Passengers (2008/Sony Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B     Sound: B     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

Doing any tale of plane crashes where people die then mysterious circumstances ensue is a very tricky situation post-9/11 and Rodrigo Garcia’s Passengers (2008) cannot escape the shadow of real life as such an incident occurs, then as one woman (Anne Hathaway) looks close into things, discovers it is uglier than just he actual incident.  Along the way, she gets an ally (Patrick Wilson) and wonders who she can trust otherwise.

 

The cast includes Andre Braugher, David Morse and Diane Wiest, but even they cannot save this would-be thriller that is flat no matter what and Hathaway can carry a film, but this is just to formulaic, contrived and goes nowhere.  Furthermore, the 1980s are over and there is nothing new offered here in any case.  Yes, her psychiatrist character knows something is wrong when the plane survivors start disappearing.  Too bad a good script never materialized in the first place.

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image has motion blur too often and some detail issues here and there, but can look good in some shots.  The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 is also a bit compressed, has soundfield limits and never really takes off.  This is not demo material by any means.  Extras include two featurettes, audio commentary track and deleted scenes that made little difference, but should be seen after you see the whole film.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo