I’m a big fan of this underrated and critically-dismissed action movie. Created with the same sense of self-awareness that made Sam Raimi’s 'The Quick and the Dead' such a tongue-in-cheek joyride, Luc Besson’s 'The Professional' dares its audience to take it seriously. Consider the film’s alarmingly anti-PC pedophilic subtext (older professional hitman and jailbait moll fall in love); the wildly eccentric camerawork; Gary Oldman’s gloriously—deliciously—over-the-top performance as a psychotic corrupt cop. Everything here is played out with such a keen sense of its own outlandishness that it works better than it deserves to. The movie’s great. Period.
The slick widescreen cinematography (replete with extreme close-ups that are reduced to incoherent blurs on the panned-and-scanned videocassette, and carefully composed and choreographed action sequences that are downright incoherent when not viewed in the proper widescreen ratio) is preserved on this disc. The correct scope 2.35:1 ratio is almost perfectly framed (though the picture is not quite as wide as it should be). Take note that the disc jacket incorrectly states the letterbox ratio to be 1.85:1. This is a printing error. The disc is, in fact, presented in its proper theatrical 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio.
The disc looks and sounds great. There are chapter stops aplenty (54 to be precise) and the jacket features extensive liner notes that include interview quotes from director Besson and stars Jean Reno, Natalie Portman and Danny Aiello.
Columbia Tri-Star could easily have included the excellent theatrical preview trailer for the film at the head or tail of this disc but, alas, nobody in charge of mastering films on laserdisc seems to feel this is necessary or desirable. They should all get a clue.
Vital statistics: Columbia/Tri-Star Home Video, 2 sides, CLV, Dolby Stereo Surround, Chapter stops, Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1), $34.95.
S. Damien Segal.
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