7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A college student plans a cross-country trip to get laid, but ends up traveling with a young woman. They hate each other, so naturally...
Starring: John Cusack, Daphne Zuniga, Anthony Edwards, Boyd Gaines, Tim RobbinsRomance | 100% |
Comedy | 60% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Adventure | 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 5.1
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
It's easy to think of John Cusack as Say Anything's daring, stereo-hoisting Lloyd Dobler. Or Grosse Pointe Blank's dead-eye assassin in love, Martin Q Blank. Wait... maybe he's more High Fidelity's perpetually heartbroken, borderline unlikable Rob Gordon. Or Being John Malkovich's introverted Craig Schwartz, or 1408's grieving supernatural journalist Mike Enslin. Or, wow, it's all coming to me now... The Ice Harvest's Charlie, Runaway Jury's Nick, Bullets Over Broadway's Davey, Tapeheads' Ivan, The Grifters' Roy... goodness, how many iconic roles can one actor have in his filmography? Modern-day Cusack, though less prolific than in his twenties and thirties heyday, continues to quietly work harder than most, churning out role after role in a career he seems as if he was made for. But it would be easy to forget his humble beginnings; the bit parts as a teen and arguably his first big breakout as a leading man (um, teenager): The Sure Thing, a 1985 wannabe-John-Hughes, would-be-teen-classic from director Rob Reiner that almost, almost, made Cusack a star. (Even if Better Off Dead and, four years later, Say Anything would actually seal the deal.)
The Sure Thing returns to Blu-ray with a weary, poorly contrasted 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer that begs for a do-over. With a proper restoration, the film appears to have all the traits of what might be a rejuvenated '80s teen comedy. As is, though, colors are decent, delineation solid, and detail merely okay, but everything else struggles. Contrast is dull, vibrancy is diluted, black levels never quite dip as low as they should, and the image lacks real pop. Worse, fine textures are lost beneath a muddy application of grain reduction, halos appear throughout (the result of too much last-gen artificial sharpening), and instances of minor artifacting creep in from time to time. Any single issue might not be that dramatic a problem, but taken together, the unsightliness compounds and makes for a messy presentation. Add to that print specks, marks and other blemishes and you have a transfer in need of a remastering; perhaps one created utilizing better preserved elements.
Sandpiper's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is... fine. And that's about as good as it gets. Dialogue is intelligible and reasonably well prioritized, despite the fact that some exchanges are a bit thin, several instances of ADR are terribly obvious, and music sometimes overpowers secondary lines and/or supporting voices. Sound effects are a touch tinny as well. Rear speaker activity is decent but largely subdued, making for a rather front-dominated experience. And LFE output is solid, when that is it's called upon. Mostly, though, The Sure Thing sounds fares about as well as you'd expect from a mid-80s teen comedy.
Sandpiper's Blu-ray release of The Sure Thing arrives with the same supplemental package in tow as its previously released 2015
predecessor. Kudos to Sandpiper for actually including extras with this one -- which isn't their usual M.O. -- but unfortunately it doesn't amount to
much. A director's commentary is the highlight of the package, while all the video content has a distinctly promotional feel and is presented in lowly
standard definition. More to the point, while any special features are appreciated, it would be nice if the distributor invested a bit of capital into
producing new extras, even a film historian commentary or interview with critics (in the event the original cast and/or crew members were too
expensive, unavailable, or uninterested in participating). It can't be that hard to get an author or two to chat at length about a film's influence, can
it?
The Sure Thing isn't as sharp or snarky as the comedies that would soon come to Cusack in the '80s and '90s, but it remains a funny, smartly penned road trip movie that isn't afraid of letting its leads tear each other apart. (Until they finally fall head over heels, of course.) Sandpiper's Blu-ray, though, is unfortunately a problematic release, with a middling video transfer, a decent but rather ordinary lossless audio track, and a merely decent selection of extras.
1988
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1989
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