Presumed Innocent / Frantic Blu Ray Review (Warner Bros.)

Presumed Innocent is a 1990 thriller co-written and directed by Alan J. Pakula (Klute, Sophie’s Choice, Dream Lover, Consenting Adults, The Devil’s Own, The Pelican Brief, and All the President’s Men). It was co-written by Frank Pierson (Dog Day Afternoon, A Star is Born, King of the Gypsies, Cool Hand Luke, and The Anderson Tapes). It’s based on the novel from author Scott Turow. It was produced by Sydney Pollack (The Yakuza, Bobby Deerfield, Tootsie, Out of Africa, Bright Lights Big City, King Ralph, The Firm, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Three Days of the Condor). It was remade as a television series in 2024. The budget was $20,000,000 and it grossed $221,303,188 worldwide at the box office. When lawyer Rusty Sabic (played by: Harrison Ford from the Star Wars franchise, Indiana Jones franchise, The Fugitive, and Witness) investigates the murder of his colleague Carolyn Polhemus (played by: Greta Scacchi from The Player, Emma, and Shattered), he somehow finds himself way more connected to the brutal crime than anyone else suspected. Now, he’s fighting for his own life against his former friends that are trying to destroy everything because of this awful situation!!!! Presumed Innocent is one of the better films from Harrison Ford that doesn’t get much love or praise these days. Director Alan J. Pakula behind the camera for this legal thriller with the legendary Sydney Pollack producing it. The script has plenty of suspense, tension, and mystery. Rusty Sabic goes from top guy to the black sheep really quick. Surprisingly enough, this is Harrison Ford’s only feature in 1990 so he wanted to make it rememberable. He’s excellent as the sharp lawyer that’s on the top of his game. He’s given a case of his co-worker that was murdered and it all gets messy after that. He has to do whatever to prove his innocence. Brian Dennehy (First Blood, F/X franchise, and Tommy Boy) is great as his powerful boss Raymond Horgan. He’s very hard to read, he turns on his employee once the heat is turned up for his successful company. The late great Raul Julia is amazing as defending lawyer Sandy Stern. He’s one of the few that believes and willing to help Rusty. He was always underrated in everything that he did. The rest of the supporting cast includes Greta Scacchi, Bonnie Bedelia (Die Hard franchise), Paul Winfield (The Terminator), John Spencer (Cop Land), Bradley Whitford (The West Wing), Jeffrey Wright (The Batman), Jesse Bradford (Swimfan), Anna Maria Horsford (Friday franchise), Joe Grifasi (Brewster’s Millions), Tom Mardirosian (OZ), Sab Shimono (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III), Christine Estabrook (The Usual Suspects), Joseph Mazzello (Jurassic Park), and Madison Arnold (Donnie Brasco). Presumed Innocent deals with corruption and hidden motives. There’s so many buried secrets here which makes for some thrilling twists and surprises. Presumed Innocent actually keeps itself a mystery and it’s keeps the audience on it’s toes. I’m shocked that it wasn’t really resurrected after it’s TV remake but it’s still kinda forgotten at this point. It’s still holds up to this day, RECOMMENDED!!!! Frantic is a 1988 thriller co-written and directed by Roman Polanski (Repulsion, The Tenant, Chinatown, The Pianist, The Ninth Gate, and Rosemary’s Baby). It was co-written by Gérard Brach (Repulsion, The Tenant, The Phantom of the Opera, Bitter Moon, and The Fearless Vampire Killers). It was produced by Thom Mount (Tequila Sunrise, Bull Durham, Natural Born Killers, Night Falls on Manhattan, and Can’t Buy Me Love). The budget was $20,000,000 and it grossed $17,637,950 worldwide at the box office. After going to a medical conference in Paris, Dr. Richard Walker (played by: Harrison Ford from Apocalypse Now, Air Force One, Captain America: Brave New World, and Blade Runner) comes out of the shower and finds that his wife Sondra (played by: Betty Buckley from Carrie, Split, Preacher, and OZ) is missing all the sudden. In a foreign environment, he feels like a stranger while trying to figure out what really happened. He soon finds himself caught up in a world of intrigue, espionage, gangsters, drugs, suspense, and murder!!!! Honestly, I can see why Frantic originally flopped in theaters. I’ve never understood the hype for Roman Polanski, I like a few of his films but most of them are very overrated. Unfortunately, this isn’t one of his better efforts. The script tries too hard on it’s character development and it just ends up making it slower. Harrison Ford does his best as Dr. Richard Walker. He’s always consistent no matter what he has to do. He’s the reason to give this a shot. His character just goes through too much unnecessary scenarios to locate his wife. Emmanuelle Seigner (Bitter Moon, Vendetta, and The Ninth Gate) as Michelle is the stranger that helps Richard Walker during this bizarre investigation. She’s way more interesting than his bland wife, that’s one of the biggest issues with Frantic. No one really cares about Sondra, before everything happens she is nothing special. Emmanuelle Seigner is impressive as the mysterious woman mixed in all this chaos. The rest of the supporting cast which includes Gérard Klein (The School Teacher), Jimmie Ray Weeks (The Abyss), David Huddleston (The Big Lebowski), Yorgo Voyagis (Jesus of Nazareth), Raouf Ben Amor (The Messiah), John Mahoney (Frasier), and Alexandra Stewart (Highlander). Roman Polanski is heavily influenced by Alfred Hitchcock for Frantic but it just doesn’t have those types of suspense and thrills. Frantic drags so much until it’s finale. The finale is actually great but it takes so long to get there. Frantic had so much potential but it doesn’t go anywhere until it’s finish. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not horrible or anything but it’s just average. It has it’s moments but it could have been so much better. I don’t see myself revisiting it for a long time. Let’s discuss these high definition presentations from Warner Bros Pictures! These 1080p (1.78:1) transfers still look pretty damn good for being from 2010 restorations. It’s not much but both films are solid improvements from their previous older home video releases. It has a few different audio options which includes English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono tracks on the disc. Both Presumed Innocent and Frantic have their intense scenes but neither one is really an action packed movie so don’t expect anything crazy here but they are both good. All of the dialogue is crisp, the suspense is elevated, and the music has a great boost to it. It has English SDH, English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Unfortunately, there’s no special features for either film here. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!