{"id":4297,"date":"2012-05-20T05:30:49","date_gmt":"2012-05-20T12:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=4297"},"modified":"2021-05-28T17:51:16","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T00:51:16","slug":"review-bettiepage-darkangel-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2012\/05\/review-bettiepage-darkangel-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Bettie Page: Dark Angel Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Bettie Page: Dark Angel<\/em><\/strong> is an all around bad movie, poorly acted and gives no insights into the character and instead is more of a porn film than anything of substance. The lead actress certainly has the look down but the acting is poor, although I can\u2019t blame her too much given the director doesn\u2019t have much going for him.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\nBettie Page: Dark Angel (2004)<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nREVIEW NAVIGATION<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Movie<\/a> | Special Features<\/a> | Video Quality<\/a> | Audio Quality<\/a> | Overall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Genre(s): <\/strong>Drama, Biography
\nCult Epics | NR \u2013 90 min. \u2013 $29.98 | May 22, 2012<\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:<\/span>
\nDirected by: <\/strong>Nico B.
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Nico B. (story), Carly Adler (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/strong>Paige Richards<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:<\/span>
\nFeatures: <\/strong>Featurettes, Original Bondage Films, Music Video, Photo Gallery
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>1<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/strong>English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 1.85
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English Dutch, French, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>NA
\nCodec: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A, B, C (unconfirmed)<\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 0.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cPlot\u201d Outline: <\/strong>Bettie Page was America\u2019s favorite and most photographed pin-up model of the 1950s, and achieved her greatest success as Playboy\u2019s January 1955 centerfold. It was however her association with fetish photographer Irving Klaw, that would change her life forever and establish the cult icon status she achieved to this day.<\/p>\n

Bettie Page: Dark Angel<\/em><\/strong> recalls in episodes, her last three years as a pin up queen, her mysterious disappearance and faithfully recreates in Irving Klaw\u2019s original style, many of her now lost classic bondage films.<\/p>\n

Quick Hit Review:<\/strong> Alright, where to even begin… First, in my research about this film I discovered it was made for a mere $50,000 and I have to wonder where the remaining $45k went because the production values are absolutely horrible and the acting is equally terrible even though adult actress Paige Richards certainly looks like Bettie Page, which is probably the only good thing about this so called movie which just has a few poorly acted scenes followed by a photo shoot recreation set against porn-like music. That\u2019s the basic gist and goes on like this over the course of the 90-minute running time.<\/p>\n

Although Bettie Page: Dark Angel<\/em><\/strong> isn\u2019t the worst \u201cmovie\u201d I\u2019ve ever seen, it\u2019s certainly way down there with the likes of Leonard Part 6<\/em> and Spice World<\/em>, although I\u2019d give those two movies more credit for actually trying to put together a coherent story with people behind the camera with some actual passion, something that this \u201cmovie\u201d lacks.<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 2.25\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This release comes with a matted slip cover with artwork that matches the inner cover. All the features are in standard definition.<\/p>\n

The Original Bondage Films of Bettie Page (40:08)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 A collection of 11 short films and pics have been made available and as the introduction explains, they were culled from a U-Matic video tape made in 1980s.<\/p>\n

In Search of Bettie Page by Nico B (10:09)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Shot in 1993, this is a series of camcorder shot footage showing the director\u2019s journey from the UK to NYC to discover an assortment of items (like a comic book) about Bettie Page while also learning about the woman. What I found most interesting was to see the city as it looked back in the early\/mid 90s, far different than it is now…<\/p>\n

The \u201957 Incident Teaserama Music Video (2:19)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 This is a music video by, who else, Nico B that simulates some of the scenes Bettie Page performed in set against some really bad rock \u201cmusic\u201d.<\/p>\n

Uncut: Dominant Bettie in Black Corselet (8:00)<\/span><\/strong> is the raw footage shown in the movie but was ultimately cut down. Why? It was probably to put the audience members out of their misery to end the movie quicker…<\/p>\n

Behind the Scenes of Bettie Page: Dark Angel<\/em><\/span><\/strong> contains a photo shoot (10:46)<\/span><\/strong> with Paige Richards, a still gallery (4:13)<\/span><\/strong> of Richards and Casting Call & Rehearsals (16:27)<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 1.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

So not only is Bettie Page: Dark Angel<\/em><\/strong> one of the worst movies I\u2019ve ever had the displeasure to come across, but it also has the honor of being one of the worst-looking Blu-rays to come across my desk. The film is presented with a 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-def transfer but you could\u2019ve fooled me. It looks like they took the master off of a VHS tape with incredibly grainy shots and absolutely little to no detail level. This shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise of course given the budget, but I have to wonder what the point of even releasing this on Blu-ray in the first place.<\/p>\n

The only good piece of news is apparently the original DVD release was full frame so this is in widescreen, if that helps sway your decision any.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

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AUDIO \u2013 2.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If the poor video quality weren\u2019t enough, the disc only features a simple Dolby Digital 2.0 track. Again, probably due to the basement levels of a budget, there was no point in even trying to give this a 5.1 audio track, let alone a lossless one.<\/p>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 1.25\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, Bettie Page: Dark Angel<\/em><\/strong> is an all around bad movie, poorly acted and gives no insights into the character and instead is more of a porn film than anything of substance. The lead actress certainly has the look down but the acting is poor, although I can\u2019t blame her too much given the director doesn\u2019t have much going for him. If you want to see a half decent biopic on Page, The Notorious Bettie Page<\/em> starring Gretchen Mol gives the model far more respect and is an all around better produced film.<\/p>\n

Taking the movie aside, however, this disc is poorly made. The video is the worst I\u2019ve ever encountered and the audio is only half decent. The features are OK but not much is revealed.<\/p>\n

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Published:05\/20\/2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bettie Page: Dark Angel is an all around bad movie, poorly acted and gives no insights into the character and instead is more of a porn film than anything of substance. The lead actress certainly has the look down but the acting is poor, although I can\u2019t blame her too much given the director doesn\u2019t … Continue reading “Bettie Page: Dark Angel Blu-ray Review”<\/span><\/a><\/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":[1537,1538],"class_list":["post-4297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","category-quick-hit-reviews","tag-bettie-page","tag-dark-angel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297","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=4297"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26165,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4297\/revisions\/26165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}