Dutch Blu-ray offers decent video and mediocre audio, but overall it's a poor Blu-ray release
Volunteering to drive his girl friend's son home for Thanksgiving to Chicago from his boarding school in Georgia, little does Dutch expect the picaresque adventures in store for him. When a blunt, down-to-earth construction worker takes to the road with an insufferable twelve-year-old snob (desperately insecure under the surface) who doesn't approve of him in the least, quite a bit must happen before they can reach their destination as friends-- or, for that matter, get home at all.
For more about Dutch and the Dutch Blu-ray release, see the Dutch Blu-ray Review
It's hard to imagine that John Hughes had a hand in something as bland as Dutch, a 1991 Comedy that's so devoid of both humor and heart
-- quite the opposite of the typical Hughes film -- that one can only surmise that some other "John Hughes" penned this one, and not
that John Hughes. At best, Dutch plays like a rejected and very early first draft of Hughes' vastly superior classic Planes, Trains & Automobiles; both share the same basic plot structure
-- two people who don't really get along travel together and experience a series of misadventures -- but the similarities end there. Dutch is
absent that film's inescapable energy, witty dialogue, first-rate performances, lovable characters, and underlying tenderness, replaced in Dutch
by poor pacing, bland dialogue, routine acting, forgettable characters, and no passion from the script. Dutch is definitely Hughes' dud, the big
red stain on his resumé, but considering the sheer greatness that flowed from his mind to his scripts on a routine basis, this one can just be called an
anomaly, a movie from which fans can simply move on: no harm, no foul.
Bratnapped.
Bratty prep schooler Doyle Standish (Ethan Randall) is the spoiled son of a wealthy man named Reed (Christopher McDonald) who's left his wife of
ten years,
Natalie
(JoBeth Williams). She's begun dating the blue collar Dutch (Ed O'Neill), a rather crude individual who has his head on fairly straight but who doesn't
exactly fit into the same elite social circles his new girlfriend still surrounds herself with. When Reed cancels his Thanksgiving plans with
Doyle in favor of a trip to
Europe, Doyle is forced back home with his mother, where and with whom he just doesn't want to be. Dutch decides that he'll pick Doyle up from
school; there's
nothing like a road trip to forge some male bonding. Of course, their personalities clash immediately. Not only do they find themselves in one sticky
situation after another, but whatever semblance of an amiable relationship they may have had deteriorates with every passing moment. Can these
opposites set aside their differences and at least put on a good front for Natalie or, Heaven forbid, actually become friends?
Dutch is, at its core, a movie about bonding, but it never does bond with its audience. That's a critical mistake in a movie that's built around
a
concept of two characters whom the audience must come to love and care about, to have a stake in their adventures and hope for the best even as
they go through the worst. On the contrary, Dutch simply goes through the generic genre paces, following its characters from a detached,
disinterested distance. They're only superficially developed, their actions routine, their dialogue uninspired, and the ultimate outcome of their
adventure never in doubt.
The movie throws meaty slow pitch softballs with every scene, spoon-feeding viewers a story that plays just as expected and ends up in terribly
familiar territory that's
neither bold nor thoughtful. It barely keeps the audience's attention, and only for brief spurts at that, losing them during scenes that play out far
too long or seem totally unnecessary in the telling of the story.
Worse, there's zero chemistry between Ed O'Neill and Ethan Randall. They do little more than carry out their required actions and speak their
required dialogue when Director Peter Faiman ('Crocodile' Dundee) calls "action!," and the same general, disinterested vibe is evident both
when they're at one another's throats or as they slowly begin to bond through their
series of misadventures. Neither the directing nor the editing help their cause, either. The former in particular shows an absence of enthusiasm for
the material and is satisfied to merely show the action rather try and inject some much-needed life into it. Sometimes, a reserved approach is the
way to go, say, for instance, when there's a Steve Martin and a John Candy to carry the movie. Sadly, neither O'Neill nor Randall fall into that class
of actor; perhaps they could have elevated Dutch to "mediocre" if given a better script and more focused direction, but the end result is a
movie that loses its way from the outset and never does come around to find its bearings.
Dutch features a serviceable 1080p transfer. Flesh tones can be a touch warm and blacks a hair too overwhelming. The color palette is
certainly
never vibrant, but it's also never too dim. There's a fair balance throughout, whether seen in the warm boarding school interiors or a few snowy
exteriors. Fine
detail is fair, but never striking. Human faces sometimes look a bit soft, the same of which may be said for clothes, building façades, and the like. The
transfer retains a light grain structure, but also present are random pops and scratches, appearing frequently but never to any truly destructive level.
The image is also relatively free of background blocking and banding. Dutch won't really impress anyone but the first time Blu-ray viewer. Still,
this is
a passable transfer from Anchor Bay, especially for an older catalogue title of a rather poorly-received movie.
Dutch arrives on Blu-ray with a fair but sonically uninteresting Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. This presentation yields fair clarity and
moderate energy, though keep in mind that Dutch isn't a rock 'em, sock 'em sonic extravaganza to begin with. Music is adequately spaced and
plays with evident, but not breathtaking, clarity. Some of the music is smooth and some plays with a slight artificial tinge, the latter particularly evident
anytime it tends to
get louder. The same may be said of sound effects; the heavier ones -- car crashes, the sound of a meat cleaver slamming into chicken on a cutting
board -- play loudly but with little distinction and realism. Ambiance is minimal, but effective. For instance, a cold gusty wind blows through the
listening area in one scene. Dialogue is generally crisp and well defined as it plays exclusively through the center channel, but there are a few moments
when it sounds a hair detached and plays with a slightly unnatural pitch. Altogether, this is an adequate track, no more, no less.
Movies simply don't come any more routine than Dutch. Sadly, it's a mess from top to bottom. There's no spirit, no energy, no reason to care,
particularly considering it follows convention so precisely that the outcome is obvious from the moment the conflict is put into motion in the film's first
minutes. That's
certainly true even of many of Hughes' other films, but Dutch is absent the tenderness, characterization, and rhythm that make the others so
successful. Better to just watch Planes, Trains & Automobiles again than to suffer through Dutch. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of
Dutch features fair video and audio and no substantive extras. Skip it.
In an early retail announcement, it appears that Anchor Bay Home Entertainment will be distributing a number of Twentieth Century Fox catalog titles on Blu-ray. The preliminary release list includes such diverse titles as Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon, Michael ...
