4k-UHD/Movie Review: A Few Good Men

 

A Few Good Men is the 1992 legal drama film based on the Broadway play by Aaron Sorkin, who also wrote the screenplay. The movie was directed by Rob Reiner and features an incredible all-star cast. The film stars Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore in the leading roles. The supporting cast includes Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak, James Marshall, J.T. Walsh, Christopher Guest, J.A. Preston, and Wolfgang Bodison.

The movie mixes drama and suspense with a bit of humor, and it stands as one of the best courtroom dramas ever made. Cruise plays Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, a callow Navy lawyer who is known for plea-bargaining cases rather than going to trial. He is assigned to defend two U.S. Marines stationed at Guantanamo Bay who are accused of murdering a fellow Marine, William Santiago. Kaffee is joined by Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway (played by Moore) and Lieutenant Sam Weinberg (played by Pollak). Galloway suspects the two Marines were acting under orders from their superiors, specifically the commanding officer, Colonel Nathan R. Jessep (played by Nicholson), in what is known as a "Code Red" hazing ritual. The best sequence comes in the last 20 minutes of the film, where Kaffee and Jessep square off in an explosive, high-stakes courtroom confrontation that delivers some of the most memorable dialogue in film history.

The 4k set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a standard Blu-Ray. The A/V quality of the UHD disc is excellent, and the 4K transfer was done very well. If you have a high-end setup, the crisp visual detail and balanced audio will not disappoint. The bonus content is good, featuring a couple of production documentaries, including an interesting featurette on adapting the play to film. It also includes an excellent audio commentary track by director Rob Reiner. The commentary provides great insight into the production, though it is also a bit sad, especially when Reiner discusses the fact that he brought his son to the set, who is the very same son who was later arrested for his murder.

The casting for this film was absolutely perfect. Everyone in the main and supporting cast was excellent in their roles, and a case can be made that this was actually each actor's best performance to date. While I am personally not a fan of what is known about Tom Cruise's personal life, he is a wonderful actor, and he did some of his best work here. It is also fun to look back at the smaller roles in the film. This was one of Noah Wyle's first film roles, and he would, of course, go on a couple of years later to become a breakout star in the TV series ER. The film also featured an early role for Cuba Gooding Jr. before his career exploded. This was also the very first acting role for Wolfgang Bodison, who played Lance Corporal Harold Dawson. He was actually working as an assistant to Rob Reiner, who liked his look and asked if he had ever acted and if he wanted to read for the part. Given that his role as Dawson was relatively large, he did an excellent job with the part, especially since he had never acted before. While everyone shines, Jack Nicholson is a complete tour-de-force, dominating the screen every single time he is on it. Ultimately, this is a must-see movie and, if you collect physical media, it is worth adding to your collection.

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

 

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is a 2003 action/comedy film that is the direct sequel to the 2000 film Charlie's Angels. McG returned to direct the film, which brought back Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu to reprise their roles as the Angels Dylan, Natalie, and Alex. Crispin Glover, Luke Wilson, and Matt LeBlanc also reprised their roles from the first movie. The additions to the cast included Demi Moore, Robert Patrick, John Cleese, Shia LeBeouf, Justin Theroux, Bernie Mac, and Ja'Net Dubois. The film also features several cameo appearances, including Carrie Fisher, Pink, Robert Forester, Bruce Willis, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Jaclyn Smith, reprising her role as Kelly Garrett from the TV series. 

The plot involves a pair of rings that contain and unlock a list of people in the witness protection program. The list is stolen and set to be sold to various criminal organizations. A couple of revenge plots are intertwined within the story, and we get a bit more backstory about Crispin Glover's character. 

This is a single-disc release containing both the theatrical version of the film and an unrated version that adds a few more minutes to the runtime, mostly by adding more violence to a couple of the big fight scenes. The extras include several commentary tracks on the film. There is an audio and a telestrator commentary by McG. The audio tracks are exactly the same, but the telestrator commentary is annotated with things being circled in the background of some of the scenes while McG talks. Then, there is a commentary track by a couple of the writers. The theatrical version can also be played with a trivia track similar to the old show, Pop-Up Video, where information about the movie is displayed in pop-up boxes while it plays. Then there are several different making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, a preview for the 2019 reboot, and the music video for Pink's song Feel Good Time. 

Ultimately, the movie is a fun action-comedy. It is similar in style and tone to the first movie. It does have a lot of adult humor that skirts the bounds of what can be included in a PG-13 film. There is also a scene where the Angels are nude in shadow so you cannot really see anything except for a brief flash of sideboob from Drew Barrymore. Of course, the big draw when the movie came out was that this was Demi Moore's return to movies after a hiatus of about six years. She was phenomenal in the role and looked fantastic. It seems all the actors had fun in their respective roles and did not take themselves too seriously. The big change from the first film is that Bill Murray did not return. The writer's commentary track touched on Murray's absence, stating that they knew they would have to go in a different direction with the Bosley character when it was clear that Murray would not be back. There was no mention in any of the bonus content of the conflict between him and Lucy Liu in the first movie. They came up with a good way to have Bernie Mac be the new Bosley and did include a picture of Murray in one of the scenes. If you liked the first movie, you will probably like this one. Like the first film, this one takes a lot of suspension of disbelief and has some plot holes, but if you do not overthink it and just enjoy it for what it is, it is worth watching.   

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Indecent Proposal

 

Indecent Proposal is a 1993 drama starring Demi Moore, Woody Harrelson, and Robert Redford. Moore and Harrelson were probably at the height of their respective careers, Moore coming off her 80s "brat pack" popularity and Harrelson from his run on Cheers. Redford was definitely on the other side of the height of his career but still had the leading man gravitas.

Moore and Harrelson play David and Diana Murphy, a young couple in financial trouble because of the recession. Of course, they decide the best way to remedy this is to use the last of their savings to go to Vegas to win the money. Per the Vegas stereotype, they win big initially, and instead of learning when to stop, they lose all their money. Enter Redford, a billionaire named John Gage who spots Diana looking at dresses. He offers the couple a million dollars to have sex with Diana. That is really all the setup that is needed. The story is pretty predictable, but it plays out well.

For those who get the blu-ray, the A/V quality is good, but the movie did not get an extensive restoration by any means. Even so, it was shot very well initially, and that definitely comes through. The only extra is a commentary track on the movie by the director, Adrian Lyne. It is an okay commentary, but not anything spectacular.

Overall, the movie is good but not great. It is a pretty standard love triangle story, and it was somewhat famous for being one of the first (if not the first) movies in which Demi Moore (who to this day is in phenomenal shape) did any nudity. It amounted to a quick topless shot at the beginning of the movie (but they were spectacular), and then she was in lingerie in a couple of scenes. The acting is very good and probably saved what was pretty mediocre writing in parts of the movie. It is not what I would call a must-see movie, but it is worth checking out. I am not sure if the movie is available on any of the streaming services for free or not, so if you want it, the disc is probably the best way to get it, even if there are not a ton of extras.