Review: Harpoon
Blu-ray: Harpoon (2019)
Regular visitors to our website and listeners of our podcasts will already be aware that I’m a big fan of Harpoon’s writer/director Rob Grant.
I’d already bought Mon Ami (AKA Frenemies) on DVD before loving watching Fake Blood at Grimmfest 2017. It was then of course an absolute pleasure to chat with Rob on one of our interview shows.
Fast Forward to Grimmfest 2019 and once again Rob delivered the goods with Harpoon, where I end my thoughts on it in our review of the event saying “Yet another of Rob’s films that I shall be buying as soon as it is available”.
Well it is now available to buy from Arrow Films in a “must buy” Blu-ray release that not only shows the movie with the best sound and picture, but is also loaded with some of the most enjoyable special features that it has been my pleasure to view in quite a while.
As I mentioned in my 2019 Grimmfest round-up, Harpoon is primarily set at sea in the interior of a boat. It is Rob’s great writing and directing skills that never allow you to become disinterested with the limited locations, and the great performances from the 3 lead actors keep you invested into the arc of their characters stories.
Yes, this is a movie with only 3 main actors, mostly filmed in a boat…and is excellent.
The twisting narrative (of which I shall of course give no spoilers) keeps you guessing as to what will happen next, and then just when you think you’ve got a handle on it all, the proverbial rug is swept from underneath you and you have to rethink all over again.
Harpoon is a dark comedy (always at the heart of Robs work and one of the reasons I always enjoy his movies) where your allegiance to each character is constantly changing. Their actions and dialogue eliciting laughs and winces in equal measure, all adding an extra emotional hit when you keep thinking “what would I do if I was there?“
Even being aware of the final outcome, watching Harpoon for a 2nd time was still just as enjoyable…maybe even more so, as I was watching out for things that on the 1st viewing passed me by. I already look forward to watching it again before too long as well.
As I mentioned earlier, the special features are a hell of a lot of fun and will keep you entertained and informed for many hours.
Another winner from Rob Grant, and another great release from Arrow Films.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
- High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation
- Original lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 stereo soundtracks
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Audio commentary by writer/director Rob Grant and producers Michael Peterson and Kurtis David Harder
- Director’s psychedelic audio commentary by Rob Grant
- Dropping Anchor: The Making of Harpoon, a half-hour behind-the-scenes documentary featuring interviews with the cast and crew
- Deleted Scenes with audio commentary by Rob Grant
- Diving Deeper, B-roll footage with audio commentary by Rob Grant
- Welcome Aboard, an exclusive interview with Rob Grant, conducted at the FrightFest UK premiere
- FrightFest premiere introduction and Q&A
- FrightFest TV interviews with Rob Grant
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring two choices of artwork
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Amy Simmons.
Review by Dave from a disc kindly supplied by Arrow Films via Fetch Publicity.
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