Just Another Day (2010/Image Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C
Peter Spirer’s
Just Another Day (2010) is just
another formulaic story of the struggles of a would-be music star trying to
make it in the business and in life. Despite
Mr. Spirer’s past success with documentary chronicles of the genre and having
the luck of reuniting Jamie Hector and Wood Harris from the great cable TV show
The Wire, this new fiction feature
has very mixed results.
Even
real-life rapper Ja Rule shows up playing himself (though he showed with Shall We Dance? that he can play a
fictional character) but that was not necessary, other real rappers play other
roles and it exemplifies how this has some good ideas and some that work, but
others don’t and when you add all the other things that do not, it is a
somewhat missed opportunity to outdo the likes of 8 Mile. There are some
interesting moments, but they are too rare and if it comes to things getting
rough, this has nothing on the reggae classic The Harder They Come.
Iain
Kennedy wrote the script and has also had experience writing on and about music
and entertainment subject matter, but this never meshes as it could, so only
the very curious should check it out.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image is shot in digital High Definition video
(likely 1080p) but the softness and motion blur we often see comes across more
like 1080i. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
5.1 mix is surprisingly weak and the location audio is never as good as it
should be, but the music (even that added later) does not take full advantage
of the range of sound this lossless format is capable of. Extras include Deleted Scenes, a trailer and
two making of featurettes.
- Nicholas Sheffo
