Raw Deal
Mark Kaminsky used to be an FBI agent until he got personal with one of his suspects and got the choice between leaving the bureau or getting his ass sued. As a result he’s ended up as a sheriff of a small town when he gets a call from his previous boss, Shannon.
Shannon’s son has been murdered by some gangsters who seem to have an inside source within the police so Shannon can’t rely on his own colleagues for getting revenge. As such, he asks Kaminsky to infiltrate the mobsters’ gang and do what regular police forces can’t…
Sound and Vision:
Raw Deal comes with image quality that can be expected from a 1980s movie. There’s still some dirt and scratches here and there and the overall image quality definitely gets hurt by the telecine wobble that’s present. Still, Raw Deal does look better on Blu-ray than on other home releases we’ve seen in the past.
While the movie got released in theatres with just a Stereo soundtrack, we now get a DTS-HD 5.1 track which adds a little more punch to the music while voices get cleaned up a bit. Still, the focus remains heavy on the front channels so saying this is a surround track would be overdoing it.
Extras:
– Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man who raised Hollywood
– Raw Deal, a generic gangsters film
Two extras that combined are worth almost half an hour of info about the early years of the Governator in Hollywood and how Raw Deal ripped off from Arnie’s other movies.
Conclusion:
Raw Deal definitely isn’t a great movie and it will never become a classic. Still, when taking into consideration the period of time when it was released it isn’t bad either. There’s some action, some comedy, and plenty of one-liners from Arnie. Especially during the scene where Arnold tries to say “Molested, murdered, and mutilated” (sounds like “mowefted, mowded, and mow-da-lay-ded”) you’ll have a hard time not to laugh. Or think of the scenes where Schwarzenegger picks up his guns or drives in a Cadillac on the music of Satisfaction while shooting everything to pieces. Classic, and certain to bring a smile to your face!
All in all this Blu-ray release manages to improve the overall quality of Raw Deal when it comes to home releases, eventhough that still doesn’t mean things look and sound good or that this movie has suddenly become great.
5.0