Review Jade [VHS]

Jade [VHS] Best Review

Five stars for William Friedkin's JADE, a masterful thriller that is gorgeous to look at but presented in an underwhelming edition by Lionsgate. The disc has a fair amount of grain all over it that descends into little more than digital noise in a couple of scenes, most notably the scene in the morgue and the climatic night/fight scene.
These scenes turn outrageously snowy/grainy and there is no excuse for this kind of a shoddy transfer. Making matters more sad, the rest of the disc looks pretty good and there are several scenes that are as beautiful as anything out on bluray (except AVATAR of course). It is a shame there is no consistancy in the picture quality of this disc. Also noteworthy is the excellent new 5.1 DTS-HD audio that really packs a lot of punch and puts you right in the middle of the action. Rear speakers blast during the spectacular car chase sequence. The disc retains the classic artwork that has appeared on every edition and movie poster for the film. The only extra on the disc is a poorly presented theatrical trailer.

It should be noted that this edition includes ONLY the THEATRICAL CUT of the film and not the much longer (and more explicit) directors cut. With all the much hyped superior storage capacity of bluray it seems ridiculous that studios are consistently failing to put multiple cuts of a film on a disc.

JADE has never been a popular film and has not even developed a cult following so I'm surprised that it has made its way onto bluray at all. I'm very glad it did but I wish it had been handled with a bit more care. This entire presentation is a bit slapdash. Still, I only paid for it at Walmart so I can't complain too much. The overall quality is a step up from the DVD edition and well worth the price at Walmart, although I would think twice about paying much more than for it.

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Jade [VHS] Overview

Neither director William Friedkin nor star David Caruso could redeem this vulgar, nasty script by Joe Eszterhas. Caruso is a politically ambitious assistant D.A. investigating the gruesome murder of a San Francisco bigwig. Too many clues point in the direction of his former girlfriend (Linda Fiorentino), a shrink who has a secret sideline as call girl to the rich and kinky. For good measure, she's now married to Caruso's best friend, Chazz Palminteri. Friedkin has done much better work in other places; even he can't perform much magic here, though he tries, with a solid car chase (that suffers in comparison to those he staged in French Connection and To Live and Die in L.A.). --Marshall Fine

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Customer Reviews

Good! - Kanji - JPN
This blu-lay quality is clearer and vivider than DVD's.
Like many fans,I'm dissatisfied at not containing unrated version.
But I welcome this blu-lay because I'm fanatical collector about Billy Friedkin's works. His intencive vision is always novel for every generation.






Why are Blu-rays chinching us on the longer versions? - Charles R. Bright - Springfield, IL USA
This was a movie I absolutely loved (though dated) when it originally came out. It had the edge of "Basic Instinct" and of course the hot girl. But this is the second Blu-ray I've bought in two days, where the Blu-ray doesn't contain the director's (extended footage) cut (as in the just released "The Natural") and now this. I do own the unrated VHS version (107 minutes long, and the studio gives us a crappy R-rated version (95 minutes long). This Blu-ray is also going back to the store with the other one. What is the deal! Blu-rays can store more data on them, so again, there is absolutely no reason (in the case where there is both an R-rated version and an Unrated version) that we should not be offered BOTH versions on the one disc. You have the room for it--put them on there studios. A couple more duds like these and I will be through buying Blu-rays. And a heads up for the studios--please don't have the audacity to offer only one of the versions of Last of the Mohicans when it comes out. The extended version has more action, but the original one has the footage with the one song cut out in the extended version. We need both.



Not a great Blu, but a decent improvement - Steve Kuehl - Ben Lomond, CA
I had no expectations as Paramount typically does some kind of DNR thingy with their 80s/90s titles, so I was just hoping to see a nice preservation of some Bay Area locales. By the time the credits rolled on this theatrical BD cut, I wasn't disappointed, it just had some serious issues.

Admittedly, I enjoyed watching this Basic Instinct clone (at last count there were 28 identical/similar characters, scenes, etc.), so between the sights, characters and score I felt sure Michael Douglas was going to cameo any second, but Loreena Mckennitt's The Mummers' Dance version of Mystic's Dream adds a nice feel throughout (although misplaced in half the scenes). The end result is laughable, but I figure one is reading this to hear about the BD.

The picture quality is vastly improved over the other products available; The colors have been enriched, the majority of artifact has been removed, the flesh tones have been glorified and depending on the camera being used - the views of the Bay Area show a decent time capsule preservation from 94/95. The cons: The resulting edge fuzz is prevalent, there is TONS of grain on most of the interiors, and the intermittent artifact/film fade pops up in some irritating spots. Overall - a decent upgrade but there is still plenty to pick apart.

The sound is a mixed bag. The DTS felt like it was forced as the outer channels were getting used heavily, even in the smallest of scenes, to the point where is was mixed incorrectly a few times. The vocals were drowned out in some of the louder sequences by outer channel garbage, and there were a couple of scenes where the post-production must have missed the timing (lips clearly not matching the words). The score sounds clear though, and any time Mckennitt sings you almost wish for a music-only track.

The only special feature is the original trailer which shows how bad the film looked (with a few brief clips of what must be in the Director's Cut). Region coded A. I cannot give this a higher rating as a BD because it had too many technical failings, no special features, and no director's cut.

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