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Miami Blues

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    Ian Jane
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  • Miami Blues



    Released by: Shout! Factory
    Released on: April 28th, 2015.
    Director: George Armitage
    Cast: Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Fred Ward
    Year: 1990
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Movie:

    Produced by Jonathan Demme, George Armitage's 1990 big screen adaptation of Charles Willeford's novel Miami Blues begins with a scene where a murderer named Frederick Frenger Jr. (Alec Baldwin) is released from a long stint in prison. He takes a flight to Miami in hopes of starting over and, after killing a Hare Krishna (Ed Saxon), quickly finds himself involved with a gullible young prostitute named Susie Waggoner (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who dreams of a normal life. She's not going to find it with psychopathic Frenger but she falls for him as he basically goes on a crime spree and soon enough they're married.

    Of course, the local cops have no choice but to investigate the earlier killing that we know Frenger was responsible for. The man in charge of the operation is an aging cop named Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward), but Hoke's got problems of his own - alimony, bad teeth and a job he's finding increasingly tiresome. An encounter with Frenger leaves Hoke in the hospital and the killer on the streets with his badge and gun - even his false teeth! But the real cop isn't just going to take all of that lying down, and he borrows his landlord's gun to head back onto the streets and settle the score. This is going to get… messy.

    As Junior, Alec Baldwin is as charming a snake as you're likely to see in a mainstream Hollywood film. He's got loads of charisma and he uses it well, leaving us no doubt as to the likelihood of his abilities to woo naí¯ve Susie in the film. He also handles the tough guy part of the movie well, showing no mercy and killing when and how he sees fit. He enjoys the violence that his series of crimes, some more petty than others, bring to him. Jennifer Jason Leigh is quite good here too, playing the young hooker well and you can't help but feel for her as Junior uses her the way he uses everyone else in the movie. Her feelings for him seem genuine and she really doesn't seem to know any better. When he steps up and gets her a house, getting her one step closer to the ever elusive American dream, she's his - hook, line and sinker. Fred Ward steals a few scenes here too. As the weary detective with the false teeth he gives Hoke Moseley an unlikely type of screen presence for a character that is essentially a hero cop. All three of the leads here deliver excellent work. Charles Napier has a fun supporting role here too.

    The movie does a great job of exploiting its locations, making Miami a 'character' in the movie the way that a lot of films shot in seventies and eighties era New York City do. Everything in the movie feels hot, humid, sweaty and sometimes just a little unclean. That makes it the perfect playground for Junior to bully his way across, the seemingly warm and friendly exterior doing a poor job of hiding the city's dirty underbelly. Add to this some seriously slick cinematography and an interesting and effective score and Miami Blues remains a consistently entertaining and engaging film. It wasn't a huge box office smash when it played theaters a quarter of a century ago - maybe it was too dark for audiences to connect with - but it earned and has since retained its cult following. And rightly so, as it's one of the best crime films of its day.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Miami Blues debuts on Blu-ray framed at 1.85.1 widescreen in AVC encoded 1080p high definition and by and large is looks quite good in HD indeed. Some minor compression artifacts creep into some of the darker scenes but much of the outdoor footage shot during the day time has a nice, colorful warmth to it. Detail is good but occasionally a little soft, probably stemming back to the original photography, while skin tones and color reproduction are quite nice. Black levels are decent and there are no problems with any obvious noise reduction or edge enhancement.

    The audio chores are handled by an LPCM 2.0 Stereo mix in English with optional subtitles provided in English only. This is a fine track, offering clean, clear dialogue and strong, punch sound effects. The score has good depth and range to it and some of the more action-intensive scenes in the film really benefit from the lossless audio - the gunshots have some serious weight behind them, for example.

    Aside from a theatrical trailer, menus and chapter selection the disc also includes twenty-six minutes of interviews with stars Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Interviewed separately they discuss their experiences working on the film, working on the Miami locations, the involvement of producer Johnathan Demme, some of their co-stars, director George Armitage and a fair bit more.

    The Final Word:

    Miami Blues holds up well, it's a tense and occasionally darkly comedic crime picture that benefits from three solid lead performances, some slick camerawork and some really effective location shooting. Shout! Factory brings the film to Blu-ray with a solid presentation and almost a half an hour's worth of illuminating interviews with the leads. A fine release for a seriously underrated and under-appreciated movie.

    Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!




















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