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Released by: Mill Creek Entertainment
Released on: May 15, 2012.
Director: Annabel Jankel, Rocky Morgan
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Daniel Stern
Year: 1988
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The Movie:
Touchstone Pictures' 1988 remake of the classic Edmond O'Brien 1950 noir stars Dennis Quaid as an English professor named Dexter Cornell. Though at one point in his life he was a successful author, he's lost the passion for his work, and in turn his marriage to wife Gail (Jane Kaczmarek), who has just filed for divorce. When one of his students, Nicholas Lang (Robert Knepper) commits suicide shortly after Dexter admits to him that he hasn't read the book he submitted to him, things start to get complicated. Dexter goes out to a bar (where Timbuk 3 are playing live on stage!) and wakes up in the dorm room of one of his students, Sydney Fuller (Meg Ryan). When he isn't feeling well he goes to the doctor only to find out what he figured was a bad hangover is actually a poisoning. Someone has basically murdered him and he's only got twenty-four to forty-eight hours to life.
He decides to try and make things right with his wife and arrives just in time to see her murdered. As the bodies pile up around him and his time starts running out, Dexter, with some help from Sydney and his fellow teacher Hal Petersham (Daniel Stern), tries to figure out who not only who poisoned him but why and how it could possibly relate to Nick's death and what a woman named Mrs. Fitzwaring (Charlotte Rampling) and her daughter Cookie (Robin Johnson) have to do with all of this.
Although the movie takes almost half an hour to find its pace, this version of D.O.A. is nothing if not entertaining. Dennis Quaid is great in the role, playing his acerbic character with enough charm that you're able to like him without losing sight of the fact that he is, in all reality, a bit of an asshole. He drinks too much, he uses his smart wit as a weapon, and he is occasionally deceitful. He does, however, make for an interesting lead character here and Quaid does well with the part. Meg Ryan, who shares top billing, is here more for comic relief than anything else - she doesn't add that much and her character pops up a little bit too conveniently to save the day at one point but she's bubbly and smiley and hard to seriously dislike. Jane Kaczmarek, now forever branded as the mom on Fox's Malcolm In The Middle, delivers a very solid supporting role here as does Daniel Stern, who you can't help but associate with Home Alone. Charlotte Rampling's character is also well played while Robin Johnson is just sort of goofy here. All do fine with their parts, however, and overall the movie is rather well acted.
There's also a lot of interesting style here. Some bizarre camera angles to a good job of relaying what Dexter is going through as the movie plays out and pay attention to the use of color, or the lack thereof, that occurs throughout the movie (though the symbolism here is hard to miss, it still works). The end result is a slick, stylish movie that offers some good tension, some fine acting, and some fairly clever humor as well. Don't go into this one needing to take it completely seriously and you'll have a good time with it.
Video/Audio/Extras:
D.O.A. looks good, not amazing but good, in this AVC encoded 1080p high definition 1.78.1 widescreen transfer from Mill Creek. While it seems obvious more cleanup work could have been done, detail is definitely improved over previous releases and color reproduction looks pretty good. Some shots are softer than others, likely stemming back to how the movie was shot and how it was intended to look, but texture looks fine and skin tones are decent. Black levels are generally strong if not quite reference quality - all in all, this is a perfectly fine looking image.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo track, there are no alternate language options or subtitles though English closed captioning is available. There are no problems to report here - the dialogue is clean and clear, the levels sound like they're balanced properly and there are no issues with hiss or distortion. A surround sound remix might have been fun for a few scenes but what's here is perfectly acceptable.
The only extra on the disc is the film's trailer, presented in fullframe. Menus and chapter selection are also included.
The Final Word:
While this remake of the classic noir D.O.A. in no way improves on the original, it does make for a fun time killer. Quaid is fun in the lead and there are a few nice twists and turns as the plot unfolds. Mill Creek's Blu-ray can currently be had for less than six dollars - given that, and the fact that it looks and sounds pretty good, it's easy to recommend this, even if it is a bit of a guilty pleasure.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
