DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com
.
Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main
SONY

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Pedro Almodovar
Cast:
Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia, Leonardo Sbaraglia
Writing Credits:
Pedro Almodovar

Synopsis:
A film director reflects on the choices he's made as past and present come crashing down around him.

Box Office:
Budget
$12 million.
Opening Weekend
$8,376,846 on 2062 Screens.
Domestic Gross
$22,055,313.

MPAA:
Rated R.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1
English Audio Descriptive Service
French Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
French
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English

Runtime:
113 min.
Price: $30.99
Release Date: 1/21/2020

Bonus:
• Q&A
• “In His Own Words” Featurette
• Trailer & Previews


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
-LG OLED65C6P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV
-Marantz SR7010 9.2 Channel Full 4K Ultra HD AV Surround Receiver
-Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu-Ray Player
-Chane A2.4 Speakers
-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


Pain and Glory [Blu-Ray] (2019)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (February 2, 2020)

Noted filmmaker Pedro Almodovar returns via 2019’s Pain and Glory. Here he pairs with long-time collaborator Antonio Banderas for the first time since 2013’s I’m So Excited.

Aging filmmaker Salvador Mallo (Banderas) finds himself in declining health. He also struggles to create vital new work, a fact that hits home when his beloved early movie Sabor gets re-released.

As Mallo attempts to cope with these issues, he reconnects with Alberto Crespo (Asier Etxeandia). The star of Sabor, Crespo also finds himself far from his peak, so the men experience common woes.

Mallo suffers from chronic pain, so when Crespo introduces him to heroin, he quickly takes to the narcotic. As Mallo tries to move forward, he also has visions of his past that influence his present.

Banderas earned his initial fame in the US due to his work with Almodovar, but obviously the actor became much better-known here than the director did. Oh, Almodovar received cult attention and love from some film buffs – along with a Screenplay Oscar for 2002’s Hable con ella - but he never broke through to the American mainstream.

Though unlike other Spanish-language filmmakers such as Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro and Alejandro González Iñárritu, I don’t get the sense Almodovar ever really tried to make that shift. Perhaps he attempted to “go Hollywood” and US studios didn’t want him, but whatever the case, he stayed with Spanish productions.

Given its story of a filmmaker in decline, it seems somewhat ironic that Glory netted Almodovar his biggest US success in years. No, it didn’t make much money here, but it got a lot of positive attention and earned Banderas his first-ever Oscar nomination.

Both the film and Banderas prove worthwhile, though I don’t think they merit the praise they’ve accumulated. An erratic piece, Glory varies from engaging and memorable to flat and forgettable in nearly equal measure.

All at once Glory feels too long and too short. For what we see, the movie tends to seem excessively elongated, as we get stuck in scenes that lack much impact or apparent purpose too much of the time.

On the other hand, I get the impression Glory would benefit from a much longer cut that would allow its themes and characters more room to breathe. With added material to flesh out the wide-ranging story, the segments I don’t much like as-is could connect in a more natural way and not feel as out of place within a broader context.

Glory often feels like a few movies crammed into one. We get the aging artist who copes with his mortality and decreased creativity as well as childhood memories and reflections on life choices.

Any one of these could create its own full-length tale, and this means none of them really get their due. Various notions and themes come and go so quickly, we never latch onto them the way we should.

In particular, I think the flashbacks to young Salvador (Asier Flores) and his mother Jacinta (Penélope Cruz) suffer the most from their brevity. These provide the movie’s most intriguing elements, as we see the formative years of Salvador’s life, but they don’t take up enough cinematic real estate to fulfill.

Almodovar manages to connect the dots between old Salvador and young well enough, but I still can’t help but feel the movie gives us too much of a rough sketch. We just don’t dig into the various elements well enough to allow for much dimensionality.

This persists with other domains as well, as Glory tends to take on an episodic air. Occasionally it feels like a mini-series edited down to 113 minutes, as the sections can seem somewhat independent of each other and not as well-realized as I’d like.

All of this leaves us with an oddly unaffecting semi-memoir. We get an impression of the important moments in Salvador’s life but without much real power or emotional charge. Glory comes with occasional moments that succeed, but the end result becomes too scattered to fully work.


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B-/ Bonus C+

Pain and Glory appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. No real concerns cropped up here.

Overall sharpness seemed positive. I noticed a smidgen of softness in the occasional wide shot, but most of the movie looked tight and precise.

Neither jagged edges nor moiré effects impacted the presentation, and edge haloes remained absent. In addition, print flaws failed to appear.

Colors went with a fairly broad bent, which came as a relief given how often we get orange and teal these days. The hues looked vivid and lively.

Blacks appeared deep and dense, while low-light shots brought nice clarity and delineation. Only the minor softness kept the image below “A”-level.

Don’t expect fireworks from the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack – well, except for the handful of shots that featured actual fireworks. Those acted as arguably the broadest use of the soundscape, for they flowered around the room.

Otherwise, this chatty movie lacked much to utilize the various channels. Music provided nice involvement and we got a decent sense of environment, but outside of those fireworks, I’d be hard-pressed to find any scenes that used the speakers to great impact,

Two bonus pieces appear here, and we open with a Q&A that features director Pedro Almodovar, producer Augustin Almodovar, composer Alberto Iglesias and actor Antonio Banderas.

In this 33-minute, 10-second session, we learn about the film’s origins and development, story/character areas and biographical elements, cast, characters and performances, sets and locations and music.

We get a decent array of insights, but I can’t claim this turns into a great overview of the project. Many Q&As like this tend to remain somewhat superficial, and that holds true for this moderately useful but unexceptional piece.

In His Own Words runs 25 minutes, 45 seconds and includes remarks from Almodovar. He discusses his youth and influences, his use of color, his approach to gender, sexuality and reality, working with Banderas and Penelope Cruz, his relationships with women, and autobiography in Glory.

Almodovar proves more revealing here than during the Q&A. He provides a good collection of thoughts and insights to make this a worthwhile interview.

The disc opens with ads for The Song of Names, Frankie, David Crosby: Remember My Name, The Traitor, After the Wedding and Maiden. We also get a trailer for Glory.

A semi-autobiographical work from Pedro Almodovar, Pain and Glory works in spurts. I think the movie bites off more than it can chew, however, so too much of it feels abbreviated and undeveloped. The Blu-ray comes with very good picture, adequate audio and two moderately useful interview programs. I think there’s a strong story to be told here if Glory had more time to explore its topics.

Viewer Film Ratings: 2.5 Stars Number of Votes: 2
05:
04:
1 3:
12:
01:
View Averages for all rated titles.

.
Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main