Hotel Noir (Blu-ray) (2012)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Crime Drama	Theatrical Trailer Trailer-x 4 for other films
Rating
Year Of Production	2012
Running Time	92:42
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Sebastian Gutierrez
Studio Distributor	Accent Film Entertainment	Starring	Rufus Sewell Malin Akerman Carla Gugino Danny DeVito Rosario Dawson Robert Foster Kevin Connolly Michelle Dawley
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Robin Hannibal Mathieu Schreyer

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080i
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, constantly - this is a noir after all.
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Felix (Rufus Sewell), a police detective, has stolen a suitcase full of cash from the mob intending to run away with dancer and mob moll Mary (Malin Akerman). When Mary does not arrive at their rendezvous, Felix checks into a local hotel. There, over the course of one night, he interacts with lounge singer Hanna Click (Carla Gugino), her thuggish “agent” Vance (Kevin Connolly), Eugene Portland (Danny DeVito), a sad shower door installer and pet portrait painter, Sevilla (Rosario Dawson), a call girl in a superhero costume doing the rounds of the hotel, and his police partner Jim Logan (Robert Foster). As Felix’s backstory is told, plus parts of Hanna’s, connections and interconnections between the various characters emerge.

     Hotel Noir is by screenwriter / director Sebastian Gutierrez; he also wrote and directed Judas Kiss (1998) but has more credits as a screenwriter with films such as Gothica (2003) and Snakes on a Plane (2006) on his resume. Interestingly, he also had a go at a screenplay with a structure of interlocking stories in 2011 when he wrote and directed Girl Walks into a Bar. Hotel Noir is his homage to the hard boiled noir thrillers of the 1940s; it is in black and white and features voiceover narration, unreliable storytelling, snappy dialogue, a detective in hat and trench coat, gangsters, the mob, molls, hookers, femme fatales, double crosses, shootouts and a jazz score.

     There are some familiar faces in the cast of Hotel Noir including Rufus Sewell, Carla Gugino, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson and Robert Foster. The acting, like the dialogue, is a bit all over the place. Rufus Sewell, as the sap who falls for a dame, is not convincing enough to elicit our sympathy while Danny DeVito is Danny DeVito, and feels out of place. The standout, however, is Carla Gugino who is excellent as the lounge singer with a past, and a heart. Gugino was good in Watchmen (2009) and San Andreas (2015) and she also had a role in Sin City (2005), in which Rosario Dawson, who is over the top in Hotel Noir, also had a part. I mention this for interest because in 2016 Hotel Noir was rereleased in a coloured version and renamed City of Sin.

     The period setting of Hotel Noir is not specified although the cars, the typewriter, telephone and microphone place it into the late 1940s / early 1950s, the heyday of the noir thrillers it apes. Hotel Noir is stylist and tries to be cool and clever; it is uneven and tries too hard, but it is fun and almost succeeds.

Video

     Hotel Noir is presented in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, in 1080i using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     Despite being only 1080i this black and white print is strong in detail showing the stylish interior of the hotel; it is also impressive in the dancing segments with the white costumes, or the white dress when Gugino does her number, not bleeding into the black / grey backgrounds. Blacks and greyscale are very good, brightness and contrast consistent. The film is steady in motion and I saw no marks or artefacts.

     No subtitles are provided.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio is a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1. The IMDb indicates that the film was released with a mono audio.

     Dialogue occasionally sounds muffled, as if it was recorded on set but the microphone was too distant from the character. However, it is always understandable. The film has a lot of conversations during which the rears and surrounds are not used but in the flashback sequences engines, rain, thunder and, during the heist the hum of machinery, is evident. The subwoofer added a bit of depth to the engines, shots and the rain. The jazz oriented score by Robin Hannibal and Mathieu Schreyer evokes the 1940s, and so supports the visuals well.

     There are no lip synchronisation issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Start-up Trailers (8:37)

     On start-up there are trailers for The Conspiracy, Pig, Shadows of Liberty and noobz. These trailers can also be selected from the menu at the “Trailers” tab plus a trailer for Hotel Noir (2:22).

     The only other Blu-ray of Hotel Noir listed is a German release. No other details are available.

     With a cast including Rufus Sewell, Carla Gugino, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson and Robert Foster, stylish black and white visuals, snappy dialogue, double crosses, shootouts and a jazz score, Hotel Noir is an entertaining homage to the noir thrillers of the 1940s that is uneven but gets a lot of things right.

     The video and audio are fine, despite being only 1080i and lossy Dolby Digital. Trailers are the only extras. This is hardly a good advertisement for HD presentation but this has been out for a while and if you see it in a bargain bin somewhere it is certainly worth a look

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall