The Show - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Show



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


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Movie
Alan Moore is jokingly called “the weirdest man alive” and in many ways that’s actually correct. Moore is most famously known to lay people as the man who created many a Batman comic, V For Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Watchmen. He’s also infamous for pretty much hating EVERY SINGLE film and TV adaptation of his works, going so far as to refuse studios the right to make productions off of any of the works that he has direct control over still. The director of Watchmen once famously said (and I slightly paraphrase) “There’s no version of Watchmen that I could make that would please him, nor is there any version he would make that I would watch”. It’s no shock that a man who was once busted for selling LSD in grade school, and is a bonafide real life wizard (well, as much as one can be in the real world) and is strangely esoteric with his tastes would make a bizarre film.

As I mentioned, Alan Moore HATES other people’s adaptations of his comics and novels etc. So what is one to do with that when you want to make a movie? Well you pen the script for the film itself, have a semi-starring role in it, and basically hire a director to become your puppet for said movie. The Show is pure Alan Moore bizarre to the core, as he weaves a murder mystery, Neo-Noir detective story, and a supernatural thriller with super hero over tones into one film.

The story itself doesn’t have a lot of depth to the narrative. A man named Fletcher Dennis (Tom Burke) heads into a dreamlike version of Alan Moore’s hometown of Northampton to hunt down a man. At first stating he’s the man’s friend, brother, and associate, it comes to light that Fletcher is a hitman hired to hunt down said man and kill him. Well, turns out the man is already dead, but the ruby encrusted cross that he stole from Fletcher’s benefactor is still out there. Delving deeper into the town of Northampton, Fletcher starts to realize that the real world is overlapping with the afterlife, as he soon finds himself in a dreamland where reality and dreams blur together. A mysterious woman known as Faith (Siobhan Hewlett) winds the path with him, as the two try to discover what is real, and what otherworldly in their quest for truth. Along the way we meet a comedian decked out as Hitler, Alan Moore as what is most commonly known as the Arch-Enemy of God, A 12 year old gumshoe spouting 1940s pulp dialog, and a vegan comedian anarchist. Yup, this is 100% Alan Moore.

I’m going to save you a lot of trouble right now. If you’re going into The Show thinking that you’re going to be watching a typical movie with a typical 3 act story arc then you’re going to be massively disappointed. This is Alan Moor playing around with visual aesthetics and themes more than trying to tell a typical story. We get a Fellini esque court room drama, a masked super hero like character who plays the apathetic God like character, and a whole slew of insane situations relating to the underworld. I honestly wonder if this entire thing was just an excuse so that Alan Moore could wax eloquent with that gigantic moon shaped hair do and glitter makeup with that sultry baritone of his.

Alan Moor fans are some of the most rabid on the market. You either think Alan Moor is a weirdo, or you think he’s a narrative genius whose vast array of wordiness and visual red herrings are a sign of brilliance. He may be brilliant, but I still find a lot of his work post 1980s and 1990s to be wildly pretentious and narcissistic. What many find genius I tend to think is just self gratification, and The Show showcases a lot of that. As I said, this is a movie where you watch Alan Moore display all sorts of esoteric themes on screen, with characters meant to symbolize something else, all while misdirecting you to the next act. The story itself is fairly simple, but it asks more questions than it answers, and suffers from a stereotype that Writers switching from book form to film suffer from. That is, over indulgence in wordy background discussion and exposition. Moore’s back story to Bleaker himself feels overly long, losing many people in the process as he over talks the audience to death. Also, I really feel like this would have been better off as a series, as we get a glimpse into the world that is The Show, but there feels to be SOOOOOO much more on the cutting room floor that needs to flesh it out. Again, something that writers moving from comic books and novels to screenplays have an issue with.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




Video:

Shot on a shoestring budget (one of the main negatives of the film is that it’s obviously given barely enough budget to get by, limiting Moore from being truly creative visually) the 2.39:1 AVC transfer looks very solid. The movie itself is given a dreamy and hazy look, which can introduce grain spikes and some softness to the appearance. A lot of the movie is genuinely dazzling, with the bright daylight sequences and dimly lit (but colorful) nightclub. I did see some minor banding come and go throughout the film, but other than that it’s a pretty solid transfer with a heavily stylized look to it (I loved the black and white scene with the 12 year old detectives).









Audio:

As with typical Shout Factory fare, we get a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track, as well as a trimmed down 2.0 mix in DTS-HD MA as well for night listening. The 5.1 mix is a solid affair, with good vocals (90% of the movie is dialog) and a good enough approach to surrounds and bass. A LOOOT of the film sits up in the front of the room as dialog after dialog scene comes through the pipe. The ending with Bleaker adds some pop and pizzazz to the production with some gunfire, and the original score adds a haunting sound to the back channels. The bass is mild, but still definitely present, checking just enough check boxes to be good, but the limited budget really constrains this from being a truly GREAT sound track.











Extras:

• Trailer
• Welcome to the Show (6 Featurettes)

Final Score: ​

Is The Show a good movie? I’m not really sure it is a movie in some ways. It’s bizarre to the extreme. It’s full of red herrings and hinted at sub plots. But it also is an exercise in one man trying to make visual art in a world that he genuinely hates (he is famous for loathing Hollywood movies). I’m not sure I could ever recommend this to anything other than Alan Moore fans, no matter how much they like Arthouse films. But I guess even Alan Moore knows that. He made this specifically for himself, and fans of Alan Moore WILL want to check it out. Those who are less inclined to his oddities and eccentricities in story telling may want to rent it first.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ellie Bamber, Tom Burke, Darrel D'Silva, Alan Moore
Directed by: Mitch Jenkins
Written by: Alan Moore
Aspect Ratio: 2.39.1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH,
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 116 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: November 23rd, 2021

Recommendation: For Alan Moore Fans

 

[Todd Anderson]

The character to the right side of "The Show" on the cover looks like a derenged Chandler Bing.

I think this is clearly on my "not watch list."

 

[Michael Scott]

LOL!!! I actually thought for a moment that he looked waaaaayyy too much like Matthew Perry at first glance too. it's weird, but he has some of his facial features