French Connection II Blu-ray delivers great video and decent audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
Gene Hackman returns as hard-boiled New York narcotics cop Popeye Doyle in the sequel to
the Oscar-winning 'The French Connection'. Still on the trail of heroin kingpin Charnier
(Fernando Rey), whom he's dubbed Frog One, Doyle heads for Marseilles. On arrival, his
aggressive ugly-American persona alienates French inspector Barthelmy (Bernard Fresson),
and his limited ability to speak French doesn't help. Frustrated by Barthelmy's lack of
progress, he slips his assigned police protection and goes looking for Frog One on his own.
He's soon captured by Charnier's minions, who lock him in a fleabag hotel and shoot him up
repeatedly with free samples of their product until Doyle is completely addicted. Charnier
uses the detective's narcotized state to interrogate him and is surprised to find that he's
virtually ignorant about his operation. The disdainful Charnier has him dumped in front of
police headquarters, and Barthemy arranges for him to be put in isolation. Doyle undergoes
the lengthy, grueling ordeal of quitting heroin cold turkey while his desperation to capture
Charnier builds inside him. Hackman's brilliant performance highlights this somewhat
overlooked sequel; Claude Renoir's camera fully captures the squalor of the milieu, and
Frankenheimer engineers a harrowing final chase.
I'd rather be a lamppost in New York than the President of France.
Sequels are a funny creature. Often, a film following up on a bona-fide classic -- Aliens,
The Godfather, Part
II,
or The Empire Strikes Back, for example, frequently come close to, match, or occasionally
surpass the quality of their predecessors (then again, there is also Alien3, Alien:
Resurrection, and Return of the Jedi). Generally,
though, the majority of sequels that follow up
on only good, mediocre, or bad movies tend to offer little more than a rehash of stale characters,
a
force-fed plot, or both. French Connection II, one of the few sequels to follow up on an
Oscar-winning best picture, falls somewhere in the middle. It's a fairly good movie, well-scripted,
superbly acted, generally intense, and featuring a mostly logical progression from the first film,
but
it's
no match for the precision and gritty realism of The French
Connection. Nevertheless, it returns two-thirds of the original's trio of primary
characters and makes for both a strong character study and a fine Action/Crime picture.
I hate it when people make me run!
Gene Hackman reprises his role as "Popeye" Doyle in French Connection II, the film
seeing the dedicated officer traveling to Marseilles to bust his nemesis from the first film, Alain
Charnier (Fernando Rey, also reprising his role). Doyle finds himself under the auspices of French
detective Barthélémy (Bernard Fresson) who seems to know Doyle all too well, and much to the
New York cop's chagrin. Doyle's pursuit of Charnier seems to be going nowhere when Charnier
himself happens to catch a glimpse of Doyle from afar. Soon thereafter, Doyle is kidnapped and
injected with narcotics, both breaking his will to withhold information and addicting him to the
very substances he despises. Doyle is eventually freed while on the verge of death; will he
recover
sufficiently to chase down Charnier once and for all?
French Connection II isn't quite as dreary and deadly serious as the first; it enjoys
moments of levity that do well to lighten the mood. A sequence featuring Doyle sharing a few
drinks with a non-English speaking French bartender is priceless in both its entertainment value
and character development. Hackman's performance in both this sequence and throughout the
remainder of the film is as equally mesmerizing as it was in The French Connection.
He retains the self-confidence and desire to perform his work his own way as the character was
developed in the first film, but he also shows a lighter side in the first act of this film that
humanizes him, even in the face of the confusion and uncertainty of life in another country. The
humanization of the character does not cheapen or otherwise lessen the impact and authority of
Doyle's style. He's still a foul-mouthed, tough-as-nails, singleminded-in-his-work officer that
refuses to take no for an answer, disrespects many of those with whom he comes in contact, and
plays the game by his own rules.
Doyle still remains a dark character despite a few moments of levity, and French Connection
II also remains a rather dark film in its own right, taking viewers deep into the world of
narcotics and the malefactors that inhabit it, perhaps even deeper than that shown in even the
first
film. While most of French Connection II is not quite as edgy or disturbing as something
like Requiem for a Dream, it is still a scary, well-acted, and well-made film punctuated by
another fantastic performance from Gene Hackman. The film's discomforting second act sells the
whole; Doyle's forced dissent into the world of a substance abuser is both startling and painful to
witness,
the plot sold not by the visuals or the direction but rather by Hackman's uncanny performance.
