Never
Let Go
(2015/Sony DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B Extras: D Film: C
Never
Let Go
(2015) is from the producers of Taken
and is finally finding its way onto disc. The film follows a similar
(predictable) narrative structure without the budget or star power of
the Taken
trilogy, which it tries to hard to mimic. When stripped of those
things, the film feels more like a TV drama with similar
cinematography that isn't necessarily bad but shakey, high key, and
dramatic.
Never
Let Go
stars Angela Dixon (Hard
Shoulder),
Nigel Whitmey (London
Has Fallen),
and Lisa Elchorn (Cutter's
Way),
with Howard Ford directing.
Dealing
with the sensitive subject of child abduction cases, the film wastes
no time throwing you in the center of a child being taken. As the
film states in early prefacing credits, when a child is kidnapped,
the first three hours after the abduction are the most critical.
After that, the chances of finding them grow more and more slim.
Such is the case here, where a woman refuses to give up on her
missing child no matter what it takes, what foreign country she has
run through, or how long it takes to do it.
Centering
around a woman named Lisa (Dixon), who travels to a third world
country with her young baby, she finds out that is as bright of an
idea as it sounds. Lisa's child gets abducted while on a beach
stolen right next to her in broad daylight as she is distracted by a
'salesman'. Soon after, she rushes through the foreign city in an
effort to get her back but ends up on a wild goose chase across the
foreign land. Luckily, she knows martial arts, can run long
distances without getting winded, and is an Atomic
Blonde-style
superhero (who has super senses and 'special training') so she has
experience in this area. Also because of this, it's hard to feel too
much for her because you know she's going to find the kid in the end
anyway. Or does she?
Shot
digitally, the film is presented in standard definition DVD with an
anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratio and a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. A
film like this could really benefit from a good HD transfer and here
the skin details are barely there and compression highly evident; all
of which is to be expected from the aging, but still popular, DVD
format.
No
extras.
While
not bad from a production standpoint, this one time watch is not
without a few cool action scenes, but the quick cutting and close up
shot constructed action sequences (like a Jason Bourne movie) doesn't
necessary make it unique.
-
James Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
