Interception + P.J. – A Journey Of The Heart (2008/Cinema Epoch DVD)

 

Picture: C-/C     Sound: C+/C     Extras: C-/C     Features: C-/C

 

 

Cinema Epoch has issued two very different features with different goals and intents.  The Clay Bros. have a would-be action thriller in Interception (2008) that never works.  With the bad acting, obvious digital effects, formula cliché plot and it all adding up to little, this could be any straight to video mess.  John Will Clay is a co-star and Ashley Morgan is none too convincing as a new female action star.

 

P.J. – A Journey Of The Heart (also 2008) is a more ambitious work, based on a play by about the damaged life of a young man (Howard Nash) whose life is in the hands of bureaucracy and might be destroyed by it.  The cast also includes John Heard as a doctor, Vincent Pastore as a hospital worker and Hallie Kate Eisenberg (haven’t seen her in a while) as another person damaged in the same car accident.  The cast is trying its best to make this work, as is director Russ Emanuel, but the problem is that we have seen this all before.  At least it is ambitious and they tried.

 

The letterboxed 2.35 X 1 image on Interception is really bad with bad color, detail, definition, moiré patterns and aliasing throughout while the letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image on P.J. is soft, has aliasing, color limits and lacks depth.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 on both is stereo at best with Interception slightly better, but still harsh and shrill.  P.J. is dialogue-based and suffers from location audio limits.  Extras include trailers, outtakes and behind the scenes featurettes on both discs for each film, plus P.J. adds an audio commentary, stills, essay by Emanuel and piece on the original play.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo