NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: MVD Marquee Blu-ray (July 2024): MVD Marquee have transferred Richard Shepard's The Linguini Incident to Blu-ray. It is cited as being a "presentation of the director’s cut of the main feature struck from a brand new 4K transfer from film interpositive". The 1080P looks adequate - the film has cool, funky colors and the image has a green leaning. There is depth and texture. It's on a dual-layered disc with a high bitrate. Nothing is particularly dynamic but it is relatively pleasing overall - clean without speckles nor damage. 

NOTE: We have added 40 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, MVD Marquee use a linear PCM 2.0 channel track (24-bit) in the original English language trying to support the 'Ultra Stereo' cinema 4/2/4 photographic sound system. The Linguini Incident has modest aggression with gunplay, restaurant gaps and weird performance artist effects. Thomas Newman (Career Opportunities, Erin Brockovich, In the Bedroom, American Beauty, Shawshank Redemption) is responsible for the film's score, while the film's soundtrack features a cornucopia of sampling including music by Ming Opposed, Martin Blasick, David Karr, Bert Kaempfert, and Meat Puppets. It sounds quite tight in the uncompressed with decent support for the higher end. MVD Marquee offer optional English subtitles (on the 'Making of' too) on their Region 'A'-locked Blu-ray.

The MVD Marquee Blu-ray offers quite a lot starting with two commentaries. the first includes director Shepard, lovable Arquette and Eszter Balint, co-producer Sarah Jackson and co-screenwriter Tamar Brott, moderated by “Cereal at Midnight’s” Heath Holland. Scattered fun and recollections ensue. The second commentary has co-writer / director Shepard alone where he identifies the 'US version' from his preferred director cut, how it came to be, how this footage was 'in' and others discarded. Production hurdles are broached and he seems quite genuine. I appreciated his participation. "The Making of The Linguini Incident" is a new (2024) 1 3/4 hour documentary, directed by Richard Schenkman, about the making of the film featuring interviews with Richard Shepard (The Man From Earth,) co-writer Tamar Brott, Rosanna Arquette, Eszter Balint, Marlee Matlin, Producer Sarah Jackson, Production designer Marcia Hinds and Richard von Ernst who played an 'annoying patron' in the film. Many topics are discussed including working with David Bowie and much more. The original theatrical version (1:38:22) in SD is available for curious devotees. Included is a short introduction by Shepard, and lastly, a 6-minute 'Photo Gallery' with commentary by him, original and 2024 trailers plus the package has a slip case and reversible artwork.   

Richard Shepard's The Linguini Incident is unapologetically quirky with photogenic Arquette leading your eyes as a Houdini-esque wannabe escape artist and appealing Bowie holding his own with the classy glitz decor as the ultra-elegant, green-card-seeking, bartender. GQ-suited restaurateurs André Gregory and Buck Henry (Dante and Cecil) add a few smiles as does unaffected Eszter Balint as 'bestie' Vivian. 'Hit and miss' dialogue was a shade more on the 'miss' end of the spectrum. Chemistry was not as smoldering as hoped. Rosanna Arquette was the selling point and she's always enjoyable with a few distant echoes of After Hours ("Marcy Marcy Marcy!") I'd never seen The Linguini Incident before but I am glad I did. It's probably more suited to fans of the leads. Keep your eyes peeled for, future wife, Iman in the crowd. Kudos to MVD Marquee for the stacked Blu-ray. Double commentaries with director participation, a feature-length 'making of', the theatrical version (in SD) and more. There's some nostalgia here, for sure, if not quite achieving 'chic' status. To each his own.

Gary Tooze