Seven Pounds (2008/Sony Blu-ray + DVD-Video)

 

Picture: B/C     Sound: B/C+     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

Reuniting with his Pursuit Of Happyness director Gabrielle Muccino, Will Smith is an angry man trying to find redemption in Seven Pounds, an ambitious, somewhat experimental drama that tries to explore everything from ugly moments to golden ones in trying to search through the idea of human interaction and its results without being an outright feel good film.  It does not ultimately work, but it was a risk taking to try to do something different.

 

Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson and Barry Pepper are among the other cast members in what is trying to be a special film with special moments intended to be memorable and about something.  It is a real shame it takes someone of Smith’s star power to get something like this made these days and I think it will become some kind of cult item, but there is just something missing in this idea his character suddenly has power to help change people’s lives that runs contrary to the mortality and reality of the piece.  It is simply not existential enough and ultimately rings untrue overall, but we have seen much worse and a nice try is never a waste of my viewing time.

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is not bad, but also not good either, with too many instances of style that works against he film and the picture performance, while the anamorphically enhanced DVD is especially pale and problematic throughout.  The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix on the Blu-ray is better than the Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD, but this is dialogue driven and there is not much of a soundfield to speak of.  Extras in both versions include director’s commentary, deleted scenes and four interesting featurettes, while the Blu-ray adds Digital Copy and BD Live interactive capacities.  To read more about Pursuit Of Happyness, try this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5120/The+Pursuit+Of+Happyness+(Blu-ray

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo