The Condemned (Blu-ray + DVD-Video)
Picture:
B/C+ Sound: B/B- Extras: D Film: D
Wrestling
and cinema are like oil and water, but beyond the fact that they don’t mix,
they make a mess beyond belief that keeps repeating itself, more than ever. Maybe in the old days, you could have a
bodybuilder (say Steve Reeves) become big star, but wresting is so much its own
hard impact sport entertainment that having its stars suddenly surface in films
(even when they play monsters or henchman that do not talk) never works. Not that it could not, but Scott Wiper’s
awful The Condemned (2007) is an
example of why it usually does not.
The
popular Stone Cold Steve Austin is on death row (a “shock” since he/his
character seem like a “nice guy”) who is sold to a greedy TV producer for a
“reality TV” show where the contestants hunt and kill each other. Since they are criminals, they are disposable
(!?!?!) and as sent on the Internet, all viewers will be at more than a safe
distance form the mayhem they can pay to watch, but are not responsible
for. Of course, the U.S. Government does
not care, implying encouragement of the killing.
The film
could have made this some kind of metaphor, but it does not even begin to try,
as this is about tough people punching and kicking other tough people as they
hunt each other. This is The Most Dangerous Games for morons and
though Austin, Vinnie Jones and the cast try to make it more, the script
(co-written by Wiper) is too heartless and soulless to overcome. In addition, the fighting is often lame, plot
beyond predictable and when all is said and done, all is quickly forgotten
except that you just wasted 113 minutes of your life on a bomb.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image seems to have been shot in HD and it
does not look good, with tired darkened stylizing that is supposed to make us
take it more seriously, when it makes us bored.
Director of Photography Ross Embry, A.C.S., delivers nothing new and
between the shaky camerawork, bad zooms and other tired choices, the sloppy
editing deep-sixes anything that could have worked here. Color is bad, detail
is an issue and Video Black and problem, much worse on the anamorphically
enhanced DVD. The 7.1 DTS HD mix
exclusive to the Blu-ray is nothing great, showing the flaws of a substandard
mix with too many loud points and too little character, but still surpasses the
Dolby Digital 5.1 EX offered in both formats, which is also lamer than a new
sound mix should be. Graeme Revell’s
score cannot save this mess either. Extras
include a five-part making of featurette, Capital Carnage Reunion (the first meeting
of Austin and Jones in 1998) two feature length audio commentaries (Austin and
Wiper, plus Wiper on his own), Stone Cold
at Movie World exclusive footage, storyboard sequences and the original theatrical
trailer.
- Nicholas Sheffo
