MISERY (1990) (Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray review)

MISERY (1990)
Collector's Edition Blu-ray 

Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 108 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1, Stereo 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Rob Reiner 
Cast: James Caan, Kathy Bates, Frances Sternhagen, Richard Farnsworth, Lauren Bacall

I remember going to the cinema to watch Misery (1990) on a date on a chilly fall night in upstate New York 1990, it was a nail-biter thriller then and it it still holds up now, the suspenseful tale of best-selling romance novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan, Thief) who has just finished the final book in his series of novels about the character Misery Chastain. He hops in his car with the only manuscript of the book and begins the long drive from Silver Creek, Colorado to New York City to deliver the book to his literary agent Marcia (Lauren Bacall, Key Largo). However, before the trip can even really begin he gets caught up in a nasty blizzard, losing control of his car he goes off the road a down a steep embankment in mountainous terrain.

While unconscious he is rescued by a local woman named Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Roanoke) who pulls  him from the wreckage and treats his wounds as best she can from her home, placing him in a bed, his legs and feet horribly crippled from the crash. When he comes to she claims to be his number one fan, which is big trouble for the best-selling author, she turns out to be a an obsessive, stalker-y super-fan, and when the author allows her to read his unpublished novel she goes completely metal when she discovers that Sheldon has killed-off her beloved Misery Chastain, that dirty bird!

This reality-rooted psychological thriller is in my opinion one of the strongest film adaptations of King's work, Caan and Bates are phenomenal playing off one another, the tension is palpable throughout, with Bates turning from kindly to homicidal at the turn of a page. The scene of Annie hobbling the author with a block of wood and a sledgehammer still makes me cringe with phantom ankle pain, it's right up there with any cinematic nightmare I can think of. Caan does a wonderful job as the author who slowly begins to realize that the lonely woman who saved his life is certifiable loony, begrudgingly acquiescing to her demands to burn his unpublished manuscript (lest he be burned alive in bed!) while being forced to re-write the novel to the twisted fantasies of his number one fan, leading to brain-smashing finale that holds up to repeat viewings. The movie looks great, shot by cinematographer Barry Sonnenfelid (Blood Simple), this is a terrific 90's thriller, and we also get a supporting role from the great Richard Farnsworth (The Straight Story) as a likable old timer Sheriff and Frances Sternhagen (The Mist) as his wife.  

Audio/Video: Misery (1990) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory with a new 4K scan from original film elements, presented in 1.85:1 widescreen. I don't think this is coming from the original camera negative or it would be explicitly advertised as such, but probably coming from an interpretive, but I do not that for a fact. Regardless, the image looks fantastic, grain is nicely managed, colors are vibrant, and the black levels look solid. The previous MGM Blu-ray looked quite nice, but this is an upgrade to my eyes. Audio wise we get choice of English DTS-HD MA surround 5.1 and stereo 2.0  with optional English subtitles. everything seems to be in order, well-balanced and clean, the dialogue comes through crisp and the Marc Shaiman (The Addams Family) score sounds great, too. 

Onto the extras, Scream Factory carry-over all the cock-a-doodie extras from the MGM 2-disc special edition DVD, presented in standard definition but they are at least presented on the Blu-ray, MGM's Blu-ray disc was bare bones, but the release included the second disc of the 2-disc DVD set with the extras. Scream Factory have also included two new extras, a 37-minute interview with director Rob Reiner who discusses his early career, the beginning Castle Rock Entertainment, and developing this movie.. he also mentions being able to relate his own career to that of author Paul Sheldon's in the book, a man controlled and limited by his own success. He also goes into crafting the thriller and certain tricks he used, like using a "dutch tilt" which he seems particularly proud of. There's also a half-hour interview with Special Makeup Effects Artist Greg Nicotero who discusses his work on the film with KNB EFX Group, how that crew came together, how they came to the attention of Castle Rock Entertainment through his work with George A. Romero. There's also talk of creating the prosthetic legs, ankles and heads used in the film, with behind-the-scenes images, my favorite take away is Nicotero recalling meeting Kathy Bates who immediately quoted "lick my plate you dog dick!" from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2! 

This single-disc Collector's Edition Blu-ray comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork with a slipcover, the slipcover and a-side feature a new illustration from artist Joel Robinson, the b-side featuring the original John Alvin produced one-sheet. The disc features a shot of the Roy typewriter used in the film. If I had a wishlist of things not found on this release I would hoped for it would be deleted scenes, and interviews with the two stars, but I am still quite satisfied with the overall release.

Special Features:
- NEW 4K Restoration From The Original Film Elements
- NEW Interview With Director Rob Reiner (37 min) HD
- NEW Interview With Special Makeup Effects Artist Greg Nicotero (26 min) HD
- Audio Commentary With Rob Reiner
- Audio Commentary With Screenwriter William Goldman
- “Misery Loves Company” Featurette (30 min) SD
- “Marc Shaiman’s Musical Misery Tour” Featurette (15 min) SD
- “Diagnosing Annie Wilkes” Featurette (9 min) SD
- “Advice For The Stalked” Featurette (9 min) SD
- “Profile Of A Stalker” Featurette (6 min) SD
- “Celebrity Stalkers” Featurette (5 min) SD
- “Anti-Stalking Laws” Featurette (2 min) SD
- Trailers (5 min) HD

Misery (1990) gets a solid release from Scream Factory, the new

4K transfer looks fantastic, we get a few cool new extras and great new artwork, and they carry-over all the extras from the previous 2-disc special edition DVD release. If you're a fan and looking to upgrade from the bare bones MGM Blu-ray it's well-worth handing over your hard-earned Christ-ing money for this one. 

