment in which the scenes take place. Blustery winds later in the film, however, are poorly defined and are reduced to a globular sound that's really only identifiable through context. Dialogue is generally clear and healthy but an underlying hiss accompanies a few scenes, such as one in a classroom around the 12:30 mark. Overall it's a decent enough track but fans should enter with very low expectations.
This Blu-ray release of The Mean Season contains no supplemental content.
The Mean Season is an imperfect film that unravels the further from its center one gets. There are some quality ideas to explore, but one must get past a mostly bland surface routine that enjoys a few highlights but otherwise never distinguishes itself from the field. Audiences willing to dig and look for some of the film's more significant undercurrents should find it enjoyable, but as a surface-only watch it's debatable as to whether it's worth one's movie watching time. Olive Films' Blu-ray release of The Mean Season delivers passable video and audio. No extras are included. Rent it.
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