Why So Blu?

The Mighty Quinn (Blu-ray Review)

Two-time Academy Award-winner Denzel Washington (Best Actor, Flight; Best Supporting Actor, Glory) headlines the entertaining crime thriller The Mighty Quinn.  Under bright skies and sandy beaches, paradise hides some ugly truths in The Mighty Quinn. Based on the A.H.Z. Carr novel Finding Maubee, Denzel Washington (Flight) brings his charismatic star power to the role of Xavier Quinn.  Directed by Carl Schenkel (Knight Moves) from the Hampton Fancher (Blade Runner) screenplay, The Mighty Quinn co-stars James Fox (Patriot Games), Mimi Rogers (Street Smart), M. Emmett Walsh (Blood Simple), Keye Luke (Gremlins), Alex Colon (Red Scorpion), and Esther Rolle (TV’s Good Times).

Film 

Xavier Quinn, the sheriff of a small Caribbean island caught up in a murder mystery involving his best friend. Petty crook Maubee is on the run for the alleged murder of millionaire resort owner Donald Pater. Estranged from his wife Lola and an absentee father to his son, Quinn is about to find his life getting a bit more complicated as the mystery of the millionaire’s murder slowly comes into focus.

The Mighty Quinn quite a fun, enjoyable little murder mystery.  Its got the makings of the classic film noir formula and popping it against a Jamaican setting.  A “Jamaican Noir” tale I suppose.  I’m not sure I’d jump right to noir, but it seems to fit a lot of the tropes on the checklist.

The film provides one of Denzel Washington’s early leading man roles, and as always, he’s worth the price of admission AND your popcorn.  The Mighty Quinn provides him with a nifty detective role.  He also sports a sweet, natural Jamaican accent.  What’s good too is his chemistry with his co-stars, particularly Robert Townsend and Mimi Rogers.

Roger Ebert actually really loved this movie.  He gave it 4 stars and named it as one of his favorite films of 1989, highlighting Denzel Washington’s performance.  He compared it to that of Sean Connery in Dr. No.  Its not hard to see why he, or anyone for that matter, would really enjoy this movie.  Its got a nice twist on an old school favorite genre, with an excellent performance from its leading role.  Its a winning combo.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Clarity/Detail:  The film looks pretty solid here on Blu-ray.  This appears to be a very “hands off” approach to the transfer.  Waving water looks pretty good here, as well as detail on clothing texture and patterns, and scuffs, knicks or texture on surfaces.  Its helps that this film is mainly in the day time and in a tropical setting as everything is well lit, vibrant and showing its detail.

Depth:  This is pretty above average for the most part.  There was a camera angle that really impressed, and that’s when Quinn walks up to the stage to play piano.

Black Levels: Blacks are solid and accurate.  Darker lit scenes bring on more grain and less detail.

Color Reproduction:  Colors pop quite nicely here in this tropical setting.  There are some scenes with a red filter on them that do bleed quite a bit, but that is about the weakest link of the whole thing.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones look very natural for the most of this film’s duration.  Detail on things like blemishes, make-up, sweat beads, and dimples impress in close-ups and medium shots.

Noise/Artifacts: This print looks very clean for the most part.  The film does have some grain and maybe a spec or piece of dirt here or there.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 2.0 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: N/A

Dynamics: This little 2.0 mix sounds pretty terrific.  There’s not a lot of “action” “action” per se, but fisticuffs, gunshots and the like sound quite good and pumped up when asked to.  What really stuck out to me on this one is the musical numbers that appear.  They are clean, layered sounding and free.

Low Frequency Extension:  N/A

Surround Sound Presentation:  N/A

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is clean and at an ideal volume.  A little bit analog sounding in minimal areas.

Extras 

Trailer (HD, 1:33) 

Summary 

I’m not sure if I’d fully go on to call The Mighty Quinn “Jamaican Noir”, but that’s a term that kept crawling into my head.  Regardless, its a nice little mystery with a nice early star turn from one of the greatest actors living or deceased.  Also a unique one from him with his accent.  This Blu-ray feature very good audio and video, but once again doesn’t have much in the way of extras so the score gets dinged because of that.  If you like this movie, then you should definitely pick it up, Olive has done a good job with its presentation.