Alien
Rubicon
(2024/Asylum DVD)/Evilenko
4K
(2003/Unearthed 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray)/Swordfish
4K
(2001/Warner/Arrow 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray/all MVD)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A-/B+ Picture: B-/B+/X Sound: B-/B+/B
Extras: C-/B-/C Films: C-/C+/C-
Now
for more genre films, including two getting top Ultra HD
treatment....
Genre
films by the indie production studio The Asylum are always an
interesting watch and here we have Alien
Rubicon
(2024). The film has a poster that would make you believe the tone is
similar to Alien
Romulus
in some respects, but the film you get is closer to The
Day The Earth Stood Still
mixed with a little Independence
Day
and The
Day After Tomorrow
for good measure... but on a budget of next to nothing. That being
said the writing and what these actors can do with the material
overall renders a pretty stiff result.
The
film stars Preston Geer, Paul Logan, Christina Rose, Lindsey Marie
Wilson, Michael Pare, Tammy Klien, and Neely Dayan to name a few.
The film is directed by Adrian Avila.
In
Alien
Rubicon,
a scientist and The President join forces in stopping a hostile
takeover when vessels land and start causing destruction. As the
alien start demolishing whatever they can, a weakness in found in the
alien mechanism that the human team must use to get the upper hand.
(In other words, the plot of Independence
Day.)
The
film's biggest failure is the production design and it's most notable
in scenes involving The White House where we see exit signs
throughout nearly every frame and thrift store President paintings
hanging on a plain white wall or a bland meeting room. Scenes that
take place within a helicopter are probably the best looking, but
overall the feeling that the production of this film was extremely
rushed is highly evident.
Special
Features: Trailers for other releases from The Asylum.
Alien
Rubicon
is a heavy swing for an indie movie studio and overall the film hits
its mark in some aspects and not in others. I feel like a lot of
focus was spent on the digital effects more than the actual
production of the film with some pretty lackluster set design that
works against it. If your main character is The President and most
of the film takes place in The White House then to have a set to
match the realism should have been crucial. It's apparent what the
team was going for here, but story-wise its nothing we haven't seen
done far better before. At the end of the day, the film just isn't
very fun. It's just too serious and stiff necked for what it's
emulating.
A
spin on Silence
of the Lambs
mixed with a political period piece, David Grieco's Evilenko
(2003) stars Malcolm McDowell as A.R. Cikatilo, a school-teacher
sociopath also known as Rostov. A.R. Evilenko. The film also stars
Marton Csokas, Ronald Pickup, Frances Barber, and John Benfield.
Loosely
based on a true story, Evilenko is a communist and vicious serial
killer who manipulated, killed, and even ate more than 55 women and
children in old days of the Soviet Republic. The film follows a
detective who takes on the case and apprehends the killer which
McDowell plays in a very believable and grotesque manner in behavior
that worsens as the film progresses. The film is a bit stiff and has
some pretty dull moments which may turn off the usual gang of horror
fans looking for graphic violence and adds a few supernatural
elements that tend to shift the realistic tone a bit (Evilenko has a
hypnotic power over his victims.) The narrative is a bit all over
the place, but McDowell's performance is more or less the glue that
holds the thing together.
Special
Features:
An
81-minute cast and crew interview collection including
writer/director David Grieco, actor Malcolm McDowell and composer
Angelo Badalamenti
Evilenko
Dossier: Andrei Chikatilo - a 27-minute look at the real-life basis
for the character of Evilenko David Grieco and Malcolm McDowell on
'Evilenko', a 69-minute interview from 2021
Photo
Gallery and an Original Theatrical Trailer.
Evilenko
isn't an easy film to stomach if you are disgusted by predatory
behavior against children. I'm not quite sure of the audience they
were going for here, but the end result is a mixed bag.
With
a cast that includes Hugh Jackman, John Travolta, Halle Berry, Don
Cheadle, Sam Shepard and Vinnie Jones, you can see why Dominic Sena's
Swordfish
4K
(2001) would be a curio, but it also remains one of the worst films
ever made in the genres it covers with a ton of missed opportunities
and a massive waste of a great cast. You can read more about how
horrid it is at this link of my older coverage of this clunker in the
obsolete HD-DVD format...
https://fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3689/Swordfish+(HD-DVD
Fortunately,
all the actors survived this trainwreck and no doubt the 9/11
terrorist attacks made most people (save those who lost a few hours
of their life to it like this critic) and that was for the better.
Sena took
eight years to make another theatrical feature film in Whiteout
with Kate Beckinsale (but without Michael Nesmith) in 2009 with all
kinds of missed opportunities there, then Season
Of The Witch
(2011) with Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman that was even worse than
Swordfish
and ended his directed career. View any or all of them at your own
peril and also blame Producer Joel Silver when you regret it.
Extras
repeat the earlier Blu-ray/HD-DVD releases and add new items, so the
complete list includes:
Audio
commentary by director Dominic Sena
Soundtrack
Hacker,
a brand new interview with composer Paul Oakenfold
How
to Design a Tech Heist,
a brand new interview with production designer Jeff Mann
HBO
First Look: Swordfish,
a promotional behind-the-scenes featurette
Effects
in Focus: The Flying Bus,
a promotional featurette detailing how the film's iconic climactic
scene was created
Planet
Rock Club Reel,
a music video by the film's co-composer Paul Oakenfold
Swordfish:
In Conversation,
a promotional featurette with interviews from cast and crew members
including actors Hugh Jackman, John Travolta, Halle Berry, Don
Cheadle and Sam Shepard, director Dominic Sena, and producer Joel
Silver
Two
alternate endings
Theatrical
trailer
Reversible
sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tommy
Pocket
Double-sided
fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by
Tommy Pocket
and
an Illustrated Collector's Booklet featuring new writing on the film
by Priscilla Page and an article from American Cinematographer about
the film's opening sequence.
Now
for playback performance. The 2160p HEVC/H.265, 1.85 X 1, HDR (10;
Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Evilenko
4K
was shot in 35mm spherical process in both its color and black and
white sequences and that the 2160p presentation has been restored
nicely with a transfer that is certainly satisfactory on both
formats. The regular 1080p high definition on Blu-ray disc with an
MPEG-4 AVC codec, a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and an
identical English, lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz,
24-bit) to the 4K UHD disc that is fine for such a suspense thriller.
The
2160p HEVC/H.265, 2.35 X 1, Dolby Vision/HDR (10; Ultra HD
Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image on Swordfish
4K is
an improvement over the older HD-DVD/Blu-ray transfer, but also
exposes all kinds of sloppiness and the production, editing and bad
digital work of the time, only saved by better color and a more solid
look. The film only looks so good. The lossless DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 5.1 is the same as it always was and somehow manages to hold
up. The combination is as good as this will ever look or sound and
that is not saying much.
Alien
Rubicon
is presented in anamorphically enhanced, standard definition (480i)
on DVD with a 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy 5.1 Dolby
Digital surround mix. The film is shot digitally with RED cameras
which helps out the look some, but the color correction isn't the
best throughout with some skin tones looking a bit too hot. The
digital effects elements aren't always a smooth render, with some
explosions looking considerably unrealistic. Aside from the normal
lack of definition, the film looks and sounds fine for the DVD
format.
-
Nicholas Sheffo (Swordfish
4K) and James Lockhart
https://letterboxd.com/jhl5films/
