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Last of the Blonde Bombshells, The
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie
Last of the Blonde Bombshells is a quaint and interesting HBO movie that casually made its way to DVD recently. Judi Dench is Elizabeth, an elderly woman experiencing a crisis of identity after the death of her husband. She finds herself fondly looking back upon the time she spent as the lead saxophonist for a WWII era band called the Blond Bombshells. After a chance encounter with the only male member (Ian Holm) of the band confirms her feelings, the two start on a quest to bring the band back together for one last gig.
What's interesting about this film is its portrayal of the roles that children, adults and senior play in society. Parents are expected to raise their children to the best potential, but why do they insist on taking the same attitude with their own parents when they reach a certain age. This movie does a fine job of displaying Elizabeth's disgust with her children's insistence of what she should and should not do in order to get over the death of her late husband. It's also funny to note that her children place the same stigma of her being a musician and hanging around a like crowd as they would if it were their own children.
In the end she displays the courage to admit that she hasn't always enjoyed life and isn't too proud to do what it takes to rectify that situation and relive what were likely the happiest, most fulfilling moments in her life.
The DVD
The Video: Seeing as how this was a made for cable film, the video displays all of the clarity you would expect for not being an old and out of date print or negative. The video is presented in a letterboxed 1:85.1 ratio and is an overall good transfer. The color palate of the film is a little muted, but perhaps this is from the English setting instead of the actual transfer. The flashback scenes involving the bright red Bombshell costumes look good.
The Audio: The audio portion of the disc was a little disappointing. It sounds good, but is presented in only a Dolby Surround mix. At least the digital quality still presents a sharpness and volume that is more than acceptable. Still, there is nothing like a good musical film encoded with a great surround track. So much can be done with concert audio and Dolby Digital.
Menu: Fairly standard pick-and-choose setup incorporating scenes from the movie.
Extras: I'm really disappointed when a film tries to pass itself off as having extras when in reality it has none. The subtitles and language selections do not count. Cast and Crew Bios are nice at times, especially when I'm not familiar with many of the cast, as is the case here. On that note, make the text easily readable. There was too much jammed onto each screen, combine that with the inherent unreadable nature of a TV screen and it became a painful and frustrating experience read the information.
Finally: Good movie, but only a bare bones disc and that works fine for this disc. Considering this was on HBO the same time I was watching the DVD, my suggestion is to just keep your eyes open on a rainy Sunday afternoon and see if you can find this movie on.
Last of the Blonde Bombshells is a quaint and interesting HBO movie that casually made its way to DVD recently. Judi Dench is Elizabeth, an elderly woman experiencing a crisis of identity after the death of her husband. She finds herself fondly looking back upon the time she spent as the lead saxophonist for a WWII era band called the Blond Bombshells. After a chance encounter with the only male member (Ian Holm) of the band confirms her feelings, the two start on a quest to bring the band back together for one last gig.
What's interesting about this film is its portrayal of the roles that children, adults and senior play in society. Parents are expected to raise their children to the best potential, but why do they insist on taking the same attitude with their own parents when they reach a certain age. This movie does a fine job of displaying Elizabeth's disgust with her children's insistence of what she should and should not do in order to get over the death of her late husband. It's also funny to note that her children place the same stigma of her being a musician and hanging around a like crowd as they would if it were their own children.
In the end she displays the courage to admit that she hasn't always enjoyed life and isn't too proud to do what it takes to rectify that situation and relive what were likely the happiest, most fulfilling moments in her life.
The DVD
The Video: Seeing as how this was a made for cable film, the video displays all of the clarity you would expect for not being an old and out of date print or negative. The video is presented in a letterboxed 1:85.1 ratio and is an overall good transfer. The color palate of the film is a little muted, but perhaps this is from the English setting instead of the actual transfer. The flashback scenes involving the bright red Bombshell costumes look good.
The Audio: The audio portion of the disc was a little disappointing. It sounds good, but is presented in only a Dolby Surround mix. At least the digital quality still presents a sharpness and volume that is more than acceptable. Still, there is nothing like a good musical film encoded with a great surround track. So much can be done with concert audio and Dolby Digital.
Menu: Fairly standard pick-and-choose setup incorporating scenes from the movie.
Extras: I'm really disappointed when a film tries to pass itself off as having extras when in reality it has none. The subtitles and language selections do not count. Cast and Crew Bios are nice at times, especially when I'm not familiar with many of the cast, as is the case here. On that note, make the text easily readable. There was too much jammed onto each screen, combine that with the inherent unreadable nature of a TV screen and it became a painful and frustrating experience read the information.
Finally: Good movie, but only a bare bones disc and that works fine for this disc. Considering this was on HBO the same time I was watching the DVD, my suggestion is to just keep your eyes open on a rainy Sunday afternoon and see if you can find this movie on.
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