{"id":25503,"date":"2021-02-16T11:39:56","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T19:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=25503"},"modified":"2021-02-16T11:40:40","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T19:40:40","slug":"review-hard-to-hold-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2021\/02\/review-hard-to-hold-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard to Hold Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hard to Hold<\/em><\/strong> is a poorly written romance-drama that at least was made somewhat watchable with the nice chemistry between Rick Springfield and Janet Eilber, though that doesn\u2019t mean both give consistent performances.<\/p>\n

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Hard to Hold<\/span>
\n(1984)
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Genre(s): <\/strong>Drama, Romance, Music<\/span>
\nKino Lorber| PG \u2013 93 min. \u2013 $24.95 | February 23, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

Date Published:<\/strong> 03\/16\/2021 | Author:<\/strong> The Movieman<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/u><\/strong>Director: <\/strong>Larry Peerce
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Tom Hedley and Richard Rothstein (story), Tom Hedley (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/strong>Rick Springfield, Janet Eilber, Patti Hansen, Albert Salmi, Gregory Itzen<\/p>\n

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DISC INFO:
\n<\/u><\/strong>Features: <\/strong>Commentary, Interview, Radio Spots, Theatrical Trailer
\nSlip Cover: <\/strong>No
\nDigital Copy: <\/strong>No
\nFormats Included: <\/strong>Blu-ray
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>1<\/span><\/p>\n
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Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 2.0)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 1.85
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>33.53 GB
\nTotal Bitrate: <\/strong>41.78 Mbps
\nCodecs: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A<\/span><\/p>\n
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Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
\nThe opinions I share are my own.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE \u2014 2\u00bd\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Plot Synopsis: <\/strong>Jamie Roberts (RICK SPRINGFIELD) is a rock star living the highlife when he falls for child psychologist Diana Lawson (JANET EILBER) who only has ears for classical music. Opposites attract, but his jealous ex-girlfriend (PATTI HANSEN), and songwriter, isn\u2019t ready to give up so easily. Love is hard to find when the whole world is watching.<\/p>\n

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Quick Hit Review: <\/strong>Conceptually Hard to Hold<\/em><\/strong> could\u2019ve been an entertaining romantic-drama, one examining the trials and tribulations of a relationship under a harsh spotlight, which is kind of what the synopsis promises. What we get instead is a plot about a rock star dealing with some sort of writer\u2019s block, plus an ex who has some mental issues and a new love who is having commitment issues. But through all that, there\u2019s not much tension and you\u2019re left with the predictability knowing the two will get together, and that they do albeit in a clumsy fashion and at the airport no less.<\/p>\n

I will say, for the most part Springfield and Eilber share some nice chemistry, especially in a few of the seemingly improvised scenes. When it comes to their acting, they were actually okay however there were some moments that were at best questionable and worst, just plain laughable, one scene that comes to mind is when Diana discovers her father\u2019s dead body, the scene was just shot so peculiar and her reaction, not to mention the score, didn\u2019t match what should\u2019ve been somber. Later, when Diana tells Jamie of her intentions to move away, his response was a silly \u201cNo!\u201d that I did laugh out loud at.<\/p>\n

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Being this is the first film I\u2019ve seen with Rick Springfield and while he\u2019s a solid singer, to be honest not the biggest fan of his hit song, \u201cJessie\u2019s Girl\u201d, not sure of his acting skills, although the script from Tom Hedley (Flashdance<\/em>, which also didn\u2019t exactly have a strong screenplay and known mostly for a hot Jennifer Beals and the music) doesn\u2019t do him any favors.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 2\u00bd\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Features include an Audio Commentary<\/u><\/strong> by Entertainment Journalist and Author Bryan Reesman, an Interview (11:23)<\/u><\/strong> with Director Larry Peerce, a several Radio Spots (8:20)<\/u><\/strong> and the Theatrical Trailer (2:45)<\/u><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 4\u00bd\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Hard to Hold<\/em><\/strong> takes the stage onto Blu-ray for the first time through Kino Lorber (in their \u201cStudio Classics\u201d line). The film is shown in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. Since there\u2019s no mention on the back cover of a new transfer, presumably the master was provided by Universal as-is, and for the most part, is halfway impressive. Detail on the close-ups is sharp and the original film grain and noise is still present, and colors are well balanced throughout, not seemingly artificially bolstered. I did take note of a few minor specs and scratches but they were very few and far between, and nothing I would consider all that distracting.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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AUDIO \u2013 3\u00bd\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track and for the most part sounds okay. Dialogue comes through with decent clarity and at the very least didn\u2019t have too much of a hollowness that I sometimes experience with these sorts of tracks. The depth is kept to a minimum even during the concert scenes however it\u2019s still an effective lossless track, especially for a low\/mid budgeted romance-drama from 35+ years ago.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 2\u00bd\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Hard to Hold<\/em><\/strong> is a poorly written romance-drama that at least was made somewhat watchable with the nice chemistry between Rick Springfield and Janet Eilber, though that doesn\u2019t mean both give consistent performances. In addition, the music isn\u2019t all that memorable, including the apparently top-5 hit song, \u201cLove Somebody\u201d. This Blu-ray from Kino Lorber does offer respectable video and audio transfers.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers<\/strong>.
\nThese are only here to give an idea of the movie\u2019s video quality and may not be truly representative of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Hard to Hold is a poorly written romance-drama that at least was made somewhat watchable with the nice chemistry between Rick Springfield and Janet Eilber, though that doesn\u2019t mean both give consistent performances.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,970],"tags":[6841,3852,6840],"class_list":["post-25503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","category-quick-hit-reviews","tag-janet-eilber","tag-kino-lorber","tag-rick-springfield"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25505,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25503\/revisions\/25505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}