Official Synopsis
When six guests arrive at a strange house they soon discover that they have more in common than they suspected, including the fact that they are all being blackmailed by the mysterious Mr. Boddy. But when their host turns up dead and the accusations fly, it’s anyone’s guess who done it.
I fondly remember watching this more than once in 1985. Why? It’s not because of my dedication to the movie, rather it was the brilliance of the cast and the little things that you don’t catch the first time around. That’s really the charm of the film and the replay value of it. Once the mystery at the end is unraveled, you have to go back and watch it again to see if the explanation of ‘how they did it’ really happened. So, for example, if you are told that Miss Scarlet was in the study, while the rest were in the kitchen seeing a dead cook, then you notice that on the second go around. What’s great is that everything is so darn subtle, so you won’t catch it all if you’re new to the film. Again, that’s brilliance at work.
Another bit of brilliance was the fact that the movie had three different endings. When you went to see it in the theater, your ending would not be the same as the other theater’s ending. Quite a brilliant concept and what could very well be perceived as the first ‘alternate ending’ in a film. Okay, maybe not the first, but definitely the first to be shown in a theatrical release (all at the same time). It keeps the audience engaged and keeps them coming back, and that was the niche of the film, and the board game.
Let’s talk cast. Eileen Brennan (Mrs. Peacock), the late/great Madeline Kahn (Mrs. White), Christopher Lloyd (Professor Plum), Martin Mull (Colonel Mustard), Lesley Ann Warren (Miss Scarlet), Michael McKean (Mr. Green) and Tim Curry (Wadsworth) make up the majority of the cast. All of them were brilliant, and more importantly you could tell they were having one fun time with this production. Each played their role, each brought a certain kind of subtle chaos to the story, and when all put together they created a realistic cast of colorful characters that truly brought Clue to life. The best of the bunch, if you needed to pick out the best, is Tim Curry as Wadsworth. Fast talking, quick-witted and charming are the best ways to describe his performance. He leads the pack, especially on the insane ending portion of the film when he’s explaining ‘who done it’. That’s the best part of the movie, in my opinion.
When you have a solid cast, a fun mystery and a fast pace then you’re bound to have solid success. Clue is definitely all of these things. If you have never experienced it then don’t delay. It’s ridiculous fun that doesn’t take itself too serious.
Now, as for the Blu-ray portion of this release, it’s very solid. The colors are definitely in tune with the HD transfer. You have very crisp, clean and smooth looking blues, yellows and reds. I will say that the transfer did have a bit of ‘too much dark’ in it, as some of the darker scenes were difficult to make out. For example, when we see Miss Scarlet on the side of the road, it’s tough to really get much light out of the HD transfer. Even when she is picked up by Professor Plum and they have a conversation, it’s still a bit too dark for some reason. That darkness is carried throughout the film, mostly during the outside scenes. Oddly enough, the dark scenes don’t breed compression issues, so you’ll get no color banding in terms of light/dark. There is definitely not much grain and absolutely no artifacts in the transfer.
The audio track is mono DTS-HD, which is fine (you don’t really need 7.1 for this one).
As for the features, it’s disappointing, but at the same time good. You only get the theatrical trailer and the 3 alternate endings, but the disc allows you to either see all the endings or let the film randomly choose an ending for you. That’s pretty cool, if you think about it. So, while you’re not getting much, it is being rather inventive with what you do get.