The
Two Faces Of January
(2014/Magnolia Blu-ray)/Viktor
(2014/Inception DVD)
Picture:
B-/C Sound: B-/C+ Extras: C/C- Films: C
Here
are two new thrillers that miss the mark in full fashion...
Hossein
Amini's The Two Faces Of January
(2014) is another forgettable adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith
novel, though at least this one is not yet another played-out Ripley
the con artist tale. Instead, Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst are
a couple seemingly having a good time vacationing in Greece, but are
really on the run, especially him for not necessarily handling a
high-stakes investment deal well. Thus, some people (investors) are
wondering where he and possibly some of the lost money might be. He
gains the attention of a young con artist (Oscar Isaac) who sees a
little of his father in him (something that is very, very badly
addressed in the script and film in the long run) as a detective has
tracked him down.
After
a deadly fight with the private eye, the husband lies to said con
artist and they are all on the run, but the makers try to make this
into a Hitchcockian exercise, yet we have a lack of suspense and the
characters are not handled well. This also gets us into lame cliches
of doing Highsmith's books on film, so you get characters who are con
artists, have something to hide, are up to no good and all trying to
fit into capitalist elite circles to no avail with predictable
consequences. Americans are outsiders too. Sadly, they have a good
cast here, but it is ultimately a sad dud wasting some good actors,
locales, opportunities and 97 minutes of our time down to a phony
ending.
Three
promo clips, an AXS-TV promo, Deleted Scenes, an Original Theatrical
Trailer and Bloopers are the extras.
Philippe
Martinez's Viktor
(2014) is even worse, but goes for big things despite being full of
it as Gerard Depardieu plays the title character, going to Russia
(looking like an ad for tourists while also a propaganda film
celebrating Vladimir Putin by default, a Depardieu friend) to avenge
the death of his son. Light years away from Stephen Soderbergh's The
Limey, it wants to be a
cutting edge gangster film, action film and smart thriller, but fails
badly in every respect. Add the illicit appeals to Russian
Nationalism and it gets more and more bizarre in its (coincidentally)
97 minutes and its even weirder final ending.
Elizabeth
Hurley shows up as an old friend of Viktor's who happens to have
elite business in Russia despite being very British, yet this lands
up being as campy as anything she did in her Austin Powers work. Add
boo, hiss villains and very bad dialogue to this mess and you get a
film crying for Mystery Science Theater treatment by way of Chris
Matthews and
Fox News. Only see this one for weird laughs if you have nothing
better to do. Depardieu was never my favorite actor and this is some
of his worst work ever.
A
trailer is the only extra.
Both
are new HD shoots with some nice shots in them, but the 1080p 2.35 X
1 digital High Definition image transfer on Faces
is easily the better of the two performers as expected since it is
the better format, yet the
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Viktor
is softer often throughout than it should even be for standard
definition down to Video Black being weak, including in shadow
detail. It would easily benefit from a Blu-ray release.
As
for sound, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Faces
is a little on the quiet side and a little more towards the front
speakers than I would like, but it is well mixed and presented for
what it is, while the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Viktor
is often louder and more active with its outright action sequences,
it is undermined by the older codec sound format it is presented in.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
