Trouble Man

"While it doesn't have the rep of movies like Superfly, The Mack, or Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song, Trouble Man is certainly one of the better films to come out of the blaxploitation cycle of the 1970s, and if you strip away the funky threads and sometimes dated ghetto slang, you get a solid crime story directed with subtle efficiency by Ivan Dixon, with a solid musical score from Marvin Gaye. Trouble Man has finally made its way onto DVD in an edition from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, and the disc captures the film's strengths with a minimum of fuss. Trouble Man has been released on a two-sided disc, one side featuring a widescreen transfer of the film, letterboxed at the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and enhanced for anamorphic playback on 16 x 9 monitors, and the flip side featuring a pan-and-scan version of the film at the full-screen ratio of 1.33:1. Both transfers look crisp and capture the streetwise look of Michel Hugo's camerawork nicely. The audio is presented in four formats: a new stereo mix of the English language soundtrack, and original mono versions in English, Spanish, and French, all mastered in Dolby Digital Stereo. Optional subtitles in English and Spanish are also on board. As a bonus, the disc includes the original trailer for Trouble Man, as well previews for three other Fox DVD releases. While this release is short on extras, it does offer a highly underrated movie in a strong package, and folks interested in '70s grindhouse cinema will find the Trouble Man DVD to be a pleasant surprise."