The Men's Club Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		4.0

The Men's Club Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov January 15, 2017

Peter Medak's "The Men's Club" (1986) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of independent distributors Olive Films. The only bonus feature on the disc is an original trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Do I remind you of your wife?

If the great Luis Bunuel was still alive during the '80s and making films in America they most likely would have looked a lot like Peter Medak’s The Men’s Club. If you look at how Bunuel mixes the serious and the ridiculous in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and how Medak does exactly the same thing in this film, it seems like the only notable difference between them is the manner in which they choose to erode the legitimacy of the social boundaries that their characters are expected to respect.

They are seven middle-aged men who have royally screwed up their lives. Cavanaugh (Roy Scheider, All That Jazz) is a former baseball star who has started cheating on his wife and is now blaming her for ignoring his needs and not giving him enough reasons to be a faithful husband. Kramer (Richard Jordan, The Friends of Eddie Coyle) is an eccentric psychotherapist who has suddenly realized that the problems in his marriage are a lot more complex than those of his clients. Phillip (David Dukes, The First Deadly Sin) is a university professor on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown because different mistakes from his past have permanently forced him out of his comfort zone. Solly (Harvey Keitel, Dangerous Game) is a real estate broker whose reluctance to admit that he is lonely has transformed him into a feisty cynic. Terry (Treat Williams, Mulholland Falls) is a medical doctor and is still in love with a woman that left him years ago. Paul (Craig Wasson, Body Double) is a manager in an auto shop who is fully aware that his life has been on cruise control but has been hesitant to admit that he is too weak to change it. And Harold (Frank Langella, The Deadly Trap) is a prominent attorney who has been too busy to notice that his wife has stopped carrying about their marriage. During the course of a single night, the men begin sharing bits of their disappointing lives and then proceed to ridicule their biggest failures. Much to their surprise, the more honest they become with each other, the better they begin to feel. In the wee hours of the night the men then agree to visit a reputable brothel that is enthusiastically recommended to them by Harold, but shortly after the owner (Ann Wedgeworth, Scarecrow) introduces her girls the fun event evolves into an odd therapy session that no one seems willing to end.

Much like the novel by Leonard Michaels that inspired it, the film is very witty, colorful and utterly unpredictable. There is a large part of it that mercilessly satirizes the flawed macho logic that men typically use to rationalize their failed relationships with women, but there is also a heavy dose of social surrealism in it that makes it incredibly entertaining. So it is sort of a Bunuel-esque soap opera for men with a period atmosphere that makes it look a lot more stylish than it was probably intended to be.

The male cast is as impressive as the one that James Foley gathered for the equally colorful thriller Glengarry Glen Ross. Keitel and Scheider, in particular, have some brilliant moments in the brothel. (The latter's completely unhinged character is a total winner). Amongst the female stars Wedgeworth leaves a lasting impression, and a young Jennifer Jason Leigh appears in a couple of very entertaining scenes with Langella’s inebriated attorney.

The film was shot with a modest budget but it looks very chic. The footage from the brothel easily could have emerged from a forgotten Radley Metzger production.

The Men's Club Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Peter Medak's The Men's Club arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films.

The release is sourced from a fairly recent master that was likely struck from an interpositive. I think that it is very good, but the encoding should have been optimized so that grain appears 'tighter' and ultimately better resolved. Nevertheless, detail and depth are very pleasing; clarity is also consistently excellent. There are no traces of problematic sharpening adjustments. Colors are stable and appear healthy -- the primaries are solid, with stable saturation, and there is a rather nice range of nuances. There are a couple of sequences where the brightness levels/highlights appear slightly elevated, but there are no distracting anomalies. Finally, there are no large debris, cuts, damage marks, or torn frames to report. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

The Men's Club Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The film has a stylish jazzy score that adds quite a bit of flavor, but dynamic intensity is limited. The dialog is very clean, stable, and easy to follow. Also, there are no distracting audio dropouts, pops, cracks, or distortions to report.

The Men's Club Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer - original trailer for The Men's Club. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080p).

The Men's Club Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Men's Club remains one severely misunderstood film. I suspect that a lot of people simply do not know what to make of the many awkward moments in it and conclude that bad acting is responsible for them, but this is precisely what makes it special. It is one wacky Bunuel-esque soap opera for men with some pretty damn accurate observations about the flawed macho logic they tend to use to rationalize their failed relationships with women. Trust me, you do not want to miss it. The Blu-ray release is sourced from a nice master, but the only bonus feature on it is an original trailer for the film. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.