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Of course, he's also made plenty of stinkers - The Man Who Knew Too Little, Larger Than Life - these are frustratingly mediocre movies, ones that didn't do anything for his career and are now largely forgotten. However, while such ill-advised family fare may be cringe- inducing in their ineptitude, Murray's full-fledged 1984 drama The Razor's Edge was disappointing for entirely different reasons. Not because it pandered to a lowbrow sensibility, but because it aimed so high that it never quite got the chance to get its feet off the ground.

This 1984 adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's novel is expansive and epic, but it tries so hard to replicate big literature that it sacrifices any kind of organic dramatic tension. The concept is initially interesting, a journey for Murray from Illinois to Paris to India in search of enlightenment, in a world that doesn't seem to offer much of it. But instead of feeling privy to his innermost struggles, we're left outside the circle, invited to share in the panoramic beauty of the lush photography but not in the psychological workings of our lead interpreter.

Murray's surrounding cast doesn't offer much help: While Denholm Elliott is impressive as the fading socialite who tries to act the part of a big wig amid a declining fortune, Catherine Hicks as Murray's one-time fiancee is terribly miscast, and much too endearing of late 80s spoken-word colloquialisms to be believable as a turn-of-the-century pseudo- flapper. More interesting is Theresa Russell as the shy but eventually tormented Sophie, a character who has to stomach not just the death of her son and husband, but a descent into drug abuse and Parisian prostitution. We don't get a clear enough picture of her character to really feel for her on her downward spiral, but Russell's sassy persona is at least believable and interesting.

A great way to describe the film comes from one of its own lines of dialogue: At one point, when Hicks asks Murray whether they'll ever meet again, Murray laughs and playfully slaps her. "Don't you get it? It doesn't matter." It's an appropriate encapsulation of the film, one that wants to hold our hand as it journeys from the status quo to inner peace, but a shoddy screenplay and uninspired direction keep it from being anything more than a Bill Murray vanity project. It wants us to understand its esoteric ways, but it never proves to us why we should care at all. For hard-core Murray cultists only.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The previous VHS and LaserDisc editions of the film only offered a severely cropped vision of this film's panoramic 2.40:1 widescreen vistas, so finally getting an anamorphic transfer is quite a relief. However, the quality here is less-than- extraordinary. Colors are dim and diluted, and even more annoying, the print is very dirty and full of blemishes, including noticeable scratches and even hair! Blacks are alright as is contrast, resulting in fair detail, but it could have been much better had some effort been put into at least trying to clean up the source element a bit. A rushed, uninspired transfer that doesn't do justice to the movie's considerable visual panache.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The English Dolby 4.0 surround mix here is a bit plain. Jack Nitzsche's music is full-bodied and encompassing, but a lot of the film's ADR is out-of-place, sleek where it should be gritty, too bright where it should be shadowed. Dynamic range is above average for the era, with some nice highs and lows, and the score does have a sense of grandness to it. The mono surround channel is underutilized, mainly for ambient effects but little else. All in all not a bad transfer, just hardly exceptional.

Also included are English and French subtitles and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

All we get is the film's theatrical trailer, and that's it.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts