Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Year of the Comet Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown May 12, 2024

Utterly destroyed by critics (it still holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and a massive bomb at the box office, director Peter Yates delivered a veritable stinker of a romantic adventure that has, by and large, disappeared from the cultural conscious. And good riddance. Tiresome, grating and unfunny, it longs to be Romancing the Stone but burns out and crashes into the sea somewhere over the Atlantic. Tim Daly and Penelope Ann Miller give it their all, poor kids, but Daly's mustache is about the only thing you'll remember about their brief on-screen fling. (Quoth Daly: "I thought [my mustache] was kind of dope.") Even the film's previews were atrocious, which writer William Goldman attributed to, seriously, the audience's lack of enthusiasm for red wine. Sigh. Perhaps loading audiences up with red wine would improve matters, because drunk and teetering is about the only state of being that could allow one to enjoy such a maligned, exhausting misadventure in antiquing.

The plot? Thin as it gets. Wine expert and connoisseur Margaret Harwood (Miller) is living in her father's shadow, frustrated to be known only as the daughter of Sir Mason Harwood (Ian Richardson). But that all changes when dear old dad stumbles across a rare, vintage bottle of wine bearing the seal of Napolean himself. Selling the still-corked treasure to a collector, Sir Mason hires seat-of-his-pants Texas pilot Oliver Plexico (Daly) to escort the wine and Margaret to the South of France. Sadly for both of them, needle-brandishing mad scientist Philippe (a cartoonishly sinister Louis Jourdan) -- seriously -- is in hot pursuit, determined to stop at nothing to get his hands on Napolean's finest. The film also stars Nick Brimble, Shane Rimmer, Timothy Bentinck, Art Malick, Ian McNeice, Jacques Mathou, and Shane Robertson.

How bad is Year of the Comet? So bad I'm starting to feel terrible for piling on so much more hate. Eviscerated in 1992 and ever since, it seems almost cruel to continue beating a dead horse. (Sitting with a bloody dead horse for two hours being more preferrable to watching Comet a second time.) Miller and Daly do their best to affect chemistry but there's just none there; not because they aren't talented '90s actors, but because the screenplay they're working from is a poison tree. Everything they offer is just fruit from a tainted source. And no, wine isn't all that interesting, particularly if you pair it with a silly European air-delivery farce that doesn't deliver laughs or nail-biting suspense, electing to exist somewhere in the world of Roger Rabbit, minus any of the animated delights from Toon Town. Everyone on screen mugs, smugs and overacts, pouting, prancing and barking out their lines as if their careers depended on it. (Which I'm guessing they did, considering how Miller's star faded soon after and Daly began focusing solely on TV -- God bless Wings -- and animation as a go-to Superman voice actor.)

Is there a saving grace here? No. Haven't you been paying attention? Everyone on screen and behind the camera does their best to transform garbage into gold but no amount of talent seems capable. Add to all that sloppy editing, a generic score, rough compositing fx, wishy washy cinematography, and an ending that might as well have involved the director walking on screen and shrugging his shoulders as things cut to black. Roll credits. I'm sure somewhere out there is a film fan absolutely enraged by this write-up. And more power to you. Every film needs a lover. There's no reason any movie should grow old alone. But I really hope you're out there because Year of the Comet needs to be reminded of your love. It's been feeling so lonely all these years, wondering if an audience would ever come along and understand whatever it is that it's trying to do.

Year of the Comet Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

There is a saving grace to the Blu-ray release of Year of the Comet, though: its excellent 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer, which looks as if whoever loves the 1992 dud got himself hired remastering the film for high definition. Colors are warm, rich and altogether lovely, with exceedingly well-saturated skintones that only grow reddish when stress rises or the heat is on. Black levels are deep and satisfying, contrast is dialed in with vivid precision, and detail? Detail delivers thanks to ever-so-sharp edge definition (largely free of any artificial nonsense like halos) and fine textures are so exacting that they swim to tangible life at times. Close-ups are especially striking, though wider establishing shots are softer (par for the course in the early '90s). Still, needles have never looked so dangerous. And silly. But I digress. Blocking, banding... all MIA. The only thing that spoils the proceedings is slight but frequent print marks and truly awful looking composited-fx shots. (Daly on a cliff near film's end fares very poorly in high definition.) Year of the Comet couldn't feasibly look any better unless it came to 4K. And best not hold your breath for that one.

Year of the Comet Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Alas, Year of the Comet sports little more than a solid DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. It's decidedly decent, with no issues to report. ADR is a bit of a nuisance, but again... 1992. Otherwise dialogue is clean and clear, prioritization is quite good, and music doesn't interfere with the soundscape. Which is rather ordinary, but oh well. Nothing more stands out here. Move along.

Year of the Comet Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Nothing to report.

Year of the Comet Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

How Year of the Comet survived long enough to find its way to Blu-ray is beyond me. Most likely an offloading of films courtesy of New Line, MGM or another studio that owned the rights and the master. It's a quarter-hearted bomb that barely made it out of the early '90s. Skip, skip, skip. That said, if you insist on proceeding, Sandpiper's Blu-ray could certainly be much worse. With a fantastic video presentation, there is something here to love. Everything else ranges from solid (its DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix) to groan-worthy (its barebones supplemental package).