THE SHADOW (1994) Blu-ray
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Umbrella Entertainment

THE SHADOW knows what evil lurks in the heart of men, and Umbrella Entertainment's region free Blu-ray gives viewers a chance to reevaluate this 1990s superhero film.

Debonair socialite Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin, MALICE) returns to New York after a seven year absence following the First World War. A wealthy man of no employment and no hobbies, his secretive nature hides not only the alter ego of Tibetan opium despot Ying-Ko, but also "The Shadow", a superhero with the power to cloud men's minds born out of Ying-Ko's redemption by high priest Tulku (Brady Tsurutani, COME SEE THE PARADISE). Under the nose of his police commissioner uncle Wainwright (Jonathan Winters, MOON OVER PARADOR), Cranston foils foes and recruits agents from those whose lives he saves including his regular cab driver Moe (Peter Boyle, YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN) and, more recently, physics professor Dr. Tam (Sab Shimono, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES III). Cranston is troubled when he makes the acquaintance of bombshell Margo Lane (Penelope Ann Miller, THE RELIC), who has the unwanted ability to read minds, and vows not to see her again. It seems their meeting was fated however when Shiwan Khan (John Lone, M. BUTTERFLY, THE LAST EMPEROR) – last descendent of Genghis Kahn (in whose coffin he shipped himself stateside while absorbing his ancestor's energy) – arrives in New York with the goal of conquering the world and needs the implosive device being developed by Margo's father (Ian McKellan, X-MEN) to create an atomic bomb.

THE SHADOW was no masterpiece when it came out back in 1994, but now it is a thoroughly entertaining and strikingly beautiful film that leaves one both nostalgic for classic Hollywood filmmaking thanks to Stephen H. Burum's (BODY DOUBLE) lighting which treats close-ups of Baldwin and Lone just as lovingly as those of Miller, as well as the early nineties when the period backdrops and buildings on view here were achieved with matte paintings and hyper-detailed miniatures rather than digital mock-ups while the CGI on display here also looks considerably less cartoonish than more recent films of this budget level. Joseph Nemec's art deco production design is thoroughly dazzling, as are the costumes of Bob Ringwood (who was also outfitting Warner's first three BATMAN movies). Jerry Goldsmith's sweeping orchestral score is a bit more derivative of Danny Elfman's BATMAN, while Taylor Dayne's theme song "Original Sin" over the end credits is nice in its own respect but clashes with everything that came before. Baldwin looks and sounds the part – although his Shadow persona is augmented with hook nose (courtesy of BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA's Greg Cannom) and a more theatrical vocal delivery – although it is kind of hard to separate Baldwin from the self-parodic persona he has developed over the years since 30 ROCK. Lone is even better in a super villain so thinly scripted. Miller looks gorgeous and the camera loves her but she's otherwise miscast, seeming too modern despite her wardrobe and hairstyle while her character's psychic angle is underdeveloped beyond her connection to Cranston. McKellan has little to do as the absent-minded professor, while the usually entertaining Tim Curry (CLUE) is stand-out awful first as a letch, then as a power-mad turncoat, and finally as a frothing maniac. James Hong pops up in the Tibet scenes with his BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA henchman Al Leong (here as Ying-Ko's hatchet man) while ALF's Max Wright plays a beleaguered Museum of Natural History employee who takes receipt of Genghis Khan's sarcophagus.

Stateside, THE SHADOW has been available on Blu-ray in as 2013 barebones 1.85:1 VC-1-encoded Blu-ray from Universal and a subsequent Shout! Factory's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.78:1 Blu-ray which featured a brand new transfer. Umbrella's all region Blu-ray – mislabeled as Region B – seems to utilize the older Universal master but given an MPEG-4 AVC encoding. This is not necessarily a bad thing as the colors are more consistent and the sharpening is not as destructive to the imagery or the CGI as expected from a Universal catalogue master. Long shots are more variable, but it is not always easy to tell if some of the model photography and matte shots were meant to be sharper. The sole audio option is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track but the film was originally released theatrically in DTS (with Dolby SR prints for non-compatible theaters). There are no English subtitles or captions, nor is there a menu since there are also no extras. (Eric Cotenas)

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