Circle Of Pain (2010) + From Paris With Love
(2010/Lionsgate Blu-rays) + The Stranger
(2009/Anchor Bay Blu-ray) + Undisputed
III: Redemption (2010/Warner Blu-ray w/DVD) + Wild Things: Foursome (2010/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture: B-/B-/C/B
& B-/C Sound: B- (B on Undisputed Blu-ray) Extras: C/D/D/C-/D Films: C/D/D/C+/D
One of
the standbys for home video since the 1980s has become the “guys film” cycle
that is not openly discussed much, but is a big target market. These releases are usually shallow, smug,
condescending, narrow, shallow and have tough guy leanings they usually fail to
live up to. It is also one of the more
tired segments of the market and Blu-ray is not inspiring anything much new, as
five new releases demonstrate.
Circle Of Pain (2010) is from the TapOut bunch
and is the only one of two of the releases here that we could consider really
tough, for reasons that will be obvious as we go along. They have another Rocky story, redecorated with name fighters (like Kimbo Slice, who
is top-credited, but not the star!), Dean Cain (a former Superman in a
wheelchair as the brother of the lead) and Tony Schiena (who is nowhere to be
found on the cover, even in name) is the lead.
Talk about bait and switch. It is
mildly amusing and to their credit, they have better fights and a sex scene
more credible than anything in Wild
Things Foursome below, but not much else.
Ling Bai (Lords Of Dogtown)
is wasted as a modern-day quasi-stereotypical ‘dragon lady’ villain.
From Paris With Love (2010) is John Travolta’s worst
performance since Battlefield Earth
and worst film since that and Be Cool,
which is why it deserved to tank upon first release. I don’t know what he or director Pierre Morel
were thinking, but this film is a mess, Jonathan Rhys Meyers is cast as the
passive wimp opposite Travolta’s wild man and we have seen this a million
times, though Rhys Meyers gives a goods performance. The real culprit once again is a horrid
script by Producer Luc Besson, whose ruinous ways of bad action cinema continue
to erode the genre beyond belief. Action
is weak and lame, I never bought any of this after Travolta showed up and it
jumped the shark with no hope of recovery.
Wow, is this bad!
The Stranger (2009) is certainly not to be
confused with the Orson Welles classic and you should be a stranger to it as
wrestler Steve Austin (a tough guy in a weak actioner) as he plays a man whose
family is killed brutally in one night and he wants revenge. We have seen this done to death and Austin has one too many
scenes where he is tortured; acting is not his strong suit. Adam Beach shows up and is also wasted, as is
anyone who sits through this dud.
Undisputed III: Redemption (2010) is the second sequel to
Walter Hill’s underrated film that was not a big hit, yet here it is a
franchise just the same. It is as tough
as Circle, but tends to be the best
film on the list since the fighting (there is more here than in any other film)
overrides any writing formula. This
time, eight of the best fighters from maximum security prisons are smuggled to Eastern Europe for a competition for gambling
interests. This is best when it forgets
the story and we get fighting, which is more intense than your average action
flick. Scott Adkins and Mykel Shannon
Jenkins star.
Wild Things: Foursome (2010) is as continuation of a
film that was a hit, which seems rarer and rarer these days. However, it is an awful excuse for a sexy
thriller with little sex and no real thrills.
Ashley Parker Angel from the band O-Town (discovered in a so-called
reality TV contest show) is particularly awful as a sort of animated mannequin
and devil of a bad actor, no to mention posing for holy pictures in the
would-be sex scenes doing nothing as the other women pose with him and look
bored, leaving the “action” to though police lesbianism and toplessness that
has zero of the edge of anything in the original film. Maybe Schneider should have given him some
tips and advice, because he obviously needs them.
The gals
blur together and the lame script is smug beyond belief. Only Schneider (who makes himself look older
than he is current in real life) does any acting worth seeing and maybe if he
(as the investigating policeman over any murders and robberies) was not made
out this way, this could have been a camp classic if he got in on the
action. Jillian Murray and Marnette
Patterson also star.
The 1080p
digital High Definition image on each are 1.78 X 1 save Wild at 1.85 X 1 and Paris
at 2.35 X 1, but none look particularly good except Undisputed and a few look awful.
All apparently are high definition shoots (except maybe Undisputed, but it is hard to tell), so
any films used was in theaters that got prints made from the lesser HD
material. The anamorphically enhanced
DVD that comes with Undisputed is not
bad for the format and looks about as good (and even better in a few cases)
than the other Blu-rays here. The bad
performance on Stranger and Things is particularly awful and should
probably not have been issued on Blu-ray at all.
All have
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 mixes save Stranger
with PCM 5.1 and Paris with DTS–MA
7.1, but they all exhibit disappointing soundfields and have their fidelity
limits, except the DTS-MA 5.1 on Undisputed,
which has a strong soundmix and is more of what I expected form all five
releases. Therefore, all but Undisputed have unimpressive audio
recording and Paris is really stretching out its sound
mix, which definitely seems like it was meant to be 5.1 as well. The Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD of Undisputed is not bad for that old
codec, but it is not far away from the other Blu-rays in terms of overall
quality which are not the best examples of what Blu-rays can offer in the
genre.
Extras vary
between releases, with the most minimal offerings including Wild only offering BD Live interaction,
Stranger only offering an original
theatrical trailer and behind the scenes featurette and Undisputed offering the bonus DVD and Digital Copy for PC and PC
portable devices. Circle has TapOut promos, trailer gallery, interviews piece, behind
the scenes featurette, Fight Choreography featurette and feature length audio
commentary track, leaving Paris offering four making of featurettes, audio
commentary track with BonusView, a trivia game, theatrical trailer and
Lionsgate BD Live Menu System.
- Nicholas Sheffo