The Hoax [DVD] [2007]

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• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  A decent release of an intersting film

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  This is a fun and dramatic film that relates the (mostly) true story behind a thoroughly bogus story. Clifford Irving is a man who became famous when he claimed to be in contact with reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, who had allegedly authorized Irving to work with him on compiling his official autobiography. Only Irving had in fact never met Hughes, and was making the whole thing up. With forged documents and letters and plenty of nerve, Irving duped his publisher and the world at large, until the truth finally caught up with him. This is an interesting story from real life, and it makes for a film that is at turns funny and dramatic. The acting is excellent across the board, particularly from leads Richard Gere and Alfred Molina, who plays Irving's friend and accomplice. The film also makes a nice double-feature with F for Fake, Orson Welles's documentary about hoaxes, which goes into some detail regarding Irving and the Hughes book. The Blu-ray, from Echo Bridge, is one of the better efforts to come out of that company, whose Blu-rays transfers are often quite poor. This is one of the best I've seen from them, though compression artifacts occasionally rear their ugly heads. Mostly, though, this is a nice-looking presentation, and definitely a worthy upgrade from the DVD. Especially at the low price point. Unfortunately, not all of the DVD extras are carried over, but a number of them are, which was honestly more than I expected, considering the distributor and the price. Overall, I was very pleased with this purchase.

  This review is from The Hoax [Blu-ray] [2007]

  Posted 12 years ago by Oblivion138

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Great film based on true story

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  The story of Clifford Irving and a fake biography on Howard Hughes. It's amazing that Irving almost got away with it. Wonderfully acted with a great comic undertone.

  This review is from The Hoax [Blu-ray] [2007]

  Posted 12 years ago by TheMovieGuy