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Hard Rain
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Lions Gate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Ethan Stevenson (21st March 2010). |
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The Film
 As I look at my front yard, a place once covered in lush green grass, now barren and mostly dirt, I wonder who to blame. You see, in my county there’s a lovely water shortage, and legally I’m only allowed to water my lawn 2 days a week. Sure, I could be that asshole neighbor who waters whenever I feel like it, or even sneak an extra day or two in every week watering in the dark, but I’m just not that sort of guy. No, I’d rather just let by lawn die and someday Xeriscape the front and backyards. It’s better for the environment anyway – and more natural to my climate… But, still I wonder whom should I blame for my imposed water rationing? The obvious answer is my insolent mayor, and the ineffective city counsel, but, actually, today I came to the conclusion that two films from the late 90's – James Cameron’s “Titanic” (1997) and Mikael Salomon’s “Hard Rain” – are at fault. Together these too pictures certainly wasted so much water that they alone are still affecting the world’s supply of H20 even a decade-and-change on. Of course I jest. However, watching “Hard Rain” today for the first time in maybe ten years, I realized, or more that I forgot, just how much water they funneled onto those sound stages and locations – an astronomically comical amount. It’s quite frankly of biblical proportions and that’s probably not unintentional. Why do I say that? Because, as you may not be too surprised to learn, “Hard Rain’s” original title was actually “The Flood.” Set for a big summer release in 1997 and supposed to be directed by John Woo (who later backed out), the story, written by Graham Yost, concerns the heist of an armored car’s cargo – somewhere in the ballpark of three-million dollars – by a rag-tag group of criminals, during what has to be one of the biggest rainstorms in recorded history. Christian Slater plays Tom, the armored car guard, who is desperately trying to keep the money entrusted to him out of the thieves' hands – led by Jim (Morgan Freeman) – hands. Sitting somewhere in the middle is Randy Quaid (his character is simply called Sheriff and has no name), who wants to help Tom, but also eyes that three million with lust. A strong cast of supporting actors include Minnie Driver as Tom’s love interest, Ed Asner, Dann Florek and the always fun Betty White in a scene-stealing cameo as a shotgun wielding grandma. Unfortunately a disastrous test screening threw Paramount execs into a panic, forcing the film into reshoots, which cause the film to be pushed back for a mid-January debut the following year. They even retitled the picture “Hard Rain” after audiences complained that they thought “The Flood” was primarily going to be a disaster flick. 1998’s “Hard Rain” comes from the later half of the three or so year span when Christian Slater was being groomed as the next great action star/leading man in Hollywood. Trying to break away from his pop-teen persona of the late 80's and early 90's – which had been solidified by stints in films like “The Young Guns II” (1990), “Mobsters” (1991) and his quintessential turn as the sociopath J.D. in Michael Lehmann’s “Heathers” (1988), Slater tried to spice up his resume by appearing in a few lesser action flicks, culminating in his dual billing along side John Travolta in John Woo’s “Broken Arrow” (1996). Unfortunately, with “Hard Rain’s” miserable reviews, meager box office and near-no-faith in the project from studio executives, Slater’s brief time as an A-lister came to a close (and he faded into obscurity for years, only to recently resurface on television and in smaller film projects). Honestly? Not at all surprised that this film failed, because it’s not good. It’s dumb, absurd, poorly written and, at times, laughably directed. But, you know what else? “Hard Rain” is ridiculously good fun, once you put yourself in the right mindset. Is it stupid? Yeah, sort of. Is it a middling heist flick? You bet. Is it unwatchable though? Not in the slightest. Some of the dialogue, including Randy Quaid’s diatribish-monologue, full of inane “shit eating” randomness, and a throwaway secondary character’s supposedly profound quotations of scripture, are laughably inept. The script is full of unexpected (yet familiar), totally outlandish twists. Salomon’s direction – gratuitous use of slow-mo and canted shots, over ambitious special effects, and a pointless shaky-cam accompanying ridiculously relentless gun fire – just adds to the camp factor. But, “Hard Rain” is the sort of film that’s so over-the-top, so silly, so cliché, that it circles back from being terrible moviemaking and becomes an incredibly enjoyable experience once again. It’s not so much that it’s so bad that it’s good – not quite anyway. More like “Hard Rain” is so implausible, so contrived, so accentuated and ridiculous – from its too-choreographed jet-ski chase, inappropriate fire ball explosions, exaggerated muzzle flashes and outrageous, crazed characters (I’m particularly thinking of Quaid’s Sheriff here) – that you have no choice but to like it. At least that’s the way I see it. Is “Hard Rain” a good movie? Hardly. But it’s far from being unentertaining.
