Review of China Moon

Introduction

Another day, another MGM back catalogue title on DVD. They really are ramping up their output, releasing a lot of old Orion Pictures titles, of which this is yet another example. This DVD has already been out once before though, under the auspices of Columbia Tristar.

John Bailey`s second film as a director (he`s only directed four in total) sits quietly along with the 50 or so that he has worked on as a cinematographer

China Moon stars Ed Harris and he gets mixed up with Madeleine Stowe. Along for the ride are Benicio Del Toro, just before The Usual Suspects catapulted his career to a higher level, and British stalwart Charles Dance (complete with appalling American accent). The plot is briefly outlined up above so I won`t delve much deeper. It`s another of those titles that`s kind of in the film noir mode. A bit of murder, mystery and thriller, with some romantic interest.

Video

A 2.35:1 anamorphic transfer, which looks pretty good on the whole. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn`t see too much dirt, dust and grain. There are some good colours, reasonable detail levels and good contrast. There are quite a few dark scenes, but this film is supposed to be "noir" so they are intentional.

Not bad at all.

Audio

A DD2.0 soundtrack, which is rather average but still lends the right kind of tone and atmosphere to the film. All dialogue is clear and crisp, and everything is audible. It`s just not that exciting. And the less said about Charles Dance`s accent the better.

As with many of these catalogue titles, you can also choose from French, Italian, German and Spanish soundtracks.

Features

Just a trailer. Would have been to see more, particularly as a couple of brief extras exsited on the Columbia Tristar release of the film.

Conclusion

Another day, another MGM back catalogue title, but this time on a slightly above average DVD.

I was expecting quite a lot, and I quite like a bit of noir, but at the end of the day it was just an ok film. Ed Harris gives his usual 100% to his performance (even with lines like "I`m an orphan of destiny") and turns is his usual Ed Harris performance. Benicio Del Toro is ok during the film, but he kind of flits in and out. Charles Dance is rotten - an awful accent and not much of a character to work with. The plot is both a bit too obvious and a bit too much of a mess.

In the end it`s just not really a noir film. Comparisons have been drawn with Dead Again and other films, but I just didn`t enjoy enough to rate it higher than average. Fans of any of the leads (except Charles Dance) might want to rent it out of curiosity, but if you want noir, pick the excellent Chinatown instead. How many times have I said that now? The name is very similar too, but don`t be fooled, Chinatown is miles better than China Moon.

An average film, a slightly above average DVD, because of the picture quality. And what happened to the extras from the previous release?