Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Review: Justice League – The Flashpoint Paradox / Cert: 12A / Director: Jay Oliva / Screenplay: James Krieg / Starring: Justin Chambers, Michael B. Jordan, Kevin McKidd, Cary Elwes, C. Thomas Howell / Release Date: VOD OUT NOW

Based on the DC crossover story Flashpoint, Justice League – The Flashpoint Paradox is the latest film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series. Don’t let the title fool you, though, this is most definitely a Flash film. The Justice League appear in the opening scene, as the team help Flash (Chambers) to take down Eobard Thawne’s Zoom (Howell) and a gang of B-list villains. From here, we see Barry Allen waking up in his office, although things aren’t quite what they seem. It’s soon apparent that Barry Allen no longer holds the power of the Flash, but that’s not all that’s not quite right with the world.

The world as Barry knows it has changed. Not only is he now not the Flash, his dead mother is now alive, his girlfriend Iris doesn’t know who he is, there is no Justice League, there is no Superman, Cyborg (Jordan) is the world’s favourite hero, Wonder Woman’s Amazons are at war with Aquaman’s Atlanteans, and Batman… well, let’s just say this version of Batman makes Frank Miller’s Dark Knight look as happy and carefree as Barney the Dinosaur. An older, grizzled, bitter, alcoholic Batman soon proves to be one of the few people that Barry Allen can speak to as he seeks to find out what has happened to the world that he once knew, not to mention work out how to once more become the Flash.

Director Jay Oliva, who also did the brilliant two-part adaptation of Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, turns out another good effort this time around. The action is fast-paced and hard-hitting right from the get-go, although there are elements of heart and emotion to the story; a story that is measuredly faithful to its source. One thing that is stark and unapologetic is the level of violence here. Up there with the aforementioned The Dark Knight Returns adaptation in this regard, The Flashpoint Paradox pulls no punches, particularly when it comes to the brutal war between Wonder Woman and Aquaman. The film isn’t afraid to have decapitations, dismemberments and slayings if it’s deemed necessary.

As well as a strong story, there is some fantastic animation. One personal gripe is that the regular Superman, shown at the beginning of the film, looks as if he’s suffering from a stroke, but the rest of the film is superbly put together. Adding to the film is the stellar voice work from all on show, including DC regulars Kevin Conroy, Nathan Fillion, Dana Delaney and Ron Perlman in small roles, although it’s Chambers, Howell, Jordan and McKidd that shine.

A roaring success, Justice League – The Flashpoint Paradox is right up there with the best animated films that DC and Marvel have to offer.

Extras: Audio Commentary / Two Featurettes – A Flash In Time; and My Favourite Villains / Sneak Peek At The Next DC Animated Movie / Bonus Cartoon Episodes

Review: The Secret of the Loch (The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection, Volume 4) / Cert: PG / Director: Milton Rosmer / Screenplay: Charles Bennett, Billie Bristow / Starring: Seymour Hicks, Nancy O’Neil, Gibson Gowland, Frederick Peisley, Eric Hales / Released: Out Now

As every schoolboy used to know, the first modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster occurred in July 1933 when George Spicer and his wife were driving along the newly built Lakeshore road, only to see a very big something run in front of their car. However, that’s not quite accurate: something big and fishy had been spotted a couple of months earlier by a Mrs Aldie Mackay and her story was picked up by a local journalist. As it happens, this was a time when King Kong (1933) was having a huge cultural impact; so he monstered the story up a bit and got in the Inverness Courier under the title of “Strange Spectacle on Loch Ness”. The Loch was soon crawling with London journalists and it can come as no surprise that they soon produced the story of the Spicers’ near-collision with the now-iconic beasties.

Fascinating, you’ll agree; but why are we telling you this? Ealing’s The Secret of the Loch (1934) is already an interesting monster movie but you need the historical context to really appreciate it. It was made at a time when Nessiemania was at its height but the established tropes of what is actually a modern legend were yet to be established; this is almost certainly the first movie to ever feature the Loch Ness Monster. The film starts with a series of newspaper headlines expressing concern about the monster in only the way ’30s Britain could: just what are the fisheries going to do about it? After some wonderfully atmospheric and low-budget bits of the Loch-side by night, we’re introduced to Professor Heggie (Hicks), the only scientist to believe in the monster, as he gets into a “debate” with his fellow academics at the British Museum with hilarious consequences. Next thing we know, the Loch is indeed infested with journalists much as it was in real life, all in search of evidence of Nessie.

