7 Seconds Blu-ray features mediocre video and solid audio, but overall it's a disappointing Blu-ray release
Captain Jack Tuliver is an ex-Delta Force commando leading what should have been a clockwork-perfect armored car heist. Instead, he ends up with a priceless Van Gogh painting - and one of his crew ends up held hostage by the sadistic Russian gangsters who muscled in on the heist. Tuliver's only option: a suicidal rescue mission where enemies become allies, your best friend can be your worst nightmare, and survival is the deadliest art of all.
Don't blame the baker when the butcher bakes the bread.
What's with all the direct-to-video releases coming to Blu-ray recently? In the span of only two
weeks, films like Lost Boys: The Tribe,
Stargate:
Continuum, Starship Troopers 3:
Marauder, and 7 Seconds will appear on store shelves, and probably remain
there collecting dust as savvy home theater aficionados spend their hard-earned dollars on more
popular (and better) titles. What sets 7 Seconds apart from the rest is
that it's a standalone movie with no affiliation to older, well-respected films or, in the case of
Stargate, both a film and a long-running television show with spin-offs of its own.
About
all 7 Seconds has going for it is star Wesley Snipes (Rising Sun) whose
legal
problems and various convictions over the years has relegated this one-time box office draw to
becoming a staple of the
direct-to-video market along with fellow actors Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van
Damme. Look up "second-rate action movie" in the dictionary and you may very well find a
picture of the 7 Seconds cover art. This is a completely derivative action movie with an
involved plot but uninteresting characters, lame action sequences, poor acting, and miniscule
production values.
Wesley Snipes takes cover from the critics' assault.
Jack Tuliver (Snipes) is ex-military and now spends his days planning and pulling off high-dollar
heists. His latest score will net him and his team $20 million by robbing several armored trucks
that transport bags of cash from casinos to a central location. Tuliver and his team manage to
fake the robbery of three trucks, which results in all of the remaining trucks being recalled to
base. With the help of an insider, the team manages to infiltrate the base and steal from all the
recalled trucks. Tuliver also gets his hands on a prized suitcase guarded by two professionals.
When their escape route is ambushed and they find their weapons shooting blanks, most of
Tuliver's team is killed. He barely escapes with the briefcase and runs into an
off-duty military police sergeant named Kelly Anders (Tamzin Outhwaite, TV's "Hotel Babylon")
whom he kidnaps and releases once he's evaded the authorities. Tuliver must fight for his
survival and keep his prize safe while Anders takes it upon herself to hunt him down because
she's been identified as a possible accomplice to the crime.
Make no mistake about it, this is a terrible movie. It's too bad the film's trailer isn't included,
because I bet it would end with Wesley Snipes yelling, "get out of here!" Outhwaite would
respond
with, "there's no time!" Cut to an explosion, and the voice over saying, "7 Seconds.
Rated
R." Never mind that such lines don't really exist in the movie; with a movie like 7
Seconds, it really doesn't matter. I do award the movie a "1" rather than "0.5" because I
found myself laughing uncontrollably
throughout, and for being unintentionally hilarious, I give it some credit. This is B-movie action
through and through, and other than a few cursory jabs, there is not much to say. If you've
seen bad action before, you've seen 7 Seconds. The movie does feature a plot that
might be slightly more in-depth than your typical action drivel release, but the movie feels the
need to spell everything out for all of us imbeciles in the audience who cannot figure out the plot
of a B-movie direct-to-video Wesley Snipes action flick. When he puts the painting in a safety
locker, for example he says, "bargaining chip." Duh. Snipes sleepwalks through the role, making
this movie not much different from most other Snipes action vehicles. Every other performer
overacts and over dramatizes their roles. It probably won't take viewers more than 7
Seconds to figure out this movie is a waste of their time.
7 Seconds debuts on Blu-ray with a completely uninteresting 1080p, 1.85:1 transfer that
always looks as if its covered in a layer of fog. The opening shots of the movie set the tone for what
we can expect for the remainder of the film. They are dull, a little soft, and feature slightly subdued
colors. Although dull, detail levels are adequate. Nothing stands out as eye-popping or extremely
realistic, but the transfer gets the job done by offering a substandard but adequate high definition
viewing experience. The image is clearly high definition and offers a better picture than standard
definition DVD, but compared to even the most average of Blu-ray disc transfers, this one is a
disappointment. The print exhibits some large white or blue spots that appear randomly over the
transfer. Black levels aren't spectacular. There is loss of detail in dark scenes, and blacks never hold
a true black. Grain is heavy throughout the movie, some scenes exhibiting more than others, but
as
a rule, it's always there. As a direct-to-video release of a fairly miserable movie, the transfer we see
here is par for the course. It's far from being demonstration-worthy, but the transfer is still
watchable
and adequate for the material.
7 Seconds' audio presentation fares somewhat better than the video transfer. Arriving
with a lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack, audiences will find themselves generally entertained
and satisfied with the film's sound design and its presentation on Blu-ray. The music heard over the
opening credits has a solid presence that fills the entire soundstage and while it is focused in the
front, it comes through the rears as well, and it sounds better than quite a few discs I've listened to
this year. Low frequency effects are enjoyable and the subwoofer works fairly hard throughout the
movie. It never kicks into overdrive, but the subtle rumble that plays along with the movie makes
for a nice action movie atmosphere. In chapter four, the entire soundstage fills up with gunfire.
It's heard distinctly in every speaker and the effect is a good one. Dialogue is clear and played at a
fine, audible volume. With its fairly standard B-movie action soundtrack, 7 Seconds
becomes a slightly more tolerable brainless action flick thanks to a soundtrack that doesn't quit just
because the movie it accompanies is lousy.
7 Seconds arrives on Blu-ray with absolutely no film-related special content. 1080p trailers
for Redbelt, Starship
Troopers 3:
Marauder, and Resident Evil:
Degeneration are on the disc, and the disc will take viewers to Sony's BD-Live (profile 2.0)
page with trailers, etc. I was unable to access the actual page from the disc, probably because the
disc has not yet been officially released. I did double-check with a previously-released Sony title (Vantage Point) to
ensure the problem was not with my connection. That disc's BD-Live page loaded right up, so I
have no doubt this disc will access its own page come August 12.
7 Seconds is the very definition of mundane action. It's a worthy film of the direct-to-video
monicker, but that is faint praise indeed. Replete with bad dialogue, silly stunts, and typical B-movie
mistakes, like a hero getting off a shot with an obviously empty gun, 7 Seconds brings
nothing new to the table and is certainly not worth buying, and probably not worth renting for even
the most dedicated of action movie junkies. The Blu-ray edition makes the decision to pass even
easier. With unremarkable video, serviceable audio, and absolutely no movie-related supplements,
7
Seconds is the kind of movie you buy at a yard sale ten years from now for a quarter. Skip it.
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