Warner Bros. has finally released Michael on Blu-ray for the first time! Although there is no new scan, no new features, the fact that this now exists in High Definition should be all that fans need to warrant picking this up.
Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided us with a free copy of this Blu-ray/DVD that we reviewed in this blog post. The opinions we share are our own.“Would-be ghosts. UFO voyagers. A chicken that pecks out the “Moonlight Sonata” on the piano – blindfolded! They’re the kinds of stories that keep the National Mirror in the nation’s shopping carts. And they’re the kinds of stories that make the tabloid’s reporters think they’ve heard and seen it all. But that’s before they met Michael.
He may be a grubby party animal who knows his way around a dance floor, but Michael is very much an angel. And with John Travolta in the title role. Michael is very much a divine romantic comedy. William Hurt, Andie MacDowell and Robert Pastorelli are writers sent by boss Bob Hoskins to get an exclusive on the heavenly visitor. The journalists want a page-one scoop. But their subject has a far more joyous and life-affirming plan in mind.”
The 90s was a resurgence for John Travolta thanks to Pulp Fiction. During this decade he made more films than any other time in his career, all very diverse. While he’s played a wide variety of roles over the years, his role as Michael may be one of the more unique of his career. The vulgar and disgusting, yet charming winged man is a very fascinating character to watch throughout the unfolding of this story. Being the subject of a tabloid ‘investigation’, you’re immediately met with more than a few doubts when it comes to the validity of his hosts claim that he’s an angel, but as soon as they hit the road for Chicago, strange things begin to happen to his traveling companions.
At its core, Michael is a love story. Love story veteran Nora Ephron is no stranger to the genre, bringing to life some of the most memorable romantic films: When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, etc. Like the characters she writes in her other films, her subjects Frank Quinlan (William Hurt) and Dorothy Winters (Andie MacDowell) have a long and difficult road ahead of them, always at odds with each other, seemingly incompatible at every turn. But, in a cryptic revelation that Michael may have made a bet on Quinlan, he’s forced to do as Michael says or risk losing the story of a lifetime. While the romantic side of things provides the bulk of the story, the comedic portion is a welcomed accompaniment. Travolta brings a lot to the role in this aspect, his almost dead-pan delivery of dialogue such as he invented standing in line, or other recounts of historical moments he supposedly witnessed do provide levity in the story, but they are nowhere near the caliber as moments you may see in Ephron’s earlier work. While I personally would be asking a million questions of an angel who has come to Earth one last time and reports to have seen centuries of history, regardless of his vow to tell-all when they get to Chicago, I enjoy how they don’t focus on that at all. The story isn’t about proving the existence of angels, Heaven, or even God, but it’s a story about love and faith.
Michael has such a fantastic cast: John Travolta, William Hurt, Andie MacDowell, Bob Hoskins, and many others. While this, and the light-hearted nature of the film was always a draw for me back when I saw the film when it came out, I’m just not as impressed with the film today as I was back then. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen more of Ephron’s work, but the love-story seems more generic than it should be. The film hangs on whether or not Michael succeeds in his manipulations of two human beings falling in love, and at the end I really didn’t care that much. There were some sweet moments between the two, but I didn’t feel that connection between them like you should.
Video
Michael is presented in 1080p High Definition Widescreen 1.85:1. This transfer looks to be in pretty good shape coming to Blu-ray for the first time. Grain is kept at a consistent level, the picture is clear and detailed, containing a nice balance in color. For their Warner Archive collection, WB doesn’t go all-out for these films with new scans as far as I know, and that’s evident here. While the picture does look great in high definition compared to its snap-case DVD predecessor, it lacks some of the vivid detail and sharpness a new 4k scan would have provided. Still, I for one am happy to own this on Blu-ray for the first time.
Audio
The audio is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. This track sounds good, with the majority of the sound coming through the center channel in the form of dialogue. The surrounds are utilized mainly for certain atmospheric effects and the score, all of which are well balanced. The 90s was one of the last decades to rely heavily on CD soundtrack sales that accompany the film, and you can kind of get that sense here, along with the advertisement on the back of the case below the credits that lists the soundtrack album with the featured music.
Special Features
Unfortunately, the only extra on this disc is the theatrical trailer. I would have loved to see some kind of retrospective from the cast, even about working with Nora Ephron, but just the bare minimum work done here.
Despite some of the generic love-story tropes the film employs, I still enjoyed Michael. Maybe not as much as I did twenty years ago, but the film still provides some solid entertainment, comedy, and some heartfelt moments that will make you smile.
