Grand Slam is a well made heist-thriller directed by Giuliano Montaldo, featuring wonderful performances from Janet Leigh, Robert Hoffmann and Klaus Kinski.
Grand Slam
(1967)
Genre(s): Drama, Crime, Suspense/Thriller
Kino Lorber| PG – 120 min. – $29.95 | April 26, 2022
Date Published: 06/01/2022 | Author: The Movieman
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Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 3¾/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: A quiet yet cunning schoolteacher (EDWARD G. ROBINSON) recruits an elite team of international criminals for the ultimate caper: robbing $10 million in diamonds from an impenetrable Rio de Janeiro vault at the frenzied peak of the city’s Carnival. The planning is meticulous. The crime must run like clockwork. But even if they can pull off the most daring theft in history, are the wildest surprises of all yet to come? Quick Hit Review: Grand Slam is a 1960s-era heist-thriller that I knew nothing about going in (never even heard of it) and features two greats in Janet Leigh and Edward G. Robinson. I found the movie to be near-perfectly paced, compare that to the snails pacing of 1960 Ocean’s Eleven, and the heist itself nicely directed by Giuliano Montaldo, even if I didn’t quite understand some of the technical aspects (while watching anyway). The rest of the ensemble was also a lot of fun, with Klaus Kinski and Robert Hoffmann playing well off of one another. Not sure how Grand Slam ranks amongst the other heist films with the Ocean’s 11 remake easily topping the list, but this one does have fun twists and turns especially at the end. This is one well worth checking out. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2/5 |
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This release comes with a matted slip cover. The only features are an Audio Commentary with Film Historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson and the film’s Theatrical Trailer (3:52). The commentary is a fun listen as I believe the trio has provided commentary on other Kino Lorber releases, so they have a nice report with one another. |
VIDEO – 4/5 |
| Grand Slam comes to Blu-ray from Kino Lorber where it’s presented in the original 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. Given there’s no mention of any restoration or a new master, the transfer was likely given to KL by the right’s holder. But even so, the picture here does look quite good, detail is relatively sharp particularly for the close-up shots and colors are well balanced. There were some instances of dust marks and specs that showed up however for the most part it is a fairly clean looking transfer. |
AUDIO – 4½/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track which was more than serviceable providing for clear dialogue and decent enough depth for the more suspense-filled scenes. The lossless track also didn’t have any significant signs of hissing or pops, even during part of the pitch quiet heist sequence (think the scene from Mission: Impossible). In any case, it’s a great track that, like the video, was provided to Kino Lorber. |
OVERALL – 3½/5 |
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Overall, Grand Slam is a well made heist-thriller directed by Giuliano Montaldo, featuring wonderful performances from Janet Leigh, Robert Hoffmann and Klaus Kinski. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.