USS
Indianapolis: Men Of Courage (2016/Lionsgate Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: B Extras: C Film: C
The
story of the ill-fated mission of the USS Indianapolis was muttered
in Spielberg's classic Jaws (1975) by the infamous Robert
Shaw, who crafted a story of terror and dread that helped make the
image of the shark terrifying. Thinking back to that scene, I got
excited when I heard about the recent USS Indianapolis: Men of
Courage (2016) starring Nicholas Cage and was wondering why
nobody was buzzing about it.. until I sat through it.
This
film, directed by Mario Van Peebles, wants desperately to be a
Michael Bay/James Cameron scale production and fails miserably. I
bet several times during the production that Bay's Pearl Harbor
and Cameron's Titanic were mentioned as references. The word
'ambitious' comes to mind when seeing some of the scenes and
spectacle the crew attempted to create yet failed miserably on.
We're talking bout some very terrible digital effects... so bad they
are laughable. Poor Nick Cage does the best but he can, as does Tom
Sizemore (whose name on a poster immediately spells disaster more
often than not), and even Thomas Jane pops up at one point, but none
of them can save this, for lack of a better analogy, sinking ship.
Set
during World War II, the film tells the doomed mission of the USS
Indianapolis, which was attempting to smuggle a nuclear weapon over
to enemy borders for a massive strike. However, the ship hits a
deadly patch along the way and soon finds itself in pieces in shark
infested waters. Can the brave men on board get out alive? Or left
stranded on the ocean?
Presented
in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.40:1,
the film looks a bit too good on disc at times - exposing the bad
digital effects work to an almost embarrassing degree. The sound mix
is fine with an English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless mix
that presents the dialogue clearly and balances the effects well.
Special
Features...
Making
of Featurette
Digital
UV Copy
This
is a film that you would expect to see on the SyFy channel and it's a
shame, because with the right eye on a story like this and a bigger
budget, it could have been more interesting.
-
James Lockhart
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
