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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > War > WWII > USS Indianapolis: Men Of Courage (2016/Lionsgate Blu-ray)

USS Indianapolis: Men Of Courage (2016/Lionsgate Blu-ray)



Picture: B Sound: B Extras: C Film: C



The story of the ill-fated mission of the USS Indianapolis was muttered in Spielberg's classic Jaws (1975) by the infamous Robert Shaw, who crafted a story of terror and dread that helped make the image of the shark terrifying. Thinking back to that scene, I got excited when I heard about the recent USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016) starring Nicholas Cage and was wondering why nobody was buzzing about it.. until I sat through it.


This film, directed by Mario Van Peebles, wants desperately to be a Michael Bay/James Cameron scale production and fails miserably. I bet several times during the production that Bay's Pearl Harbor and Cameron's Titanic were mentioned as references. The word 'ambitious' comes to mind when seeing some of the scenes and spectacle the crew attempted to create yet failed miserably on. We're talking bout some very terrible digital effects... so bad they are laughable. Poor Nick Cage does the best but he can, as does Tom Sizemore (whose name on a poster immediately spells disaster more often than not), and even Thomas Jane pops up at one point, but none of them can save this, for lack of a better analogy, sinking ship.


Set during World War II, the film tells the doomed mission of the USS Indianapolis, which was attempting to smuggle a nuclear weapon over to enemy borders for a massive strike. However, the ship hits a deadly patch along the way and soon finds itself in pieces in shark infested waters. Can the brave men on board get out alive? Or left stranded on the ocean?


Presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.40:1, the film looks a bit too good on disc at times - exposing the bad digital effects work to an almost embarrassing degree. The sound mix is fine with an English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless mix that presents the dialogue clearly and balances the effects well.



Special Features...


Making of Featurette


Digital UV Copy



This is a film that you would expect to see on the SyFy channel and it's a shame, because with the right eye on a story like this and a bigger budget, it could have been more interesting.



- James Lockhart

https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/


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