A Few Words About A few words about...™ Jungle Fever - in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Robert Harris]

I've always considered Spike Lee's work akin to a force of nature. There may be a bit of prejudice there, as we share the same alma mater.

But seldom has his older work received proper respect on any home video platform.

Kino is now offering some of his films (I've only had a chance to take a look at one thus far), and that's certainly a step in the right direction, as it clarifies some odd release patterns of the past, inclusive of double bills and DVD boxed sets. I consider his work to be worthy of the highest quality single releases.

His newer work, such as Blackklansman has received proper treatment, and is available in 4k.

Available next week, in addition to Jungle Fever, are Mo' Better Blues (1990), Crooklyn (1994), Clockers (1995) and Summer of Sam (S.O.S.) (1999), and I'll visit those shortly.

I'd especially love to see his work with Ernest Dickerson receive new 4k image harvests, as it is deserved.

Jungle Fever appears derived from an older transfer, and from an IP. It could be far better. It's a worthy addition to his canon, and for those who've not seen it, well worth you time.

Image - 3.5

Audio - 5

Pass / Fail - Pass

Upgrade from DVD - Finally

Recommended

RAH

 

[FanboyZ]

old universal stuffs.

 

[Brian Husar]

I guess, like Lynch’s Lost Highway, Kino was waiting on Spike to approve the transfer and special features and they waited for almost a year and they couldn’t wait anymore. Surprised by that. Maybe he was hoping Criterion would get them. They got Do The Right Thing back and they are releasing Bamboozled. I’ll still get this and the others because it’s an upgrade from the DVD. Hopefully Mo Better is mo better.

 

[Sam Favate]

I love Jungle Fever (and have it pre-ordered). I think it's still Samuel L. Jackson's best performance. I'd seen him in movies before this, but never noticed him, to be honest (even in GoodFellas). But after Jungle Fever, I was blown away and followed his career to this day. It remains a crime that he was never nominated for an Oscar for this role (and in fact, was only nominated once, for his spectacular performance in Pulp Fiction).

And I'd agree with Robert that Spike Lee's work has never really received the proper treatment on home video. Hopefully that is changing with these discs and Criterion's Do The Right Thing.