Soundman

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Film: C-

 

 

A man who records sounds for film is involved in darker doings possibly beyond his control, but he will try to do something about them anyhow.  No, this is sadly NOT Brian De Palma’s great thriller Blow Out (1981), but writer/director Steven Widi Ho’s Soundman, which has the title character (Wayne Pere) get sick of his life and maybe going to the extreme Michael Douglas did in Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down (1992).  However, this film has no political point either way, and the times he does get angry are not very convincing or convincingly motivated.

 

If anything, this feels like an unintentional spoof of both films, and is a strange kind of train wreck of a film.  Insult is added when Audrey Hepburn is impersonated, also with no point.  Igby Walters, our soundman, is not even developed enough to care about him at any point, bordering on caricature.  He feels more like a spoiled brat than a grown man and there is not even any psychology to why he is involved in sound to begin with.

 

William Forsythe, Wes Studi and Nick Stahl co-star, but are poorly underutilized.  The film demonstrates a pediatric understanding of filmmaking and I was very disappointed by what a waste of time it ultimately was.  Maybe the film should have been called “Yawnman” because that was the only sound I remember, which I was constantly making.

 

The 1.78 X 1 letterboxed image is above average at best, soft throughout and offers nothing memorable image-wise.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has just enough Pro Logic surround information to raise it above 2-channels, but only barely.  The only extras are a trailer and commentary with little to say by Ho, though the DVD box promises an intro by Ho and outtakes, but they are not here.  That didn’t help either.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo