[rosewood]# slogin -p2201 www.dvdtalk.com
Password:
Password authentication bypassed
[dvdtalk]# sudo su
[dvdtalk root]# vi -v /home/dvdtalk/htdocs/reviews/pretty-little-liars-season-3.html
Access granted! Loading review interface…

Mwah-ha-ha! Hacking into DVD Talk’s web server was child’s play. That’s right, bitches! It’s me, A, and I’m here to tell you the truth about season three of Pretty Little Liars.

You see, it’s all part of my sinister game. Yes, I let those four accursed little liars — Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer — think that they won. My pawn Garrett is at long last behind bars. They truly believe that Mona Vanderwaal was their tormentor for lo these many months, probably just because she has twenty-eight “A”s in her name, and now that all four-foot-nothing-of-her has been institutionalized, those bitches have an entire summer to relax…blissfully unaware that the Sword of Damocles dangles perilously overhead!!! But no, dear friends, Mona was not A; just another of my many minions, she’s merely part of a larger A Team, and I…wait, what’s that you say B.A. Baracus No, you blundering buffoon! Not that kind of A Team! You’ll never believe who’s on the roster, though! Neither Mona nor I are through with you yet, and as for Garrett… There’s much for you to learn there as well, said the spider to the fly…

Let me tell you some of what these pretty little bitches are in for this year! Everyone knows that Emily is an accomplished swimmer, but did you know her extracurriculars also include…graverobbing!!! Thanks to my malevolent machinations, I have the photographic evidence to prove it too! I’m the one with the remains of the late Alison DiLaurentis, of course, and I taunt and torment the liars by returning their dear Ali to them, one piece at a time! Hanna tries desperately to learn more from Mona in the asylum, but my psychotic pet toys with her as a housecat does a mouse. Many other horrors await this season, and I’m not just talking about Aria using overalls as a swimsuit coverup or all those floppy ties or a closetful of tops with skulls on them, although…good lord! Detective Wilden continues to encircle his prey, and his interest in Alison’s murder may extend far beyond that of an investigating officer! This Nate Dogg — a cousin of Maya’s — isn’t singing the hook, determined instead to stymie Emily’s most recent relationship and perhaps even stymie her very life! Unearned makeup tests! Faked medical ailments! Perplexing prospective parentage! Jason returning to post a bunch of fliers about his sister’s murder as if he’d lost his Cavalier King Charles or something! Roofies! A blood trail! A fallen  flame’s totally innavigable website! The secret origin of Ezra Fitz, and he’s hiding more than a sock drawer full of hundred dollar bills! A most dangerous game of Truth or Dare! Secret snake attack! #thewrongfitz! Adam Lambert dressed up as Vampire Prince! Wren gettin’ all up in everybody biznass! Mama datin’ drama! Aria’s dad is super-sketch! The revelation that lesbians aren’t all that into Hanna! My recurring favorite: the girls dressing up as candy stripers to Scooby-Doo-style-infiltrate yet another medical facility! (I started off as The Peculiar Purple Pie Man of Porcupine Peak, and now I sound like the second girl to get kicked off The Bachelor; what’s wrong with me) Poisoning! Strip trivia! Elevator action! Church bell thievery! Academic decathalon fisticuffs! A pointlessly random Olympian! Who is that girl in the red coat More than one breakup! Pan-seared Spencer! Aria Montgomery not only being the worst babysitter ever, but rushing a kid to the ER for a tiny scrape on his chin! Hanna and Aria pushing a death-car into a lake! One betrAyal after another! …and, oh, did I mention murder!!!!! I’m going to push one of these pretty little liars past the brink and into my loving arms. When I say that “A won!”, I’m not talking about steak sauce, bitches!

If you’ve stuck by those pretty little bitches for the two seasons prior, you know you can’t look away as I pull their strings once more! DVD Talk’s laughable review system wants me to rate this DVD collection with stars. Don’t you know who I am Don’t you know I can do better Don’t you know that this third season of Pretty Little Liars deserves to be ranked not with little blue stars but with an…A!!!!

presentAtion

Let’s see how pretty those pretty little liars look in standard definition! That’s right; my reach extends all the way to Warner Bros. Home Video’s corporate offices, ensuring that Pretty Little Liars is once again passed over for a proper release on Blu-ray. You watched it in high definition on ABC Family; now slum it with a quarter of the resolution! Let’s go to the scorecards. A: 1,157! Bitches: zero!

This season looks okay on DVD, though. Edges are somewhat muddy, and the compression’s not the greatest, but detail and clarity don’t suffer too much. Pretty Little Liars also features a set of 384kbps Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. The surrounds are reserved largely for atmospherics and reinforcing the eerie music, and you can hear some occasional discrete stalk-and-slash effects as I skulk around the rear channels. The subwoofer is generally there to bolster the score as well, but it makes its presence known just the same. Subtitles are offered in a variety of different languages, among them English captions for the deaf and hard of hearing, French, and Spanish.

pAckAging and extrAs

Nothing but the best for my girls! This season of Pretty Little Liars is a five disc set, cloaked in a flat slipcover and clutching a detailed episode guide.

Deleted scenes for eleven of this season’s 24 episodes are scattered throughout the collection. Presented in anamorphic widescreen, they run right around thirteen and a half minutes all told. There’s very little of note, with only a confrontation between Spencer and Jason over his support of Mona leaving much of an impression. For my own sinister purposes, I also appreciate a bit of foreshadowing about a certain someone’s mental state, but I’ll resist the urge to reveal more. Bwah-ha-ha! To tease and torment you further, alternate endings for “The Lady Killer” tease at two other possible Associates of mine to throw spoiler hounds off the scent. This footage runs a little over a minute.

Look on in terror as my prey humiliates themselves in a six minute gag reel! The featurette “Pretty Little Liars and the ‘A’ Network” spends fifteen minutes exploring various theories as to my identity, and it delves into clues about my minions that have been gingerly dropped throughout the series. Rounding out the extras are fourteen minutes of webisodes leading up to the Halloween special, all set in everyone’s favorite costume shop and giving some of Rosewood’s most unsavory characters a little more screentime before all Hell breaks loose!

summAry

A surprisingly hefty body count, many stinging betrayals, starcrossed romances, plenty of questionable fashion choices to text your besties about, friggin’ Toby in a flashback do’-rag…you might even say that Pretty Little Liars has brought itsA game this season, and who am I to argue

reAd more

If you want to read more of my domination of those pretty little bitches, perhaps you could consult DVD Talk’s reviews of season 1 and season 2.

Review:

We get it, Betty White, old people can be funny and foul-mouthed. “Golden Girls” was wonderful and we thanked you for being a “friend” in the ’80’s, but retirement called and it isn’t a fan of “Betty White’s Off Our Rockers” (where seniors play pranks on young people, who look utterly confused – “was I just punked by AARP” – after the seniors run off; they may as well have titled it “Stupid Old People Tricks”), either. While White does get a few laughs in a supporting role in this series, bring back the old Betty White.

Airing on TV Land (just try and find it), the series was produced by Suzanne Marin (“Frasier”) and Sean Hayes, taken from an original idea by famed producer Lynda Obst. The series – which feels like it would have been a better fit on Lifetime, WeTV or Oxygen – is, shall we say, comfortable.

It’s light and occasionally gets a good laugh, but it’s familiar. The original idea from Obst is not exactly a stretch: it follows three friends who are (by Hollywood standards) “over-the-hill” and decide after their plane makes an emergency stop in Cleveland that they’d like to continue to living there. The three are Melanie (Valerie Bertinelli), a writer; Jane (Jane Leeves), a cosmetics specialist who has gotten to the point where she feels like she could use a touch-up and finally, Victoria (Wendy Malick), a washed-up soap actress.

When they arrive in Cleveland, they rent a place from Elka (Betty White), a caretaker who, well, acts like she’s a quarter of her age. While the above would suggest otherwise, I don’t have anything against Betty White. She’s certainly played classic characters throughout her career, but there’s something different about the Betty White of now versus the “Golden Girls”-era White. In that series, White’s Rose character would occasionally let slip an unexpected one-liner, but there was a real, fairly three-dimensional character. The White of today is heavy-handed and one-joke (I’m a senior, but I still talk about sex and farting.)

“Cleveland” offers material that feels more “Designing Women” than the slicker comedies and reality programming of today and the simple visual style reinforces the feel. As I noted above, there’s something comfortable about the familiarity, and while “Cleveland” by no means is on the level of “Designing Women” or “Golden Girls”, there’s something nice about recalling an era where TV was…better Not dominated by reality TV

Maybe I’m not alone in that feeling, given that the series has attracted a surprising amount of guest stars for a smaller cable program, including Jennifer Love Hewitt, Joan Rivers, David Spade (very funny as a hairstylist), Jon Lovitz (who really should have his own show) and Susan Lucci. Again, “Cleveland” isn’t going to find a spot in the TV Hall of Fame, but hopefully it will show that there’s still a demand for the kind of comfort food that TV used to offer viewers way back when (well, way back about 25 years ago.)

Some of the highlights this season include: “Life With Lucci” (Victoria’s legendary enemy pays the group a visit), “Lost Loves” (the women decide to revisit their past using Facebook), “I’m With the Band” (Victoria tries to make a rock star jealous by dating his bandmate) and “Storage Wars”, where the girls make a surprising find.

33 3-01 301 30/Nov/11 Elka’s Choice
34 3-02 303 07/Dec/11 Beards
35 3-03 304 14/Dec/11 Funeral Crashers
36 3-04 305 21/Dec/11 Happy Fat
37 3-05 306 28/Dec/11 One Thing or a Mother
38 3-06 302 04/Jan/12 How Did You Guys Meet, Anyway
39 3-07 307 11/Jan/12 Two Girls and a Rhino
40 3-08 308 18/Jan/12 God and Football
41 3-09 309 25/Jan/12 Love Is Blind
42 3-10 310 01/Feb/12 Life With Lucci
43 3-11 311 08/Feb/12 I’m With the Band
44 3-12 312 15/Feb/12 Lost Loves
45 3-13 313 07/Mar/12 Tangled Web
46 3-14 315 14/Mar/12 Hot & Heavy
47 3-15 314 21/Mar/12 Rubber Ball
48 3-16 316 28/Mar/12 Everything Goes Better With Vampires
49 3-17 317 11/Apr/12 Claus, Tails & High Pitched Males:
50 3-18 318 18/Apr/12 Cruel Shoes
51 3-19 319 25/Apr/12 Bye George, I Think He’s Got It!
52 3-20 320 02/May/12 The Gateway Friend
53 3-21 322 09/May/12 Some Like It Hot
54 3-22 321 16/May/12 Storage Wars
55 3-23 324 30/May/12 What’s Behind the Door
56 3-24 323 06/Jun/12 Blow Outs

VIDEO: “Hot In Cleveland” is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The show looks a tad soft, but generally remained pleasant enough with no considerable flaws. Colors looked warm and inviting, with no smearing or other faults.

SOUND: Crisp, clean stereo audio.

EXTRAS: “Some Like It Hot” is an episode-length “behind-the-scenes” piece that was aired on the cable network. It offers a reasonably entertaining look at the production, with informative interviews and a few funny moments.
Final Thoughts: “Cleveland” really isn’t anything out of the ordinary, but it’s occasionally very funny and reasonably well-written. It’s comfort food, like TV used to make way back when…in the ’80’s. Why the show connects above its own material is that it really reminds me of how much I miss the television I grew up with. A light recommendation.

The Movie:

For those not familiar with the ‘Mount Rushmore’ exercise, one takes a topic like a sporting event, for instance, and has to pick the Top 4 people to symbolize said topic, much like the 4 faces on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. The goal of this is to stimulate discussion among peers and strangers alike, and possibly breed some familiarity among new people. When it comes to the Mount Rushmore of comedy, and not just American comedy, Richard Pryor has to be on that list of Top 4. To omit him is folly to the person doing this, to the point where said person should be shunned from society. Shout! Factory releasing what is likely the most complete set of Pryor’s work in one place, titled No Pryor Restraint helps illustrate how revered his material is.

The set is packaged in an approximate eight inch squared presentation about the size of a book, and includes seven CDs spanning Pryor’s standup from 1968 to his 1983 Here And Now show. And it also includes rereleased DVDs from Pryor’s three standup shows too: 1979’s Live In Concert, the famous 1982 show Live on the Sunset Strip and Here And Now. It also has a 60-page booklet full of information on these recordings, and remembrances of Pryor from family and friends. The discs are packaged similar to the recent Bond 50 set, with the discs housed in cardboard within a respective page. It is, to say the least, a hefty work for the vaunted comedian and performer.

As a previous owner of one of Pryor’s last boxed set of recordings (2000’s And It’s Deep Too!), I was mildly apprehensive to see this set on the horizon, as my feelings were that it could be a potential repackaging of his work. And to be fair to me, some of that occurs here, but to the credit of Pryor’s widow and former manager Jennifer, material from subsequent releases is included on this set as well, some of which from Deep, the other being 2005’s Evolution/Revolution, which spans Pryor’s work from 1966-1974 and is not part of Pryor’s catalog work from the Laff, Stax or Warner Brothers days. This work includes 1971’s album titled Craps. So yeah, there is overlap, though certainly not as much as one would expect. And including the three DVDs which had been in circulation for several years was a nice touch.

However, the discs do have a flaw that is more of an inconvenience than anything else. Rather than making a disc for each title, they tend to fade out from one album and fade into the next mid-disc sometime. This is evident in the early discs, where the listener goes from quieter club crowds to bigger halls as Pryor’s fame and popularity increased in the 1970s. I cannot stress enough this is not a detraction, just a distraction that I quickly got over, but wanted to point out for people.

The material itself Well if you have not seen or heard it, the hell are you waiting for There are some well-loved and legendary jokes and works here. The popular one people go to is Live on the Sunset Strip, and rightfully so. Recorded after his infamous incident when he burned himself while freebasing cocaine, Pryor discusses the incident, his rehabilitation from it, and even the jokes made about him during it. During all of this, he does it with his trademark quick cutting humor and poignancy thrown in. Pryor’s early work introduced us to various members of his neighborhood such as the vaunted Mudbone, and he uses some of the talents in illustrating those characters to

To me, just as good of a concert is his last released one, Here And Now. It had some of the same spirit that Sunset Strip did, though it appeared to have some more of the reflection of a post-drug, post-alcohol consuming Pryor that we may not have had in Sunset Strip. His bit on ‘Motif,’ a local junkie in his neighborhood, is mesmerizing in how sort of autobiographical it would appear to be. Pryor seemed to do things from time to time that was ‘maybe, but not really’ in tone but one could sense in Motif that this was his most personal character at the time. In looser moments such as the show’s coming and going of patrons from their seats and Pryor’s observations of and joking about them is sharp and full of wit we had come to appreciate about him at that time. At the time, Sunset Strip was hyped as a final performance of sorts for Pryor, but Here And Now serves as the better goodbye.

While Pryor’s recounting of his struggles with the law, his relationships and vices may be the focal point of his later work, his earlier work helped give a window into what black America was like for the white Americans going to see his shows. It showed them that everything was not as it appeared, and helped perhaps used their insecurity to tamp down any apprehensions they may have had to generally love one another regardless of race or social place, which would be something that hopefully a good chunk of us still have to this day.

It was a pleasure to go through Richard Pryor’s work again and experience how it transforms over the years. While everyone marvels at the work of contemporaries like Louis C.K., Tig Notaro and other comics of the moment, the fact that most if not all of these comics still cite Pryor as an influence is encouraging and impressive, decades after he ceased to perform. When comedian historians write the book if comedy ever no longer exists, the two most beautiful words in the book will continue to be Richard Pryor.

The Disc:
Video:

The concerts are presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, with the overall results being about what could be expected. Edge enhancement and image haloing is nil, and the film grain is easily prevalent during the viewing experience. Colors are reproduced as naturally as can be expected and while there are some bouts of crushing in some of the nightclub shows, taking into account the nature of the source material the film is conveyed as faithfully as can be.

Audio:

Dolby Digital mono for all of the DVDs. Considering the technology of the time and the genre I honestly was not expecting much more than what was here, and the audio does this. Dialogue sounds good, though the ‘hecklers’ in Here And Now were a tad hard to discern because of this. Also to be expected The lack of activity from the rears or subwoofer as is the case with a mono track. It is what it is.

Extras:

The Sunset Strip concert includes two television spots.

Final Thoughts:

No Pryor Restraint likely serves as the best and most complete release of Richard Pryor’s work that we have seen or will ever see, with the memorable jokes, funny looks and bathing of applause coming through the speakers and television loud and clear. Technically, it may not be anything to gawk at, but the material and the extras help give one an additional sense of value when poring over the material. If you have seen it, see it again, if you haven’t seen it, find it and go through this material; a boxed set of perhaps the greatest comic of all-time is worthy of it.

In 10 Words or Less
The road continues on to the Emerald Isle

Reviewer’s Bias*
Loves: Many of Kevin Smith’s movies, comedy podcasts
Likes: Kevin Smith, Jay Mewes, Jay & Silent Bob Get Old
Dislikes: Repetitive stories
Hates: The effects of drugs

The Story So Far…
Kevin Smith’s popular podcasting network features several shows hosted by the talkative filmmaker, but few of them are focused less on him than Jay & Silent Bob Get Old, a weekly series created mainly as a way to keep his wayward pal Jason Mewes from falling off the wagon after years of drug abuse. Telling stories and adding up the days sober, Mewes and his hetero lifemate take their show on the road frequently, including a tour of the United Kingdom, the first part of which was shown on the August 2012 DVD release Jay & Silent Bob Get Old: Tea Bagging in the UK. DVDTalk has a review available here.

The Show
While covering the New York ComicCon a few years ago, I had the option to stay late one night and attend a live recording of one of Kevin Smith’s podcasts or make my way back to the Long Island Railroad and the long commute home. I chose to get a jump on the train ride home, and when I heard about the fisco that was Smith’s appearance (including a very late start that was apparently out of his control) I was certainly happy about the choice I made. That feeling was only compounded when I eventually listened to the podcast, as I didn’t feel like I missed anything all that important by not being in the audience when it was recorded. However,people keep buying tickets, both here and abroad, as was the case on his 2012 tour of the United Kingdom, which has been captured on two DVD sets. This one focuses on the tour’s stop in Dublin.

The first show (episode #70 of the podcast) dives right into the local scene, as Smith and his pal Jason Mewes talk about legendarily endowed Dubliner Liam Neeson, the Irish holiday of Pancake Day and the Catholic observance of Lent. As usual though, it’s not long before the topic of sex is broached, as Mewes discusses how to have sex in a Mini-Cooper, but that soon segues into the real story here, which is Mewes’ teeth. A lack of oral hygiene resulted in a great deal of surgery, which is a problem for someone with a history of narcotics abuse, a topic near and dear to the series’ heart. Before wrapping things up, they guys give the Irish a chance to try their raunchy pantomime game, “Let Us F***k.”

The second show in Dublin (episode 71) returns to the same Ireland-friendly areas, talking about Ash Wednesday, altar boys and priests, while also talking about a popular mascot who shares a similarity with Smith, but instead of focusing on Mewes’ misadventures, this time their pal Malcolm gets the spotlight, as Mewes tells tales of Malcolm’s efforts to babysit the recovering addict. There are some very funny stories shared here, including an awkward encounter with some hookers and a nightclub fight with some celebrities (enhanced by a small bit of animation by Smith’s reisdent cartoonist Steve Stark.) Mewes is very physical in telling his stories, which is amusing to watch, but it’s really the rhythm between the two long-time pals that creates the laughs. This episode ends with a brief Q&A withe the audience, and the questions are some of the more thoughtful heard from a Smith audience.

That was all the Irish SmodCo had to offer, but they apparently still wanted to make it a two-disc set, so they threw in an old episode recorded on the road at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas in 2011 (episode 56.) It’s not a bad episode, focusing on aging (in terms of Mewes’ weight and Smith’s hair, as well as bathroom issues for each man and Mewes’ life-threatening attempts to score dope late at night. While it has a definite highlight in a story about Malcolm and a special red-velvet cake, the fact that it has nothing to do with the tour theme and doesn’t offer anything that would make it video-worthy outside of a cameo by former porn stars Katie Morgan and Cassie during an episode-ending “Let Us Act.”

The Discs
The three shows arrive on two DVDs, packed in a clear single-width, dual-hubbed keepcase. The discs feature anamorphic widescreen menus with options to play the shows and check out the extras. There are no audio options and no subtitles, but closed captioning is included.

The Quality
Considering the Ireland shows are from the same tour as the British ones, shot by the same team, it’s no surprise the quality is consistent between the releases, so once again, the anamorphic widescreen transfers are good at best, looking a touch soft, and missing out in terms of fine detail. Colors are appropriate (even on the harsh orange of Smith’s hockey jersey) and black levels are fine, though their pale faces tend to be a washed out. However, the Las Vegas episode is a slightly different, and unfortunately less successful story, looking even softer, while some of the angles are shaky and smudgy. On the plus side, none of the episodes have any real issues with compression artifacts.

Like last time, the audio is presented with Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks that are solid but simple and free of concerns, allowing you to hear the pair’s voices clearly and the Irish crowds as well. However, like with the video, the Las Vegas show is a step down, as you can barely hear the audience, which goes nicely with barely seeing them.

The Extras
The only extra is 10:23 of “Let Us F**k” action from the second show. There are some weird, rather lame performances, and much of the audience participation gets cut, but it’s most memorable for a bouncy (in all senses of the word) Merida-from-Brave stand-in who gets to sit-in for the entire game and a drunken lout who hammers Mewes into the stage.

