7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A young couple travel to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Janet McTeerHorror | 100% |
Dark humor | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Digital copy
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Television has given us droves of things in both the positive and negative categories, but among the more curious items tv has, well, dished up for
us is the phenomenon of the celebrity chef. Now, as with the many things, it took a while for the sheer glut of these personalities to become
overwhelming, and back in the "Dark Ages" of low res black and white, chefs on the small screen were still a rather rare (or at least medium rare)
item, with such personalities as Julia Child and Graham Kerr holding court in their studio kitchens. But just a cursory glance at current day and
relatively recent cable listings will divulge all sorts of cooking and/or cooking related (often competition based) shows, including Top Chef, The Great British Baking Show, MasterChef,
Hell's Kitchen, 30 Minute Meals with Rachael Ray and Restaurant: Impossible. That surplus of productions has brought any number of chefs to at least perceived
prominence, including such well known names as Gordon Ramsay, Tom Colicchio and Giada De Laurentiis*. Some of these personalities are
on the prickly side, to put it mildly, but even their outsized personae might shrink a bit under the withering glare of one Julian Slowik (Ralph
Fiennes), the at least neurotic and quite possibly psychotic and even sociopathic chef at the heart of The Menu.
*One of my fondest interview memories from my work at this site was with the late Martha De Laurentiis, who did a press junket during the run of
Hannibal. The interview came to a wonderfully
funny halt at one point when I mock suggested that Martha's step-granddaughter Giada would be a perfect guest star, which thankfully Martha
found to be laugh out loud worthy.
The Menu is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Studios and Disney / Buena Vista with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. I haven't been able to track down authoritative information on the cameras utilized, and the bonus featurette that does have candid shots of the cameras never disclosed a brand (that I could make out, anyway), but the IMDb does offer a 4K DI datapoint on its technical specs page for the film. This is a really nicely detailed presentation that probably understandably offers a lot of so-called "food porn" shots that typically features excellent fine detail levels (the featurette gets into some of the actually fascinating food design aspects of the production). It appears that all of the background ocean material was green screened, and that can look just slightly soft at times, but all of the practical items including everything from props and sets to the performers themselves are presented with typically great detail levels and an appealingly natural looking palette. A couple of scenes taking place either in nighttime or extremely dimly lit interior locations can see fine detail ebb slightly, but really not by much. I noticed no compression issues.
According to both the closing credits roll and the IMDb, The Menu evidently had Dolby Atmos in at least some of its theatrical exhibitions, but this disc offers "only" a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The surround activity here is rather subtle at times, though there is clear engagement of the side and at times especially rear channels in some of the restaurant material, where background sounds are well placed, offering a subliminal sense of the spaces involved. A playful score also resides comfortably in the surround channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout, though I found the mix, especially in the early going, seems to push some of that dialogue slightly in back of some of the ambient environmental effects. That may make the optional English, French and Spanish subtitles all the more welcome for some listeners.
There are parts of The Menu that rather oddly reminded me of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, including an isolated location run by a megalomaniac, as well as a bevy of badly behaved characters about to get some serious comeuppance, not to mention a, well, explosive climax. There are other referents some other viewers may feel are relevant, including everything from And Then There Were None to The Most Dangerous Game , but commendably the film never feels like a haphazard casserole of leftover ingredients. Things might have had even more power had a bit more information been imparted as to how exactly all these characters were "chosen", not to mention what the background between Slowik and Tyler in particular is all about (I kept waiting for some major reveal there that never quite came). Technical merits are first rate, and the main featurette supplement very enjoyable. Recommended.
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