PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Evil That Men Do (1984)

The Evil That Men Do (1984)

If you create a user account, you can add your own review of this DVD

Released 4-Aug-2003

Cover Art

This review is sponsored by
BUY IT

Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Theatrical Trailer
Trailer-The Replacement Killers; Hard Times; The Big Hit
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 1984
Running Time 86:34 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By J. Lee Thompson
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring Charles Bronson
Joseph Maher
Theresa Saldana
Amanda Nicole Thomas
Rene Enriquez
Antoinette Bower
Case ?
RPI $19.95 Music None Given


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Dutch
Arabic
Bulgarian
Czech
Danish
Finnish
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Swedish
Turkish
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    I first saw The Evil That Men Do as a teenager, and was quite shocked by it. This time around, it seemed a little dated and was nowhere near as shocking as I remembered it being.

    In The Evil that Men Do, Holland (Charles Bronson) is a retired hit man living the good life on an island paradise. Holland's now peaceful existence is shattered when he is enticed back to work to avenge a murdered friend. Holland is informed that his friend, George Hidaglo, a Latin American journalist, was murdered by the notorious master torturer Dr Clement Mollock (Joseph Maher), better known as "The Doctor".

(SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read)

    Holland enlists the help of George's widow Rhinan (Theresa Saldana), and her daughter Sarah (Amanda Nicole Thomas) as part of his cover. With the information provided by informant Max Ortiz (Rene Enriquez), Holland sets about intimidating The Doctor. He achieves this by eliminating his protectors one by one. In a final attempt to flush out the now-vulnerable Doctor, Holland kidnaps his sister Claire (Antoinette Bower) and holds her for ransom.

    However, things don't go exactly to plan when The Doctor captures Max and Sarah. As expected, he tortures Max for information and takes Sarah hostage in the hope of trading her for his sister. Holland lures The Doctor to a deserted mine to conduct the trade, but, the mine is not deserted - it is filled with peasant miners, many of whom were tortured by The Doctor in the past. The trade does not go well, especially since The Doctor's sister is already dead. Holland kills the Doctor's remaining driver/bodyguard enabling Sarah to escape. The miners by now recognise the totally unprotected Doctor and en masse decide to exact their revenge.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    Considering the age of this movie, I was surprised at the quality of the transfer, although it is by no means perfect.

    The Evil that Men Do is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer suffers slightly from grain throughout, although this is not distracting. The grain does, however, affect the sharpness and overall feel of the transfer. The amount of detail visible in the shadows is just passable but would have been better if the grain had not been present.

    The colours of the transfer were just passable. The colours were constant and did not fluctuate, however, the movie looked dull and washed-out from beginning to end.

    I did not notice any MPEG artefacts and only slight aliasing occurred on rare occasions. There were numerous small film artefacts present during the movie but only one at 64:16 is worth noting.

    This is a single layered disc therefore there is no layer change present.

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

Audio

    The audio track was tolerable but so much more could have been offered.

    There are five audio tracks present on this DVD; English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, all Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (192kbps).

    The overall dialogue quality was acceptable. On occasions, the actors' speech came across slightly muffled and harder to understand, but generally this was not a problem. Audio sync was not an issue with this transfer.

    The musical score is a little overbearing and if anything could be described as stereotypical for this age and genre of movie.

    As the audio tracks present are only mono, there was no use made of the surround channels or the subwoofer.

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

Extras

Menu

    The menu system is static and silent.

Theatrical Trailer

Trailers

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The Region 1 version of this DVD misses out on;

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;

    Both versions are essentially the same.

Summary

    The Evil That Men Do is not one of Charles Bronson's classics. It is an entertaining movie, although a little dated. The movie has been given a reasonable transfer to DVD.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Geoff Greer (read my bio)
Friday, May 30, 2003
Review Equipment
DVDSony DVP-S525, using S-Video output
DisplayBang & Olufsen BeoVision Avante 82cm 16:9 Widescreen. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderDenon AVR-1803. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum.
AmplificationDenon AVR 1803
SpeakersParadigm: Phantom Version 3 Front, Jensen SPX-13 Centre, Jensen SPX-5 Rear, Jensen SPX-17 Sub

Other Reviews
DVD Net - Jules F