Wow, talk about "under the radar!" 1997's
Clockwatchers has been one of my most-wanted titles on blu for years. One: because it's a favorite film, and two: because it's one of the few remaining non-anamorphic discs in my collection. I check disc announcements every day, but still had no idea Shout Factory was releasing this on BD until
McBastard's Masoleum posted that it was already out and in hand. I nearly fell out of my chair. Shout Factory didn't even have it listed on their own site until a week after its release; it just popped up there like three days ago. It's not on Amazon, or the usual boutique shops that carry Shout releases, like Diabolik or Grindhouse. Weird.
Clockwatchers is the first and still the best film by the
Sprecher sisters. All three are worth watching, but this is their sole masterpiece. It's a timeless examination of rudimentary working class life, both comic and tragic, similar in tone to, say,
Friends With Money. It probably has suffered somewhat for audiences going in expecting a more sitcom-level out and out comedy like
Office Space. But despite its scarcity on home video, it's maintained a consistent audience thanks largely to its stellar cast. It's an important early role from
Toni Collette, one of the signature, career defining performances by
Parker Posey, and a rare mid-Friends co-lead by
Lisa Kudrow.
Alanna Ubach is the final part of the quartet who didn't go on to such heights as the others, but she's just as good as the rest of them here. And the supporting cast is just as strong, including
Bob Balaban,
Paul Dooley and yes,
Jamie Kennedy. I know, it's easy to think of his
MTV rap career and grimace, but he excels in offbeat comic parts like this one.
Fox Lorber released
Clockwatchers on DVD in early 2000. So,
as you might guess, it's non-anamorphic. It was reissued by Wellspring
in 2006, and there have been DVD editions in other parts of the world,
but none of them are anamorphic either. And until this month, that's
all we've had, until Shout Factory surprised us with their new blu-ray.
Apparently it's a
Made On Demand disc, which I guess counts for its
limited release; but I'm happy to report that it is a properly pressed
disc, not a BD-R.
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2000 Fox Lorber DVD top; 2024 Shout Factory BD bottom.
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So
again, the biggest selling point is just jumping to 16x9 enhancement.
We've got it; we won. But besides that, how is it? Well for starters,
the aspect ratio has shifted from 1.84:1 to 1.78:1, at the expense
of some info on the left-hand side, but if that has to be the price of
going from non to anamorphic, I'll take it. You can see that there's
been extensive color correction, too - look how much lighter Toni's hair
is - which I'll take on faith is more accurate. Going from SD to HD
gives a cleaner, sharper look; but there's still little to no film grain
visible on the blu. I'm guessing this is an old master. It's a big
upgrade, but more because the only available DVD is so poor, not because
the new blu is particularly impressive.
The DVD just has a clean
Dolby Digital 5.1 remix, which Shout has replaced with a the original Dolby
stereo mix in DTS-HD. They also added HoH subtitles, which the DVD lacked.
The DVD only has the theatrical trailer, while Shout's blu
doesn't even have that. You'd think they could have at least ripped
that off the DVD, but I guess being no frills is protocol for MOD
releases. Oh well. I'm way too happy to complain. 😁
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