For some reason, it’s only British movies of the ’30s that ever quite capture the truly romantic side of Scotland and it’s easy to be sucked in by all the whiskey gags and clan obsessions as these fictional Scots interact with the (rather irritating) Sassenach hacks. We’re sure real Scots might scoff but it’s charming even if you have to keep reminding yourself it was eighty years ago. After all, you wouldn’t expect to get away with breaking into a young woman’s bedroom (as the hero does) just to see her grandfather and get away with it nowadays either. It’s also got lots of deep sea diving-suit action with those big helmets and Nessie herself who is played, somewhat bravely, by an iguana. Oh come on, what did you expect? Willis O’Brien?

If you fancy this (and why wouldn’t you?) then it’s part of volume 4 of The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection. The rest is not really Starburst territory but we can confirm this is definitely the best movie in the set (Googie Withers forgive us).

Extras: None

Review: The Last Will and Testament / Cert: 12 / Director: Rodrigo Gudino / Screenplay: Rodrigo Gudino / Starring: Aaron Poole, Vanessa Redgrave, Julian Richings / Release Date: August 5^th

After a series of award winning shorts, writer/director Rodrigo Gudiño presents his first feature length film, The Last Will and Testament (aka The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh).

The movie chronicles the return of antiques collector Leon (Poole) to the family home he has inherited from his estranged mother (Redgrave), a home he finds besieged by shrines to a mysterious religious cult. And as the night wears on, Leon begins to suspect that his mother’s spirit is still in the house, trying to warn him of an imminent, sinister force.

Gudiño’s experience with shorts is apparent right from the start. He treats his first feature with the same amount of attention and meticulous detail as an art house short – it is, quite simply, beautifully made. Leon spends much of the film walking in and out of shot, often chasing the camera, establishing his vulnerability against the baleful force inside the house.

The score is produced by one Mercan Dede and is by far the most audacious and impressive aspect of the production. It skirts between religious themes and more archetypal horror conventions with an ominous nonchalance – commanding your attention and providing the scenes with an almost palpable dread. Considering the technical elements only, the film is am unbridled success; the cinematography has its own narrative; sweeping and fluid, and the set is dense with detail and sentiment.

Unfortunately, these stylistic accomplishments buckle under the film’s shaky foundations. For the first two acts of the film, the acting is a master class in minimalism. Which is a nice way of saying there doesn’t seem to be much acting going on at all. And though one might attribute this to the themes of isolation and regret that are embedded deep with the film’s DNA, it does not make for compulsive viewing. It is only in the third act of the film that Poole is given something to react to, and unfortunately the actor lacks the charisma necessary to carry the film during those quieter, more introspective moments earlier on.

That being said, the lack of big scares and jump-worthy moments probably only enhances the film’s overall chilling atmosphere. Because the plot is forwarded almost exclusively by Vanessa Redgrave’s creepy narration, the audience is left feeling alienated and uneasy, even as the film limps toward its rather abrupt pay off.

Though The Last Will and Testament serves as a nice change of pace against the year’s more traditional horror films, this sombre, psychological affair ultimately fails to live up to its full potential.

Extras: None

Review: The Returned (Les Revenants) / Cert: 15 / Director: Robin Campillo / Screenplay: Robin Campillo, Brigitte Tijou / Starring: Geraldine Pailhas, Jonathan Zaccai, Frederick Pierrot, Victor Garrivier / Release Date: Out Now

Originally titled They Came Back, The Returned is the French feature film which inspired the imported series currently screening on C4 in the UK. Some critics have commented that the series suffers from an achingly slow pace and occasionally obscure and evasive narrative. God help them if they ever clap eyes on this original film version; it looks lovely and is sufficiently arty but at times it’s so slow and ponderous it’s in danger of grinding to a complete halt.

It all starts intriguingly enough with hundreds and hundreds of ‘the undead’ ambling through the streets of a small French town. But these aren’t slavering, brains-crazy zombies; they’re predominantly in their sixties, smartly-dressed and showing no noticeable signs of physical decay or agitation. The government gathers them together in shelters until they can be reintegrated into society but it soon becomes apparent that ‘the returned’ have lower body temperatures and are suffering from an acute aphasia which renders them unable to perform anything but the most simple tasks or interact in any meaningful way with those around them. One young couple are delighted to see their young son returned to the bosom of the family, the town’s elderly mayor tries to come to terms with the return of his wife Martha and a government official is eventually reunited with her lost husband.

The Returned isn’t remotely concerned with how its phenomenon actually happens and offers no explanation for why the dead have risen. The film, like the recent BBC series In the Flesh, is more interested in showing how the living cope with the return of their loved ones and, ultimately, how the deceased, contrary to appearances, really aren’t the people they were when they were alive and that miracles just don’t happen and you can never go back. In time ‘the returned’ start to display worrying tendencies – they rarely sleep, they congregate at night – and the film slowly (oh so slowly) builds a sense of creeping unease as the audience waits for the eruption of the sort of carnage they might normally expect from a zombie film. But the blood-letting never comes and the films ends in a frustratingly ambiguous but thoroughly European style.

Campillo’s film possesses the same stately wistfulness as the TV series and whilst its leisurely pace may infuriate those who just want something to happen, it’s a refreshingly different and mature take on the ‘rising dead’ which asks a lot of intriguing questions about human nature and doesn’t always offer up answers we might be comfortable with. Intelligent, edgy and uncompromising, The Returned is a zombie film aimed at people who really don’t like zombie films. It could just have done with getting a bit of a move on here and there though.

Extras: None

Review: Doctor Who – Spearhead From Space / Cert: PG / Director: Derek Martinus / Screenplay: Robert Holmes / Starring: Jon Pertwee, Caroline John, Nicholas Courtney / Release Date: Out Now

Jon Pertwee’s debut serial, first screened in January 1970, is surely one of the most popular stories in Doctor Who’s long history. It relaunched the series in style (its viewing figures of well over 8 million were a significant improvement on the falling numbers of the latter Patrick Troughton era) in full colour and with a debonair new Doctor in the shape of the flamboyant Pertwee, and as well as being repeated several times on TV it’s already been released twice on VHS and twice on DVD. It’s hardly surprising that Russell T. Davies borrowed much of its imagery – especially the eerie animated wrist-gun wielding Auton mannequins rampaging through a shopping precinct – when he relaunched the series in 2005. Spearhead From Space is the stuff of Doctor Who legend and it’s a story fondly remembered by both fans and casual viewers. It’s also the only ‘classic’ Doctor Who eligible for Blu-ray upgrade as industrial action at the BBC required the serial be shot entirely on film. The serial has already looked good on DVD but this Blu-ray transfer takes its picture quality to a whole new level to the extent that, a few contemporary quirks aside, it really looks as if it could have been made yesterday.

This is Doctor Who striding confidently out of the nursery and asserting itself as a show adults could happily watch without embarrassment. As Earth (well, Southern England) is bombarded by pulsating meteorites, the newly regenerated Doctor arrives and is quickly hospitalised before being drafted in by UNIT to help battle the alien Nestene Consciousness which is using its ability to control plastic to establish a foothold on Earth. The tone is resolutely more mature than in the black-and-white years and Pertwee is an instant hit as the new Doctor, stranded on Earth with his ability to operate the TARDIS taken from him by the Time Lords and forced to ally himself with the military might of UNIT and the trusty Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Courtney). There’s a new girl on the scene too as the series casts aside the mini-skirted screamers of its previous incarnation and teams the new Doctor with UNIT recruit Liz Shaw (John), a sceptical Cambridge scientist who, if not always able to hold her own with the Doctor in matters of science, at least had a vague idea what he was talking about. The story is lively, pacey, action-packed and suitably colourful for the new era and it establishes a successful format – the Doctor trapped on Earth battling hostile alien threats – which producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks were never hugely comfortable with but which was to serve the series well for five or six years.

If you’ve already invested in one of the previous DVD releases (particularly the Special Edition which came out a couple of years ago) you’ll want to hang onto it as none of its special features – not even the commentaries – have made the leap to Blu-ray. Here there’s just all-new stuff, an absorbing and thorough look at the life and times of Jon Pertwee with recollections from friends such as David Jacobs and Geoffrey Bayldon and an affectionate and personal tribute to the late and underrated Caroline John being the most worthwhile. 

Spearhead From Space remains one of the most irresistible classic Doctor Who serials, as fresh and exciting in 2013 as it was when it was first screened forty-three years ago, and it’s hard to imagine how it could ever look or sound better than it does on this lovingly crafted Blu-ray. Just buy it. 

Extras: A Dandy and a Clown / Carry On – The life of Caroline John / Title Sequence Raw Footage / Restoration Comparison / Coming Soon Trailer

 

Review: Pi – 15th Anniversary Edition / Cert: 15 / Director: Darren Aronofsky / Screenplay: Darren Aronofsky / Starring: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman / Release Date: August 12th

‘Maths-themed thriller’ may not be the most enticing of pitches, and yet that’s exactly what launched the career of Darren Aronofsky, long before the acclaimed successes of The Wrestler and Black Swan. Fifteen years later and Pi is getting a Blu-ray release.

