In The Name Of The King 2: Two Worlds (2011/Fox Blu-ray)/Sinners & Saints (2011/Anchor Bay Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/B- Sound: B/B- Extras: D/C- Films: D/C-
And now
for two releases desperate to be familiar genre pieces, but instead backfire
and contribute to the big genre glut.
The
ever-awful Uwe Boll is back making another awful feature with In The Name Of The King 2: Two Worlds
(2011), the belated, rather unrelated sequel to the 2007 In The Name Of The King from 2007 which one of our fellow writers
gave far too kind a negative review to at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8068/In+The+Name+Of+The+King:+A+Dun
The first
dud had Jason Statham, but now we get a repetitive Dolph Lundgren as a modern
soldier helping out kids and teaching them self-defense. Suddenly, a magical woman from centuries ago
shows up and takes him back in time (I am not
making this up) to fight ancient battles she and her people might otherwise
loose. Forget this might change all of time for the worst, but Boll ay least
has never acted like he was making art like most hacks out there today. It is just bad, bad, bad and not in a hip way
as Lundgren looks like he is going to fall on the floor laughing and bust a gut
at any time in the long, long, long 96 minutes of this highly, absolutely
unnecessary sequel to a film no one talks about anymore.
Extras
include two featurettes and two feature length audio commentaries, one of which
is remarkably by Boll (yeeeeeeeeeee) and the other by Writer Michael C Nachoff.
We
figured we could; only go up with William Kaufman’s Sinners & Saints (2011), but it is so determined to go out of
its way to be a clone of The Boondock
Saints (even a bar in the film, real or not, is called The Boondock Saint)
that any originality or possibility of a good story is whittled down quickly
and this never works. The cast is even
ambitious trying to give convincing performances, but it is very forgettable
and after the sequel to the actual film only did so well, much too late to
capitalize on the original’s critical success, commercial success or large fan
base. They even get Sean Patrick
Flannery from Boondock Saints and
it’s nice to see Costas Mandylor among the mostly unknown cast.
Here, a
good cop finds out a series of murders have more ugly happenings behind them
then he first suspects, but even that is only done so well and the clichés
ultimately end any hope I had this could be a pleasant surprise. Extras include Deleted Scenes and a Behind
The Scenes featurette.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 AVC @ 21 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer on King is no crown jewel, looking weak
and with plenty of visual issues typical of all Boll films, with detail issues,
color limits and some sloppiness that makes this harder to watch than I first
expected. The digital work is bad
too. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High
Definition image transfer can show Sinners
is not as much of a cinematic sin, but is still on the weak side and stylizing
on purpose is part of the problem.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on King is towards sometimes towards the front speakers, but to my
shock was more competent than Boll; himself typically is. It is not a perfect mix, but practically
pro0fessional for a change. The Dolby
TrueHD 5.1 mix on Sinners is more
dialogue-based and limited, in part due to budget as well, but is not bad
overall for the kind of film it is and surrounds do kick in at times.
- Nicholas Sheffo
