Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Mean Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman July 14, 2015

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...

Miami newspaper reporter Malcolm Anderson (Kurt Russell) is burned out. He is, as he puts it, tired of seeing his name in the same column that tells the stories of the grisly murders he's been covering for the better part of a decade. His boss Bill Nolan (Richard Masur) has no interest in seeing his star reporter go, but Malcolm's schoolteacher girlfriend Christine (Mariel Hemingway) is eager to get out of the city with him and relocate to Colorado where Malcolm has a job at a smaller paper lined up. Malcolm is set to tell his boss that he's on his way out when he receives a phone call from someone claiming to be a killer, the man responsible for the murder Malcolm just covered. The killer promises several more killings in the near future. Now, with Malcolm in regular contact with the madman and his work on the fast-track for a Pulitzer, he's drawn back into the world from which he yearns to escape to cover the biggest story of his career, one in which he's suddenly become a central player.

At its most nuts-and-bolts basic, on its largely unoriginal, never-drift-from-convention surface, The Mean Season feels largely insignificant. The movie doesn't offer much in the way of legitimately tense thrills and never does it really find any novelty in its basic A-to-B-to-C operation. Dig a little deeper, however, and the movie presents a little differently. It's not a powerhouse under the hood, either, but audiences should appreciate the way the movie slyly maneuvers through some of the more complex human emotions that run through the film as Russell's Malcolm Anderson and the killer both become slowly unhinged, dragged further than they imagined into the fray, as a difficult situation becomes emotionally impossible, particularly as Anderson experiences it. The film further features an interesting look at the intersection of detached journalism and involvement in the story, at first unwitting involvement which becomes a necessary entanglement which becomes a deeply personal foray into the midst of madness. As Anderson's fame grows -- he's suddenly the key cog in the story, not the killer -- the story morphs into an unbalanced sensation that becomes less about the human tragedy and more about the human interest. At the same time, the killer's resentment and boldness both increase, which leads to several fascinating interplays both over the phone and, eventually, in more intimate, and obviously more dangerous, interactions. Even as the film largely follows standard operating procedures with its details, the deeper underplay proves ever fascinating throughout the course of the film; Director Phillip Borsos (The Grey Fox) plays to the picture's strengths, allowing the story's details to dominate and keeping its superficialities simple enough so as to not interfere with what's going to resonate most with audiences.

While its rather juicy inner core is enough to make the movie worth a watch, there are few pluses to its surface, though certainly more than a few minuses as well. The picture moves along with a somewhat stale pace, particularly through the back stretch of its middle act, and through most of the third, where the exterior warts really begin to show even as the deeper psychological underpinnings gain traction. The sense of routine movement and outward character actions and developments slows it considerably, but credit the cast -- the film boats a great ensemble, which includes a young Andy Garcia in one of his earliest roles -- for fighting to push those core emotions to the surface. Kurt Russell is particularly good at bringing all of the accumulated baggage to the surface in several key moments that see the character at his most vulnerable and most determined alike. Russell plays the telephone bits with a keen grasp of that emotional core, too, elevating the conversations to verbal chess games that grow ever more complex as the film pushes forward. His work as a reporter feels genuine and experienced; the filmmakers reportedly employed real Miami newspaper employees to consult and fill the background, helping to create an authentic sense of place and flow that Russell runs with in every scene. Of notable disappointment is that the hurricane -- after which the film is named -- is relegated to simple background flavor that only adds a helping of cliché to the final act rather than truly mean something significant to the movie.

The Mean Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

The Mean Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Mean Season contains no supplemental content.

The Mean Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.