Black Swan is a tense psychological thriller that requires no knowledge of ballet, and it’s easy to care for the eponymous Wrestler without being into the sport, but Pi doesn’t go easy on the mathematical front. Following obsessive genius Max Cohen as he searches for the numerical patterns that shape the world, the film philosophises over Fibonacci, the Golden Ratio, and the complexity of the board game Go.

Yes, there’s potential for anyone not of mathematical mind to become confused. But there’s no need to feel inferior, as the most studied of mathematicians may be equally confused by the surreal twists and turns of the plot. As Max becomes the target of two mysterious groups fighting for the meaning of a 216-digit number that only he can uncover, his obsessive personality sends him spiraling into madness.

This may sound like difficult viewing, and, at times, it is. But Aronofsky depicts Max’s mental descent so viscerally that the film commands you to keep watching. It’s clear from the start that the character is even more paranoid and antisocial than the stereotypical mathematician; he keeps several locks on his apartment door, shuts out all sunlight, and refuses to engage others in conversation. As he starts to notice he’s being followed, his neurosis ramps up, and it doesn’t help that he suffers intolerable migraines and hallucinations.

In bringing all of this to the screen, Aronofsky really gets inside Max’s mind. Handheld camerawork is used skilfully, following Max closely as he paces around his room and constantly cutting to his point of view. We’re shown his hallucinations, a series of recurring images that stick in the mind and encapsulate Max’s fears, most disturbingly a disembodied brain in the centre of an empty train station. Sean Gullette’s excellent performance enhances all of this, really giving the impression that Max is increasingly afraid, addicted, and unwilling to communicate. It’s all shot in grainy, high contrast black and white, which could look cheap and nasty shot by a lesser artist, but works brilliantly to increase the claustrophobic feel and, on Blu-ray, looks even more striking than before. The soundtrack, too, is powerfully expressionist, with an unnerving combination of techno music, eerie electronic sounds, and an imaginary sexual moaning.

Though perhaps not as refined or ultimately satisfying as some of Aronofsky’s more recent films, Pi really is a remarkable debut, an intense and expressionistic tale of a paranoid personality, and a film well worth returning to in 2013.

Extras: Commentaries with Darren Aronofsky and Sean Gulette / Deleted Scenes / BTS Montage / Theatrical Trailer / Original Trailer

Review: A Field in England / Cert: 15 / Director: Ben Wheatley / Screenplay: Amy Jump, Ben Wheatley / Starring: Michael Smiley, Reece Shearsmith, Julian Barratt, Peter Ferdinando, Ryan Pope, Richard Glover / Released: Out now

If you’re a monochromat who has spent an English Civil War re-enactment weekend under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, then you don’t need to read this review. Run along now; nothing new here for you. The rest of you better stay. Have they gone? Good. Do you think they live life a bit excessively or are we just getting boring? Anyway; the review.

A Field in England opens with some soldiers and a scholar running away from a battle in search of a pub, only to encounter the diabolical O’Neil (the always-good-value Michael Smiley) with, shall we say, confusing results. Now you might have read other reviews of this movie that tend to fall into the categories of eye-rolling derision or the sort of fawning hyperbole that smacks of a fear that Alex Cox will be telling us why it was brilliant on Moviedrome in twenty years time. We’re going to go for something in between but very much towards to the latter (because we don’t want Alex making us look stupid either).

This is unashamedly art house material and shot entirely in black and white so that, director Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Sightseers) has confirmed, it looks a bit like the BBC’s 1964 docudrama Culloden (which really is good, by the way). It also features a series of utterly inexplicable interludes of the cast posing in tableaux vivants (thank you, Wikipedia) that are also funnier than was perhaps intended. Sounding pretentious enough yet? If you don’t care about all that and are just interested in a good yarn then you might have a problem there too. It’s a bit trippy and Wheatley actually seems to take great delight in making his story as difficult to follow as he possibly can. He wants you to work hard for his movie and the odd thing is that, while this is part of the film’s problem, it’s also one of its greatest strengths. Watch it and then talk about it with someone else. If necessary, go and have a look on the web to see what other people are making of the story. Gradually, between us all, we’ll work out was going on. In fact, you might start thinking about watching it again. It’s not the first movie with this effect but it’s no less satisfactory for that.

Combine this with some genuinely striking imagery and you have a film that, while more than a bit baffling, we won’t hesitate to recommend. It’ll stick with you and, in all likelihood, you’ll be thinking of it in a more positive light the day after than you did when it’d just finished. We need challenging films we can argue about from time to time; isn’t that what art’s all about? A folk-horror version of Performance (1970) with Mick Jagger replaced by Roundheads. Who’d not want to see that?

Extras: Audio commentary / Interview with the director / Ten featurettes / Trailer

Review: Evil Dead / Cert: 18 / Director: Fede Alvarez / Screenplay: Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues / Starring: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore / Release Date: August 12^th

Remaking The Evil Dead had all the hallmarks of being a doubly thankless task, in that the result has to reckon not only with the fondly remembered original but with Cabin in the Woods, Joss Whedon’s knowing dissection of the whole dead-in-a-shed subgenre. Yet against the odds, newbie director Fede Alvarez has pulled it off, and in fact has managed to deliver one of the most celebrated horror reboots of recent years. How did he do it? Well, turns out you really can’t go wrong with some power tools and plenty of ketchup.

The story (which takes place in an alternative timeline to Raimi’s movie) sees drug addict Mia (Levy) planning to spend a few days in the family pad in the countryside, with the intention of going cold turkey and breaking her habit forever. There to watch over her are her friends Eric (Pucci) and Olivia (Lucas), while her brother David (Fernandez) and his girlfriend Natalie (Blackmore) have also come along to lend moral support. It’s a while since anyone’s been to the place, though, and it shows signs of having accommodated some very dubious squatters. For starters, the basement is full of mummified cats, and further exploration downstairs reveals a sawn-off shotgun and a book bound in barbed wire. Not at all put off by the fact that its pages are covered in bloodstains, nerdy Eric can’t resist opening the book and reading out certain forbidden words. Hey presto – evil Mia!

What happens next is a good demonstration of how legitimately dramatic on-screen gore can be as long as it’s allied to a reasonably coherent scenario and set of characters. Not that there’s a whole lot of deep psychology here, mind you, just a few lightly sketched in pre-existing tensions (Eric acts almost like a jilted lover around David, while there’s a glint of sadism in Olivia’s tough love towards Mia). Still, it’s enough to lend that bit of weight to violence which is already harrowingly fast and furious. Eric is stabbed in the specs with a syringe, characters shed body parts the way ordinary folks lose gloves and socks, hammers and nail-guns crunch through bone and tissue.

Alvarez retains a number of the original film’s motifs (the demonic hand gag, the chainsaw), but he also brings some striking imagery of his own to the table, such as a scene where Mia is talking to David through a dirty plastic bag that has been pulled over her head: it’s haunting, and it’s all Alvarez. The film builds and just when you think it’s ending, it throws in what has to be the most blood-drenched finale since Carrie. Add a fine performance from Levy, and you have a bold, visceral redo that at least deserves to be mentioned in the same sentence as the first Evil Dead.

Extras: Directing the Dead / Evil Dead the Reboot / Making Life Difficult / Unleashing the Evil Force / Being Mia

Review: Dressed to Kill / Cert: 18 / Director: Brian De Palma / Screenplay: Brian De Palma / Starring: Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson, Nancy Allen / Release Date: July 29^th

Given that he was a serial killer and schizophrenic, you’d have to say the fact that he was also a transvestite was probably the least of Norman Bates’ problems. But it’s a point that Brian De Palma seizes on with gusto in this lurid shocker which put the stalk-‘n’-slash thriller in high heels and wig, employing a structure and themes borrowed from Psycho mashed together with stylistic trappings gleaned from Italian gialli.

The first half hour is almost a mini-drama unto itself. It introduces (and then bids a bloody goodbye to) Kate Miller (Dickinson), a frustrated housewife whose head is filled with wild sexual fantasies. After venting her feelings to her psychiatrist, Dr Elliott (Caine), she visits an art gallery where, in an elaborate and dreamy sequence, she picks up a random guy and goes home with him, only to end up being brutally murdered by a tall blonde in a shiny black coat. The only witness is a high end call girl, Liz Blake (Allen), who immediately becomes the police’s prime suspect. Meanwhile, Kate’s dorky son Peter (Gordon) sets out to investigate. He’s convinced that one of Dr Elliott’s patients is the culprit, and as it happens, he could be right. A patient called Bobbi, an unstable transsexual infuriated because s/he has been rejected for sexual realignment surgery, leaves a message on Elliott’s answering machine claiming responsibility.

