Review Detail
7.2 2 10
(Updated: October 05, 2016)
Overall rating
7.8
Audio/Video Quality
9.0
Audio Editing
7.0
Visual Editing
10.0
Narrative
6.0
Enjoyment
7.0
As “visual wallpaper,” as Soderbergh describes it, this edit works pretty darn well. A glance here, a half-minute of eyeball attention there, along with the hypno-lounge soundtrack, make for an excellent movies-cum-music video experience. The music is hip enough and mellow enough to serve as a backing track for almost whatever you’re doing, whether you look at the screen or not. And I’m grateful to have discovered groovy new pieces: “Camel” and “Elephant Ride” by Flying Lotus.
The oft-used split-screen presentation oozes style and provides plenty to ogle. The visual editing on display is gorgeous to behold but would have been far less remarkable without the original films’ visual composition.
Not being familiar with the Harry Palmer series, I don’t think I could follow the story all that well—nor do I think I was meant to. There’s no audible dialogue, after all.
If the new audio were to be appreciated as a deliberate rescoring rather than a music video paste (it’s assuredly the latter, but let’s consider for a moment the former), it would fall a bit short in that regard. Cool as the music is, the musical tone and the visuals don’t always align. When the music does generally fit a scene, it often doesn’t start or end quite where it should, such as upon or near a scene change. And as delightfully as the music sometimes reaches you, there are a few songs that really don’t fit and took me out of the zone. Nitpick: There are a few noticeable pauses in the music, and I think the edit would have been better served without them. . . or with much shorter pauses.
Still, this is a pretty cool edit, because spy stuff (and babes). I had fun checking out the ‘60s aesthetics—the clothing, the tech, the hairdos, the furniture—and chilling to the tunes.
Here on IFDB, there’s an excellent book-like cover by TM2YC, who also appears to have put in some effort to list the Flying Lotus tracks used in the edit. Thanks, TM2YC, for keeping us up to date on Soderbergh’s fanedit doings and making it easier to check out eeenteresting music.
The oft-used split-screen presentation oozes style and provides plenty to ogle. The visual editing on display is gorgeous to behold but would have been far less remarkable without the original films’ visual composition.
Not being familiar with the Harry Palmer series, I don’t think I could follow the story all that well—nor do I think I was meant to. There’s no audible dialogue, after all.
If the new audio were to be appreciated as a deliberate rescoring rather than a music video paste (it’s assuredly the latter, but let’s consider for a moment the former), it would fall a bit short in that regard. Cool as the music is, the musical tone and the visuals don’t always align. When the music does generally fit a scene, it often doesn’t start or end quite where it should, such as upon or near a scene change. And as delightfully as the music sometimes reaches you, there are a few songs that really don’t fit and took me out of the zone. Nitpick: There are a few noticeable pauses in the music, and I think the edit would have been better served without them. . . or with much shorter pauses.
Still, this is a pretty cool edit, because spy stuff (and babes). I had fun checking out the ‘60s aesthetics—the clothing, the tech, the hairdos, the furniture—and chilling to the tunes.
Here on IFDB, there’s an excellent book-like cover by TM2YC, who also appears to have put in some effort to list the Flying Lotus tracks used in the edit. Thanks, TM2YC, for keeping us up to date on Soderbergh’s fanedit doings and making it easier to check out eeenteresting music.
S