Beneath The Darkness (2011/Image Blu-ray)/The Debt (2007 original version/Israel/IFC/MPI DVD)/Retreat (2011/Sony DVD)
Picture:
B-/C+/C Sound: B-/C+/B- Extras: C-/C+/C Films: C/B/C+
Now for a
thriller that works and two that should have.
Martin
Guigui’s Beneath The Darkness (2011)
has the somewhat underrated Dennis Quaid as a serial killer in a small Texas town who is slowly
going madder and madder. He is also a
“respected” member of the community, making it easier for him to hide any crime,
until some local high school juniors (Aimee Teegarden and Tony Oller among
them) start to suspect something unusual is going on and decide to risk more
than they should to find out.
The
set-up is familiar, but not easy to do.
In this case, the problem becomes a script that has issues, juniors who
think, talk and act more like freshmen or 8th graders and actors who
seem just a bit too old to be playing them.
That makes this unintentionally funny, yet still bad and the whole thing
eventually collapses by the final reel.
Too bad because if the makers had taken his more seriously and cast
younger people as younger schoolmates, this could have been chilling and
suspenseful; we get missed opportunities instead. Extras include a trailer and Behind The Scenes featurette.
Assaf
Bernstein’s The Debt is the original
2007 original Israeli version of the film recently remade with Helen
Mirren. Though I have not caught that
one yet, this original version is a classic of their cinema and a fine thriller
about a trio of Israeli Mossad spies who have been ordered to capture a Nazi
butcher found hiding out as a doctor and bring him back alive thirty years
ago. In the present day, he turns out to
be still at large and the older trio have to go and get him again, but this
time, it will be to kill him.
This is a
powerful film that never wastes a moment, is smart, realistic, suspenseful and
never seems distant despite dealing with a Holocaust murderer. The acting all around is amazing by actors we
have never seen before and is better than most (and mostly unambituous) Hollywood thrillers have been lately. If you have not seen it, even if you saw the
remake, go out of your way for this one.
Extras include a trailer and Making
Of featurette.
Finally
we have the interesting British thriller Retreat
(2011) co-written and directed by Carl Tibbetts. Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton are a
couple who have been together for years and been happy until some recent
personal trouble, so they decide to revisit an island that highlighted the
beginning of their relationship to get things together again. Isolated from the rest of the world, they
should have peace and no problems, but the sudden appearance of a bleeding
soldier (Jamie Bell, more than holding his own) changes things and what he
reveals to them about what’s coming next is something they can either believe
or think he is imagining because he has lost his mind.
I liked
the cast and the set-up, but where their should have been serious suspense and
some great moments considering the three actors involved, the film comes up
short and becomes more of a “stuck-in-a” movie than the outright thriller it
was capable of being. Still, I was glad
to see it and happy to see the actors in action, especially Bell, who has grown up (I almost did not
recognize him) and at least this was intelligent and ambitious. A Photo Gallery and Making Of featurette are the extras.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Darkness is not bad, but is a little softer in fine detail than I
would have liked, even if some of this was slight styling on the part for the
makers. The use of the scope frame is
good, but not extraordinary. The anamorphically
enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Debt is
soft, but I liked the look of that film and the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X
1 image on Retreat is even softer
than expected, yet I liked its location and camera angles. I would like to see the latter two get
Blu-ray releases down the line.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Darkness is lively, but dialogue based and more towards the front
speakers than I would have liked, while the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Retreat is more active than expected
and about its equal. That leaves Debt with its own lossy Dolby Digital
5.1 mix that is not as pronounced, but at least it is recoded well.
- Nicholas Sheffo