These days, we’re well aware of the odd things that make serial killers tick thanks to the various adaptations, spin-offs and imitations of Thomas Harris’ novels, but back in 1980 this was scandalous stuff, the more so as De Palma was seemingly determined to wring every last iota of melodrama and cheap thrills from the controversial subject matter. The result is a typically De Palma-esque blend of crudity and calculation, of cleverness and shallowness. No calm, clinical observation of the aberrant psyche here. Instead, De Palma piles on tropes reflective of the fetishistic woman-in peril-thrillers that came out of Italy in the ’60s and ’70s, and there’s even a whiff of soft core Euro-erotica (a Penthouse Pet was drafted in to body double Dickinson in a lengthy nude shower sequence which ushers in the first reel). The whole seedy story is embalmed in De Palma’s customarily gauzy, super high-gloss cinematography, and Pino Donaggio’s florid score swathes everything, even the most inappropriate moments, in Easy Listening melodies.

Such mismatches between subject matter and aesthetic mean that Dressed to Kill is strangely disjunctive viewing, but it’s also as temptingly colourful as a neon-lit cocktail, especially on this amazing uncut HD transfer, which comes with an impressive set of extras that includes contributions from Dickinson, Allen and De Palma. It’s vulgar and exploitative, yes, but also playful and irreverent, and brashly daring in terms of its structure (it arguably has two beginnings and three endings). Another welcome instalment in Arrow’s continuing series of De Palma re-releases.

Extras: Symphony of Fear – producer George Litto discusses his working relationship with Brian De Palma / Symphony in White – Angie Dickinson on her role in the film / Dressed in Purple – Nancy Allen on her role / Lessons in Filmmaking – Keith Gordon discusses the film / The Making of a Thriller / Unrated, R-rated and TV-rated comparison / Slashing Dressed to Kill – avoiding an X-rating / Trailer / Gallery

Review: The Car / Cert: 12 / Director: Elliot Silverstein / Screenplay: Michael Butler, Dennis Shryack, Lane Slate / Starring: James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley, R.G. Armstrong, John Rubinstein / Release Date: Out Now

Post-dating films like Duel, Killdozer and even Jaws but, oddly, pre-dating Stephen King’s more seminal, if similar, Christine, Elliot Silverstein’s lame 1977 thriller about a sinister demonic Lincoln Continental rampaging around a small community in Utah never really gets out of first gear, stalled by clumsy dialogue and underpowered acting. Not exactly a complete write-off, this is certainly very nearly car-crash movie making.

The Car is forced off the road, in the end, by a lousy script and worse acting. The usually-reliable James Brolin struggles to stay in control in his thankless role as Captain Wade Parent (what kind of a surname is that?) investigating a series of apparently motiveless hit-and-runs carried out by a driverless black car. As the death toll mounts things start to get personal – especially when the car strikes too close to home – and Wade finds himself locked into a battle of wits with an inanimate object which has a decidedly-devilish life of its own.

The Car remains watchable because of its stunning location photography (a highlight of the sharp Blu-ray transfer) and the genuine sense of threat engendered whenever the car itself appears and scenes of the vehicle in the distance, glinting in the dazzling sunlight as it roars towards its next target, are serviceable exercises in building dread and tension. But Silverstein’s attempts at creating a land-based car-centric Jaws are shafted by a leaden, clumsy script which does little to enamour the audience to Wade and his friends and acting which can perhaps best be described as deeply unsatisfactory. Wade’s deputy Luke Johnson (Ronny Cox) is worth looking out for as he becomes more and more melodramatically depressed and hangdog with each appearance by the murderous motor vehicle. At least he pulls himself together in time to participate in the final stand-off with the car which, in its final moments, reveals its supernatural colours. In the movie’s only really disturbing sequence (for all the wrong reasons) the final sequence suggests that the car has survived and is on its way to wreak havoc in Los Angeles; fortunately lousy contemporary reviews and a disinterested cinema audience spared us a conveyor-belt of The Car sequels.

Despite its derivative script and barely phoned-in performances, The Car is never bad enough to be detestable and never good enough to feel like a sensible way of spending a hundred minutes. It’s a film you’ll neither love nor hate; you’re most likely to be fairly neutral about it.

Extras: Moderated commentary with the director/ Special effects supervisor interview / Actor John Rubinstein interview / Trailer / Introduction and trailer commentary by John Landis