Memoirs of an Invisible Man - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Memoirs of an Invisible Man

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
To pair up with In the Mouth of Madness this week, we have another John Carpenter Flick from Scream Factory. This time it’s one of Carpenter’s more forgotten offshoot projects. A take on the H.G. Wells “The Invisible Man” concept and modernize it just a bit. He got a lot of flack back in the day for choosing Chevy Chase for a 99% straight role, as Chase was usually relegated to comedy back in 92, and it IS a bit of a mixed bag with Chase involved. While it’s not entirely straight, the rye comedic moments are mostly very dry, and sometimes even out of place. I had largely forgotten that the movie even EXISTED in my Carpenter collection until I saw Scream Factory prepping it for a release. Unlike In the Mouth of Madness, we don’t get a collector’s edition packaging with all the trimmings, but their Blu-ray release of this oddball Carpenter flick has enough goodies to leave me fairly impressed with the package. Especially since this is the first time It’s seen a home video release domestically since about 2003.

Nick Halloway (Chevy Chase) is your every day businessman. He’s well off, a bit snooty, and loves to chase skirts on his days off. His life changes for the worse when he visits a conference, ends up dozing off in the middle of the lecture, and wakes up to find out he’s invisible. It seems that the conference building was housing some experimental new phase shifting technology and an accident turns poor Nick into a LITERALLY invisible person. Government Agent David Jenkins (Sam Neill) finds Nick at the scene of the accident, but it’s obvious to everyone (especially Nick) that this government stooge has some rather nefarious intentions for the scientific freak of nature (what government agency wouldn’t want an invisible person to use as a test subject?), and Nick is having none of it.

Memoirs of an Invisible Man is a bit of an odd film in Carpenter’s repertoire, and it’s really because Carpenter himself doesn’t really count it as one of “his” films. You see, Carpenter was called in to direct the Chevy Chase film after Director Ivan Reitman had left the project and 95% of the work was already done. All he had to do was come in and shift a few things around, polish up the edges and send it on it’s way. According to the special features Carpenter did so out of curiosity, and it also gives him a chance to say that he’s done one of the “classic” monster movies as well. So in reality, this is not REALLY a John Carpenter film, but more of an Ivan Reitman film that Carpenter helped polish up. Which really explains how different the vibe and humor (or lack thereof) is in the film compared to Carpenter’s other works. And it also explains how Chevy Chase ends up in a John Carpenter film as well (not usually an actor he would choose).

The film itself USUALLY works, but there is a strange conflicts of tones going on here. Chevy Chase is usually known for his comedic films, but he has had a few straight roles as well, but it’s really the movie’s WRITING and direction that feel off. Chevy plays nick mostly straight, with little bits of wry humor here and there. If I had to hazard a guess, he was instructed to play Nick Halloway as a 1950s gumshoe detective, as that’s really the vibe he gives off. Sam Neill is great as agent Jenkins, but his dark side is contrasted with an almost whimsical performance by Chase. The serious sci-fi element of the movie is contrasted with a light hearted undercurrent that really feels out of place at times. The movie itself is definitely fun, and definitely works as a modern adaptation of “The Invisible Man”, but there’s this feeling of “good but not great” to the movie that I can’t place my finger on.

One thing I was especially impressed with is how well the effects hold up. The old school digital and optical effects looked rather decent on the 2003 DVD, but I wasn’t sure how they would hold up in high definition. Luckily they work rather well and don’t detract from the experience at all. It’s not a film that I’d really be super worried about, as Carpenter has kind of wiped his name from the film (I don’t blame him, it’s not really HIS vision at the end of the day). Still, it’s a solid monster movie with a twist and works well on its own.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 by the MPAA




Video:

It’s ironic that it took THIS long to get Memoirs of an Invisible Man on Blu-ray here in the states, especially since Warner is usually good about catalog titles. Well, that and the fact that it’s been released overseas in about 6 countries over the last 6 years on Blu-ray as well. I haven’t had a chance to see the encodes for the other releases, but Scream Factory touts a new 2K master for the film and it looks rather solid on Blu-ray. The film is definitely grainy, and has some milky black levels, but overall it’s a nice improvement over the dvd. there’s no signs of print damage or major artifacting, and the intimate detailing on the disc is quite impressive. You can actually see the makeup lines on Chevy Chase’s face when he goes out to dinner, and the colors are warm and well saturated for a 90s film. The contrast seems to be pushed a bit hot, but not overly so, which keeps facial tones fairly even and balanced. While it's not as jaw dropping as In the Mouth of Madness, it is still an impressive encode that is a nice upgrade in 1080p.





Audio:

Scream Factory has kept the original 2.0 track and given it the DTS-HD MA lossless treatment, and while it is not a remixed 5.1 mix, certainly has a surprising amount of heft to it. Vocals are crisp and clear, and the front of the soundstage is decently spacious in the imaging. Effects shift from one side to the other quite a bit, and there’s even some baked in LFE in the track. The action oriented bits are a bit more boisterous, but this is still a heavily dialog centric mix, and that’s really where most of the focus lies. It’s not a wild surround mix, but for a 2.0 track, it does everything asked of with ease and no signs of distortion or age related issues (some of Warner’s old tracks had a hiss to them that was noticeable in the higher resolution tracks).






Extras:

• Brand new 2K master of the film
• How to Become Invisible: The Dawn of Digital F/X
• Vintage interviews with director John Carpenter, actors Chevy Chase and Daryl Hannah
• Behind the Scenes footage
• Outtakes
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spots

Final Score: ​

Memoirs of an Invisible Man doesn’t have the most stellar reputation among cinemaphiles, and it’s really only a John Carpenter film by the most tenuous of threads. Carpenter definitely tweaked some stuff here and there, but it doesn’t feel like one of his films at all. However, I liked the twist they took on the old monster story, turning the monster into the hero (although they do delve into some of the darker sides of having his powers) and it really is a better film than the last modern adaptation of the concept (Hollow Man). Scream Factory gives the Blu-ray a nice looking and sounding set of audio/video encodes and actually gave us a near collector’s edition set of extras. Worth checking out if you’re a fan of the classic monster movies or Chevy Chase in general (or if you’re like me and have to have every John Carpenter movie in your collection)



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Sam Neill, Daryl Hannah, Chevy Chase
Directed by: John Carpenter
Written by: H.F. Saint (Novel), Robert Collector (Screenplay)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 99 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Solid Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I barely remember this one. Will revisit it.