Faster
(2010/Sony DVD) + Murder Investigation
Team Series One (2003/Acorn Media DVD Set) + S.W.A.T. Firefight (2010/Sony DVD)
Picture:
C+/C/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D/C/C- Main Programs: D/C+/C-
When TV
action tries to be big screen action, it is always a formula for disaster, even
when it is a TV show with some smarts.
Here we have two lame features with the excitement of bad TV movies and
a British police procedural that has more life to it, but is still undone by
formula.
The worst
of the lot is easily Faster (2010),
one of the worst action films I have seen in years with the king of bad action
movies (with movie being too high a word to use): Dwayne Johnson aka The
Rock. The kind of release that is a
magnet for quote whores, Johnson tries to play a convict about to leave prison,
only to find himself in revengeful fighting after a 10 years stay. Guess the justice system has gone soft.
His
brother has been killed (yawn!) and now he is angry (or is that petulant,
because this man cannot act!) and wants revenge. Unfortunately, he is going to drag us along
with him for a crime we did not commit. His
killing spree begins, but he has a hitman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and police
officer (Billy Bob Thornton picking up an easy paycheck hired to try and make
this seem legitimate) are trying to stop him for the same, boring, different
reasons. The addition of supposed
Gangster genre elements are especially embarrassing. Director George Tillman Jr. turns out a total
mess and writer Tony & Joe Gayton should go back to script school and stop
using that bad PC program on scriptwriting.
This is
the latest in a series of duds from CBS Films, a weak new motion picture arm of
the TV network. This is the worst effort
yet and I can only say they could not do much worse in this tired wreck that
manages to waste 98 minutes of all who dare view it. Wow, this was worse that even the trailer
suggested!
Murder Investigation Team Series
One (2003) seems
like The French Connection by
comparison, but it at least remembers Homicide
Life On The Street and wants to be a variant of that smart hit to some
extent. The camera might shake, but they
dont gut the color. We get criminals,
but they are well written and developed, as are the side and main police
characters. Though not great, it is one
of the few standout examples of the now very tired cycle of police procedurals
that are in their zombie phase. 8
episodes over three DVDs are in this set.
Samantha Spiro, Richard Hope, Michael McKell and Lindsey Coulson star.
Last and
almost least is S.W.A.T. Firefight,
an odd 2010 sequel to the failed 2003 feature film revival of the hit 1970s hit
TV series, which itself was a spin-off from TV hit The Rookies. That is how
many generations down from a good, original idea this dud is directed by Music
Video director Benny Boom. In Los
Angeles, a raid 1eads to a key officer (Gabriele Macht) being sent to Detroit
to teach techniques in dealing with kidnapping and terrorism, but a routine
domestic call will turn into a disaster.
Then yet another assassin shows up (this time, it is Robert Patrick
laying to type) and all I could think of is how long overdue the original
series is on DVD.
Still,
this is better than Faster, but then
so was the last winter storm you encountered. S.W.A.T. Firefight is
still as tired and warmed over stale as the awful new recording of the classic
theme song. Yes, it is still very
bad. All three offerings here are a
wash.
The anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on all the discs (save the inept 2.35 framing on Faster, which is just as bad) is soft
and stylized, though Team has the
best color, but is ironically the softest of the three. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Team is actually no better or worse
than the lame Dolby Digital 5.1 on the other discs, which really push their
simple soundmixes that are nothing to write home about. These are all adequate at best.
Extras on
Faster include an Alternate Ending
as bad as the one they settled on and Deleted Scenes as junky as anything in
the final cut including Director Commentary.
Team has a 25-minutes-long
interview with star McKell and audio commentary on the first episode with
creator Paul Marquess and series consultant Jackie Malton. That leaves Firefight with a Behind-The Scenes featurette called Sharp Shooting: On The Set (yea, ha ha,
we get it).
Read
about the 2003 S.W.A.T. on Blu-ray
at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4285/S.W.A.T.+(2003/Blu-ray)
-
Nicholas Sheffo
