5.6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
A female PI babysitting for a boyfriend gets stuck with his daughter and the case of her murdered father.
Starring: Kathleen Turner, Jay O. Sanders, Charles Durning, Angela Goethals, Nancy PaulComedy | 100% |
Crime | 32% |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 2.0 | |
Audio | 2.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
You're a female "dick," right?
V.I. Warshawski (a mouthful, more so even in Turner's rough but sultry pronunciation) is a throwback noir Detective film with modern
sensibilities. The person in peril is still a female, but so too is the dark and mysterious private eye whose legs are as long the list of men who fall under
charms, and her skills are on par with the men against whom she competes and fights throughout the movie. She and her de facto sidekick -- who's
also
the same girl who's hired Warshawski to investigate her father's death -- both use their innate feminine charms and wiles to facilitate their
investigation and
piece together the clues that will lead to an awful lot of hurt, but hopefully justice, too. This is a fine twist on an old genre, at least on paper. Based on
a series of stories by Author Sara Paretsky, V.I. Warshawski doesn't translate well to film, at least not under the guidance of Director Jeff
Kanew (Gotcha!) who builds a routine motion picture that lacks that gritty, shadowy edge that's the hallmark of these sorts of pictures.
Additionally, never
does he really exploit the film's unique angle except to make sure a tough-as-nails but still-glamorous Kathleen Turner looks good no matter the time
nor place
in the movie, her wardrobe, or whatever bumps and bruises accumulate on her face along the way.
Go ahead, make my night.
V.I. Warshawski debuts on Blu-ray with a rough and substandard 1080i transfer. Maybe the best thing one could say about this transfer is that it's "stable." It'll hold up on larger displays in a way a DVD couldn't, but viewers will note problems and inconsistencies even on moderately-sized screens. There's very little in the way of strong textures and details; in this regard, the image doesn't look much better than an up-converted standard definition presentation. A few shots around the city are sturdy, but faces are smooth and the image is flat. Colors are dull throughout, but in the film's defense there are plenty of dark, low-light scenes to begin with. A bit of grain is retained over the image, but a moderate amount of pops and scratches are also present. A touch of aliasing is visible in a couple of scenes, and light-to-moderate swirling background blocking is also evident. Flesh tones are steady, but slight black crush is a constant problem. V.I. Warshawski seems to be the victim of a quick-and-dirty Blu-ray transfer. It'll hold up at a glance, but not under scrutiny.
V.I. Warshawski's paltry DTS-HD MA 2.0 lossless soundtrack fares no better than its video counterpart. This is one dull-sounding movie; very little life and almost no energy define nearly the entirety of the track. Oddly enough, things start out really well; the film's theme music that plays alongside the opening titles displays excellent qualities. It's not just loud, it's spacious, crisp, and satisfying, sounding a whole lot more robust, clear, and room-filling than anything else the track has to offer. It's almost all downhill from there; city atmospherics are present but not particularly engrossing, and only a zooming train passing by right outside a window returns the sensation of the quality presentation alluded to at the beginning. The track lacks body, and even gunfire sounds tinny and absent punch. Dialogue, too, is often hollow and lifeless. This is another one of those "serviceable" tracks that gets listeners through the movie, but it does almost nothing more than convey the essentials.
V.I. Warshawski features no supplements.
V.I. Warshawski is one of the ever-growing lists of films that deserved to be better. The idea is sound, but the execution just isn't there. Despite strong performances from Kathleen Turner and Angela Goethals, Director Jeff Kanew's picture is lacking in pace, intensity, and the grittiness that seems to want to be a part of the movie but never quite is. A serviceable Mystery/Thriller but one soon quickly forgotten and lost behind superior films of the same style, V.I. Warshawski just never achieves the level of success that always seems right there for the taking but was seemingly lost somewhere on the way to the end product. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of V.I. Warshawski washes out, featuring lackluster technical presentations and no extras. This is one to skip.
1949
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