Video
Of the three budget-conscious Blu-ray editions of ex-Paramount films to hit high-definition recently thanks to Lionsgate Home Entertainment (boy, that’s a mouthful), I’d say that “Hard Rain” falls somewhere in the middle of the pack. The clear winner of the trio is Simon Wincer’s “The Phantom” (1996) which, although burdened with a somewhat worn print full of speckles and dirt, is merrily free of needless electronic tinkering and looks nicely filmic, besting it’s DVD counterpart in everyway. The Wesley Snipes vehicle “Drop Zone” (1994) looks the worst of the three, with definite DNR use, noticeably frozen grain patterns, flat contrast, frequent softness, a grimy print, and some harsh over-sharpening. “Hard Rain”, packaged here with a 2.40:1 widescreen 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 transfer, does show a few signs of print damage, a tiny bit of intrusive DNR and some needless edge-enhancement – however, on the plus side, all of those niggles are spotty at best, and not nearly as bothersome as they could be. “Hard Rain” is clearly not a knock out catalogue disc. It never was a particularly striking film even in theaters, but I will say that the Blu-ray lays waste to the original Paramount DVD, which was an ugly non-anamorphic thing, full of compression artifacts and featuring an extra-dreary, miserable image. This new Blu-ray sports vastly improved detail and compression, often-excellent fine detail, strong (if sometimes overwhelming) black levels and decent contrast. “Hard Rain” is a film that takes place almost entirely at night, during the strongest rain storm this side of the deluge that Noah faced, so it goes without saying that this wasn’t going to ever be a reference quality picture, even if it were sporting a brand new 4K remaster. With oppressive black levels, a (basically) colorless palette and the persistent torrential downpour of water invading every scene, it just isn’t going to stand up to the likes of the latest, greatest demo discs. But, even with a bit of processing present, I do think the disc is pretty close to the original intentions of the filmmakers. It’s an average looking disc for sure, but fans of the film will certainly find an upgrade from their hopeless DVD's, which this new HD rendering will make look like tattered VHS (and for once that isn’t hyperbole – the Region 1 DVD of “Hard Rain” is shit).
Audio
With it’s English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz/24-bit) track, “Hard Rain” gets a top of the line soundtrack for it’s high-def home video debut. Although the film sounds good, indeed even great at times, I think the full breadth of the available 8-channels is wasted somewhat. Rarely, if ever, does the film’s sound design wander into the additional two channels afforded by the 7.1 mix, which is sort of expected considering that “Hard Rain” was originally mixed with 5.1 sound in mind. For a majority of it’s runtime the film stays confined to the front three channels – dialogue coming from the center, and sound effects via the left and right – and occasionally water droplets and creaking whatevers populate the rears. Thunder claps; shotgun blasts, explosions and a persistent inundation of rain appear throughout frequently providing some much needed LFE response. Dialogue is clear and precise, never overshadowed by other elements of the mix and Christopher Young’s score (which I never noticed before, sounds exactly like a theme from “24” (2001-Present)) accents the whole package nicely. This is a good sounding disc, just not a great (reference quality) one. Subtitles are offered in English, English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
Like the other Paramount-Lionsgate titles that were recently released – “The Phantom” and “Drop Zone” – “Hard Rain” arrives with but one lowly bonus; a mediocre theatrical trailer (SD) which runs for 2 minutes 31 seconds. For whatever reason (likely licensing, I'm sure) the "Making of" featurette and cast interviews found on other Region 2 editions of the film weren't carried over. However, as this is a Region A release it makes sense that the Blu-ray would replicate the R1 DVD which was trailer laden but otherwise barebones. A pre-menu “Also From Lionsgate” bonus trailer (also accessible in the special features menu) runs exactly 1 minute in length and is encoded in 1080p high definition. Additionally “Hard Rain” has a bookmark feature.
Packaging
The film comes to Blu-ray as part of a recent distribution deal between Paramount and Lionsgate Home Entertainment, the latter of which has licensed many of the formers lesser-known catalog titles for home video. “Hard Rain” arrives with relatively little fanfare, on a single layer BD-25 and packaged inside an Elite Eco-Box case. The Blu-ray disc is locked to Region A.
Overall
“Hard Rain” sits firmly in the guilty pleasure camp for me – as do most of the Lionsgate titles released in their February wave (“The Running Man” (1987) anyone?). It’s not a great movie, and the dialogue is beyond corny most of the time, as is the over-done action and direction, but still, the film is a fun, innocuous affair. This new Blu-ray offers a clear upgrade over the ancient R1 DVD release, with improved widescreen video and thunderous lossless audio. The lack of extras is unfortunate, but a low price point makes up for that little oversight.
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