Sep 25
From the title you might think that this is not going to be a very good review. Well far from it I really enjoyed the first Crank movie with its non-stop adrenalin pumping pace and sense of humour. Well Crank 2 is more of the same only with the dial set to eleven. The movie starts where the previous movie ends with our hero (?) dropping to the ground from a helicopter and surviving only to have his heart stolen and replaced by an artificial version which he must keep charged and that’s all I’m going to reveal about the plot.
As far as picture quality at times it’s outstanding and always looks good. At low of the action takes place outside or in well lit interiors which contribute to the quality. However once you realise while viewing the extras that the whole film was made on hand held consumer 1080p cameras you’ll understand a good job they have gone with the picture and some of the effects. The 7.1 channel DTS HD Master Audio mix is also very good bullets and the effects constantly fly around the sound stage.
The extras are also reasonably good with some insight into why and how the movie was made but as with the movie don’t expect anything too deep and meaningful. However marks are taken off as the US version comes with a digital copy which is missing from the UK release.
Now the Cranky bit. There is a major issue with this disk in the UK. It’s quite obvious that the disk was not thoroughly tested before it was sent to be mastered and there are a lot of posts on the internet from people having issues getting this title to run and I experienced it myself. After inserting the disk and waiting quite a while you get a small square in the middle of the screen and you only get video here and no menus. I experienced this on both a PS3 (I never download updates the first time I load a movie) and also on a Sony BDP-S350, both very popular players. On the PS3 I was able to stop the disk and start it again and said yes when it prompted me to down load an update, after this all was good. For the S350 it was a little more complex as the machine is not within easy reach of an internet connection and I had to add a USB memory stick to allow it to update, again once the update was complete all was good. But a word of warning if you have a profile 1.0 player or your player it not connected to the internet, it’s not your player it’s the disk.
Overall a good fun movie but Lionsgate really need to sort their testing out for future releases.
Jul 01
First of all I have to admit I’m a little bit of a Clint Eastwood fan especially his more recent work and directing. I won’t reveal the plot suffice to say that Clint’s portrayal of Korean War veteran, ex auto worker and racist is exemplary and very believable you really feel for him and can sympathise with his old world point of view. The supporting cast most of which are played by real Hmong people add emotion and weight to the movie. Picture quality is good with some of the outdoor scenes showing outstanding contrast. The audio quality is good, it’s not going to shake the room, and it’s not that type of movie but generally backs up the believability. Extras are OK, there a nice feature on the making of the movie and the insistence of Clint Eastwood that they use the Hmong people with profiles and audition footage. Grand Torino: More than a Car explains men’s preoccupation with classic cars. One thing I will criticize is the digital copy. Most recent digital copies have been useable on portable players but this type is only useable on a PC and wrapped in DRM copy protection. It may be that Warner Bros don’t want to pay Apple to allow people to download via iTunes(as a lot of recent releases have) but this is one movie I would put on my iPhone but I’m not paying for it twice.
Well worth the investment for this BluRay shame about the digital copy.
Jan 28
I have to say I was looking forward to this movie, lots of ‘a’ list stars and an interesting premise. However the story turned into a poor rip off of an old Rambo movie, perhaps intentionally as a parody but others have done it better. A test of a good movie is how long my kids (Ben Stiller fans) stay to watch, this looked like our typical family viewing. In this case of the three (I have four but the eldest was out) one left within ten minutes and another in fifteen, not a good sign. A giggle was heard a few times but there was a severe lack of anything stirring in the belly region. Most of the time we could not understand Robert Downy Juniors poor black voice imitation and the less I say of Jack black the better. Everyone is raving about Tom Cruise’s appearance and he really stole the show. However, player – this movie is not
Picture quality was mixed. The jungle setting had great promise but a lot of the time was dark and lacking in detail, the opening scenes did look good but like most of the movie it was downhill from there. The audio fared better good explosions and good base extension but not quite demo material and I’ve already mentioned the dialogue. I doubt many will use this to show off their systems as your customers or guests will think you need a center channel upgrade.
Extras are the usual however I’ve not been through all of them yet and to be honest I’ve no interest to do so after the movie. One thing that impressed was the digital copy. I have a few disks that have promised this, some you down load from the web and the sites don’t work (if they do work they only work with Internet Explorer) and most others are playable via a PC only which I guess is OK for laptop users and travelers. The good news with this release is at last we have a digital copy that works with iTunes so you can load it onto your iPod or iPhone. It’s a little strange that they give you the movie on a DVD and then you have to download it from the iTunes store – sounds like Apple getting their pound of flesh to allow this functionality, anyway it is a welcome feature. If you’ve sat through he movie I doubt you will want to watch if again on a portable device.
Perhaps one to rent..