Whether angrily dismissing Charnier's attempts at breaking him, writhing in agony from his "cold
turkey" recovery, or delivering his extended dialogue sequence discussing baseball, the actor
delivers a performance worthy of the picture, the character, and the Oscar he earned for his
portrayal of the same character in The French Connection.
French Connection II debuts on Blu-ray with a fine 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer. Like
that of its predecessor, this film's transfer offers viewers some bleak imagery that lacks in fine
definition and eye-popping colors, though much of the film offers a far more vibrant and natural
appearance than the over-processed, grim, and terribly grainy appearance of the last film. There is
a fair amount of detail to be enjoyed here, and colors are more stable and natural. Some scenes
absolutely sparkle. Doyle's arrival in Marseilles, for instance, is bright and clean, with minimal grain,
strong colors, detailed foregrounds and backgrounds, and overall pleasing-on-the-eye imagery.
Various rough surfaces, for instances the small room in which Doyle recovers from his addiction,
reveal the lines and texture of stone walls nicely. Blacks are deeper here, and flesh tones are
generally solid. The transfer does see plenty of grain, though it is not nearly as prominent as that
seen in the previous film, but this transfer does see more in the way of speckles over the print.
French Connection II rates as another quality catalogue transfer from Fox.
20th Century Fox brings French Connection II to Blu-ray with the expected DTS-HD MA 5.1
lossless soundtrack, in addition to a monaural presentation. Like the soundtrack accompanying
The French Connection, dialogue is sometimes difficult to make out, either lost under
effects or just not presented with adequate volume at reference levels in relation to the remainder
of the mix. The track never strays very far from the center channel; sound effects are mostly
unimpressive, and even scenes that would seem to call for an obvious flow of sound from one
channel to another remain focused in the middle of the soundstage. An explosion in chapter six
during a police raid is uninspired at best with little in the way of an authoritative punch. Even a
major shootout sequence about three-quarters of the way through the film offers minimal sonic
impact; it's
loud but hardly aggressive, adequate but not at all memorable from an audio standpoint. Generally,
the lossless mix enjoys a bit more clarity than the one-channel track, but that's all.
French Connection II comes to Blu-ray with a fair amount of bonus materials, headlined
by
a pair of commentary tracks. First up is a track featuring Director John Frankenheimer. The
director
offers up an informed and honest track where he recounts his involvement in the process,
including
the initial ideas of the for the film (which included nothing more than a setting in France), his
part
in creating a concept for the film, and the techniques employed in shooting the film and
remaining
faithful to the look and feel of the original. Like Friedkin's track on the first film, Frankenheimer
does well to both recount the action on-screen in addition to greatly expanding on it and filling in
the gaps. Actor Gene Hackman and Producer Robert Rosen are featured in track two. This track
is a bit more dry than the first, but no less informative. The pair offer plenty of insights into the
production, their co-workers, and more. Frankenheimer: In Focus (1080p, 25:13)
features a plethora of Frankenheimer friends and family members recalling the director's
approach to filmmaking with a look at many of his films. A Conversation with Gene
Hackman (1080p, 7:06) features the actor sharing a few thoughts on the film, many of
which were touched upon in the commentaries. The disc also includes D-Box functionality, two still galleries
(Wardrobe and Storyboards), an isolated score track presented in DTS-HD MA
lossless audio, the film's English-, Spanish-, and Portuguese- (1080p, 3:15 each) language
trailers, in addition to a trailer for The French Connection (1080p, 2:51).
French Connection II is a worthy successor to its multi-Oscar winning predecessor. Though
not among the all-time great sequels, it smartly builds on the primary character and logically
progresses the action from film to film. The story is generally intense and captivating, and
Hackman's performance is once again exemplary. 20th Century Fox's Blu-ray release of French
Conection II is a winner. The disc sports a good video transfer, an adequate soundtrack, and
offers several supplements. While not on the same plane as its Best Picture-winning predecessor,
French Connection II makes for fine cinema and is now available on a better-than-average
Blu-ray disc. Recommended.
While not the first anime title to hit US shores, one of today's Blu-ray offerings is often credited with introducing anime to the western world. Based on a very popular six volume manga of the same name, 'Akira' tells the story of Tetsuo, a teenage gang member ...
Fox Home Entertainment has announced the technical specs and special features for the upcoming Blu-ray releases of 'The French Connection' and 'The French Connection II', which are both due to hit store shelves on February 24th. Video will be presented in 1.85:1 ...
In an early announcement to retailers, Fox Home Entertainment has revealed that they will bring 11 of their best selling catalog titles to Blu-ray early next year. As these are unofficial announcements, technical specs and special features have yet to be confirmed, ...