FREEBIE AND THE BEAN (1974) (WAC Blu-ray Review)

FREEBIE AND THE BEAN (1974)

Label: Warner Archive
Region: Region-FREE
Rating: R
Duration: 113 Minutes
Audio: DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.40:1) 
Director: Richard Rush 
Cast: James Caan, Alan Arkin, Loretta Swit, Valerie Harper

Freebie and The Bean (1974) is a prototype 70s buddy cop movie starring  Alan Arkin (Wait Until Dark) as Benito “Bean” Vasquez and James Caan (The Godfather) as Freebie Waters, two bumbling San Francisco police detectives who are falling over themselves trying to bring down local racketeer kingpin Red Meyers (Jack Kruschen, The Apartment). They're going through his trash and strong arming small time crooks for any possible leads that might help build their case against Meyers, but in a unexpected twist they discover there's a mob hit on Meyers and they must shadow him to ensure he is not assassinated before they can bring him to proper justice. 

Their antics are cacophonous, racist and sexist, and cause all sort of trouble for their brass, Lt. Rosen (Mike Kellin, Sleepaway Camp), and the local district attorney (Alex Rocco, The Entity), along the way racking up a junkyard of destroyed cop cars, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. The comedy-action comes fast and furious with a ridiculous slapstick motorcycle chase and the detectives car careening off a raised road into a third floor apartment bedroom of an elderly couple, it's ridiculous fun, and we also get quite a bit of verbal and physical sparring between our adversarial detectives. 

Arkin and Caan are fantastic fun together, both are actually unlikable cops and people for the most part, but through sheer presence and chemistry they had me in their corner. Caan's "Freebie" is so nicknamed because his badge seems to be a get-one-free card, rarely paying for food and expensive clothes while Arkin's "The Bean" is a racist slur based on the characters Mexican heritage, though Arkin downplays it, sounding more like a Brooklyn guy than aping a bad accent, with Freebie rarely passing up an opportunity to degrade his partner about his Mexican heritage. 

The whole nab-the-kingpin plot is more a comedy McGuffin than a plot point, it manages to get lost or put on the back burner to a large degree, taking a backseat to the buddy-cop shenanigans of the cops, weaving destruction and chaos throughout San Francisco in a series of non-PC vignettes, including blindly shooting a suspect through a closed bathroom stall door, plowing down the sidewalks at high speeds to the threat of pedestrians, brutalizing innocent suspects with car doors, and plenty of racist and homophobic slurs throughout. The 70s were a less enlightened era, obviously, and watching this with my teen I could tell that his hair was slightly blown back a bit by the non-PC humor, so I can see this ruffling feathers in '74 and now, this won't be for everyone, particularly with a stereotypical 70s killer-queen scenario that plays out at the end.

Keep an eye out for supporting roles from the lovely Loretta Swit (Hot Lips from TVs M*A*S*H*) as the kingpin's wife and Valerie Harper (TV's Mary Tyler Moore Show) as Bean's wife, whom I have had a childhood crush on since I was five, and her presence is welcome. She has a great seen with Arkin in their apartment as she completely unravels his concrete theory about her having an affair, it's a wonderfully warm comedic relationship scene with great timing and delivery. 

The movie is a bit of an uneven mess, a mix of cop-action and non-PC humor, but it has a charm, mainly due to the chemistry of the stars, all credit to Arkin and Caan. The zany rude humor and action scenes make for a rough ride at times, but I liked it. Watching this I was also struck by what appeared to me to be influences on Pulp Fiction, there's a POV from inside a car trunk, and  a scene of Freebie and the Bean forced to wear clothes not their own, looking out of sorts with guns in their hands, I had to think that this was a influence on Tarantino, or maybe I'm just grasping at straws. The film also spawned a short lived, just nine episodes, TV series in '80 starring Hector Elizondo and Tom Mason.    

Audio/Video: Freebie and the Bean (1874) arrives on Blu-ray from WAC with a fresh new 2K scan from the interpositive. The movie is an urban buddy-cop comedy and the images within are gritty and dirty, László Kovács' (Ghostbusters) cinematography captures that in the lensing, this is a sort of dour color scheme, not a lot of bright colors happening. The image is appropriately grainy for a film of the era, particularly during the darker scenes, but it is nicely crisp and detailed, and a nice upgrade from the Warner DVD.

Audio on the disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track, like the action and comedy the audio is cacophonous, dialogue can be occasionally tinny or buried in the mix, this seems by design of the director that any issue with the transfer, mix or disc authoring in my opinion. The lively score from Dominic Frontiere (The Gumball Rally) sounds great and is strong in the mix, optional English subtitles are provided. The only extras on the disc is a remastered trailer for the movie. 

Special Features: 
- Original Theatrical Trailer (Remastered in HD)

Freebie and the Bean (1974) is a non-PC, 70s buddy cop movie, littered with that era's casual racism and homophobic slurs, nutty bumbling cop action and A LOT of steel-crunching car action. The movie certainly pushes the limits of good taste, but Arkin and Caan bring it all together in a way that is good fun. The new Blu-ray from WAC is is a nice A/V upgrade, making this a worthy purchase for both fans and newcomers.