The Bottom Line
With less animation than last time and an unrelated (and disappointingly captured) bonus episode thrown in to pad out the set, the return on investment here is less than with the previous set. The visual element just doesn’t add a lot to these episodes (the audio of which, as of this writing, is available for free online), the quality is just OK and there’s not much in terms of extra content. Like the previous release, this is one for hardcore fans, though it’s definitely worth checking out if you haven’t heard the podcasts.

Francis Rizzo III is a native Long Islander, where he works in academia. In his spare time, he enjoys watching hockey, writing and spending time with his wife, daughter and puppy.Check out 1106 – A Moment in Fictional Time or his convention blog called Conning Fellow

*The Reviewer’s Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer’s biases lie on the film’s subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.

The Movie:
Giallo (Italian thrillers popularized in the seventies) can be a difficult genre. Inconsistency, plot holes and general loopiness are found in even the best, and are something of a hallmark of the films. There are a huge number of them that are simply too out there and incomprehensible to be called great. Some few rise above the genre, such as the entries of Mario Bava or Dario Argento, to become something unique and interesting in its own right. Enzo Castellari’s Cold Eyes of Fear is one such film.

Peter (Gianni Garko) is a playboy British solicitor, living it up and indulging with call girls and strippers, and generally living the wild bachelor life. He lives with his uncle, Judge Biddle (Fernando Rey), a high profile magistrate. One evening, Peter brings home beautiful Italian prostitute Anna (Giovanna Ralli), intent on a frolicsome evening of fun. Unfortunately, at home they find common thug Quill (Julian Mateos), who along with his compatriot Welt (Frank Wolff) hold them hostage, while Welt searches for some of the judge’s papers, which have been hidden in the house. At first we think we have a good grip on who the good guys and the bad guys are, but as the film progresses, and we learn more about everyone involved, those clear cut lines begin to fade and blur.

This may sound like your standard issue caper / home invasion movie, and in a lot of superficial ways it is, but Castellari manages to make it visually, aurally and thematically interesting. He’s is a little more over the top in his directorial style than we are used to today, and even perhaps by the standards of giallo, but he gets his point across, and sets the mood admirably. His use of smash zooms is particularly artful, if such a thing can be said. Subtlety won’t be found here (at least not in the how the film looks), but visual melodrama certainly will. Lurid colors and odd angles only add to the hallucinatory effect, along with the actual hallucinations. Ennio Morricone’s schizophrenic score is constantly jangling away, keeping us keyed up and on the edge of our seats. It’s an audio / visual feast.

However, diverging somewhat from the normal giallo path, Castellari’s characters bear some resemblance to actual people. They’re nuanced and interesting, and even when they’re obsessed, we can understand why and sympathize. No one of them is all good or all bad. These aren’t cardboard cutouts, they’re fleshed out human beings. Even in the finer examples of the genre, this is a rarity. And it makes the viewer much more invested in the story, even while appreciating the normal outrageous spectacle. The actors are all professionals, and turn in solid performances, typical of films of the time and less naturalistic than what would be expected in a modern film, but still more subtle and genuine than in most of this type.

Cold Eyes of Fear has a lot in common with other gialli, but it separates itself from the common herd quite well. The addition of the vital ingredient of realistic and effective characterizations pushes it to the top of the genre. This is definitely one to see, especially for fans of Italian thrillers. Highly recommended.

The DVD

Video:
Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, and looks good for what it is – an early seventies, fairly low budget Italian film. Thus, there are lots of scratches, lens dirt, etc. on the transfer. However, the image is very bright and clear, and the deep, splashy colors are vibrant and well presented. This isn’t a perfect image, but it’s pretty good for the source material.

Sound:
Audio is Dolby digital 2 channel English, and sounds fairly good. Morricone’s score does its job and isn’t obscured, and all the dialogue is easily heard. No major hiss or other audio problem is discernible. No subtitles or alternate language tracks are available.

Extras:
The only extras are a decent theatrical trailer for the feature, and trailers for these other Redemption releases: Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Black Magic Rites, The Asphyx, The Comeback and Night of the Hunted.

Final Thoughts:
Cold Eyes of Fear looks lurid and melodramatic by today’s standards, but for the time it was a cut above the rest, at least in terms of giallo films. It has a tighter plot, better developed characters, more nuanced performances, more emotional impact, and deeper themes than most of its kind. Enjoy it for what it is, and it will be a pleasure.