Lucky # Sleven (2005/Weinstein Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: C Film: C
The
biggest problem with Paul McGuigan’s Lucky
# Sleven (2005) is that it simply tries too hard to be slick, funny, cool
and of the moment, the Tarantino moment that Tarantino has even left
behind. It focuses on the title
character (Josh Hartnett) who is luckless and is about to experience the worst
as he gets crossed by mobsters and other mysterious figures, many of whom bring
him harm intentionally and unintentionally.
It takes the mistaken identity story and though it avoids making an
outright idiot plot out of it, has little it can de new with it except be
cutesy in a street way about it.
Trying to
bring the script to life, Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu, Ben Kingsley,
Stanley Tucci and others do their best to juggle the comic and dirty dark
world, but the film’s attitude (all the way down to its music score) telegraphs
to its audience that this is jokey when it should have been more serious, then this would have been funnier. Too bad, because it has its moments, but it
never adds up and is a cult piece at best.
At least they tried.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is of the same quality as the now out of
print HD-DVD and that means a little softer than one would like, with some
motion blur and color that is at least consistent. Though the soundmix is still problematic, the
Blu-ray has a new, better Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix versus the standard Dolby
Digital 5.1 mix also here and that was the only option on the old HD-DVD. New improvements sadly come with new
problems, but that still edges out all previous versions just the same. Extras include a making of featurette,
deleted/extended scenes, alternate ending, interviews with Hartnett & Liu,
the original theatrical trailer and two feature length audio commentaries. One is with the director, while the other is
with Hartnett, Liu and Writer Jason Smilovic.
- Nicholas Sheffo
