The Reaping (HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format)

 

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

 

 

In one of the saddest and most offensive announcements in recent times, Warner announced they would not release films with female leads declaring that there were no more female stars or ones who could make money.  Though backpeddling quickly followed, it was an artistically bankrupt thing to say, If the films are not making money, it is because 1) the studios do not know how to promote as well as they used to, 2) don’t know what to do with talent, 3) are possibly sexist now in a rollback way out of touch with reality, 4) the films are the problem and 5) have had it too good just releasing anything and watching it make money.  Scapegoating is a form of denial that will only increase the real problems unresolved.  Take The Reaping, for example.

 

Here is Hilary Swank, a risk-taking, likable, talented, terrific actress who gives her all every time out and has so far received two Best Actress Academy Awards.  Add underrated films like Freedom Writers (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and you have a talent that has far from peaked.  Stephen Hopkins has never been a good director (witness his disembowelment of the TV classic Lost In Space) and years later, he has not improved with The Reaping, in which a talented scientist named Katherine Winter (Swank) is sent in to investigate the a nightmare in the making down in Louisiana.

 

Of course, something beyond the facts science can produce is afoot and it leads to the possibility she will have to figure out a new world before more innocent people die.  Her skills help her separate the physical worlds from a new one, but will it be enough to stop more deadly plagues?  Too bad the Carey W. Hayes/Chad Hayes screenplay never works.  They keep getting stuck in the genres they take on, as the recent House Of Wax remake (reviewed on HD-DVD elsewhere on this site) shows, though maybe if they keep trying, there will be a breakthrough.

 

Unfortunately, the film does not know what to do with its ideas, its great lead and the inability to end the thing in a way that adds up screams this.  You only reap what you sow, but not enough good ideas and scenes were even planted in the story for a half-decent film, resulting in a dud.  David Morrissey and Stephen Rea also star.

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is better on the HD side than the anamorphically enhanced equivalent on the standard DVD side, but both are overstylized more so than usual.  Director of Photography Peter Levy, A.C.S., A.S.C., has shot duds like the infamously idiotic Torque, going overboard again with so much manipulation of the image that the film becomes almost a visual joke.  It also hurts any suspension of disbelief than anything supernatural is crossing into the natural world.  Visual effects cannot help this either.  The HD shows many of the flaws and limits of this process, making it one of the less-exciting, recent HD releases.

 

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix is the highlight of both sides of this disc, with a decent sound mix that sometimes gets carried away, but is a rich-enough sound mix that it makes for one of the better TrueHD mixes to date.  The Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 on the HD side and standard Dolby 5.1 on the DVD side are not bad, but cannot match the True HD.  John Frizzell’s score is not bad.  Extras include five featurettes that look at the film, includes interviews, behind the scenes pieces and promotes the film.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo