Cool World was an interesting concept and had some fun visuals but the characters were as thinly developed and the story felt sloppy, if not also uninteresting. Had potential but the end result was a mess and not a surprise why I never bothered to re-watch since its release.
Cool World
— Collector’s Edition | Shout Select —
(1992)
Genre(s): Suspense, Crime, Fantasy
Shout Factory| PG13 – 102 min. – $34.98 | September 13, 2022
Date Published: 09/02/2022 | Author: The Movieman
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Shout Factory 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 — 2¼/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: When ex-con cartoonist Jack Deebs (GABRIEL BYRNE) was behind bars, he found escape by creating “Cool World”, a comic book featuring a voluptuous vixen named Holli Would (KIM BASINGER). But the ‘toonsmith becomes a prisoner of his own fantasies when Holli pulls into “Cool World” with a scheme to seduce him and bring herself to life. A hard-boiled detective (BRAD PITT) – the only other human in “Cool World” – cautions Jack with the law: Noids (humans) don’t have sex with doodles (cartoons). The flesh proves weaker than ink, however, as Holli takes form in Las Vegas, starting a trans-reality chase that threatens the destruction of both worlds.
Quick Hit Review: Cool World is a movie I had some vague memories seeing back in 1992 when I was a mere 11 years old and I think I watched it with my parents and seeing it again all these years later and they must’ve been an awkward time as even though it’s rated PG-13, it certainly rode the line to an R-rating. That being said, they also took me to see Batman Returns and I remember them being surprised on how dark that one was… The movie itself though might’ve had flashes of brilliant imagery and some decent animation to live action interaction, albeit couldn’t compare to Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but the plot was a confusing mess and we’re following three characters who were very one-dimensional with Gabriel Byrne turning in a baffling performance not seeming to know what’s going on while a young Brad Pitt was terribly flat and surprisingly anything but charismatic. Kim Basinger for her part seemed to be having some fun but lacked any depth like her male cohorts.
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SPECIAL FEATURES – 2¼/5 |
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This “Collector’s Edition” and “Shout Select” release only has one feature: The Wild Minds of Cool World (21:58) that includes new interviews with Director Ralph Bakshi, Actress Kim Basinger, and Producer Frank Mancuso Jr. Each one describes their experiences working on the project. Also included is the Trailer (3:49). |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Cool World comes to Blu-ray for the first time thanks to Shout Factory and is presented in the original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and 1080p high-definition. This new transfer was taken from a 4K scan of the original camera negative and approved by Director Ralph Bakshi. The picture here does look quite brilliant, detail is fairly sharp and colors nicely balanced, especially within “Cool World” with the vibrant creatures while black levels are deep without appearing crushed. While watching, I didn’t notice any significant or obvious dust marks, scratches or other flaws so it does look like a clean looking transfer. |
AUDIO – 4½/5 |
| The movie comes with 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks. Dialogue comes across the center track with good clarity and there is a fine depth with ambient noises within the “Cool World”, I especially noticed when the creatures are talking off-camera. There were no obvious hints of pops or hisses making this a clear sounding lossless track. |
OVERALL – 3/5 |
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Cool World was an interesting concept and had some fun visuals but the characters were as thinly developed and the story felt sloppy, if not also uninteresting. Had potential but the end result was a mess and not a surprise why I never bothered to re-watch since its release. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.