Revolver Blu-ray despite truly amazing video and audio falls short as a Blu-ray release
'Revolver' is populated with Guy Ritchie's ('Snatch'; 'Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels')
classic breed of fast-talking, sharp-suited gangsters but with a psychological twist that your
mind may not be able to handle. Jason Statham ('The Transporter' and 'Transporter 2') is Jake
Green, a grifter who vows revenge against Macha (Ray Liotta, 'Goodfellas'), the ferocious
crime boss who sent him to prison. After taking Macha down in a game of chance, Macha puts
out a hit on Jake. Now, caught between a gun and a hard place, Jake finds himself protected
by two vicious loan sharks (Vincent Pastore and Andre Benjamin) who make him an offer he
can't refuse.
I am going to admit, I didn't "get" Revolver, but that is not so say I wasn't compelled by it. Let's face it, I sat through this entire movie not quite sure what I was seeing, or what point was being made. This movie is too heavily stylized for my taste, but seemingly stylized just for style's sake, and nothing more. One thing is clear, If it takes you two featurettes to explain what you are doing, your point is too convoluted for most viewers. While compelling, this movie rambles on like a big empty wagon on a bumpy dirt road. It makes a lot of noise, but does not do much on making its existence clear. It is rather cliché', and a very bad version of good gangster/mobster type movies like the The Godfather", Donnie Brasco, Casino, Scarface, GoodFellas or Pulp Fiction .
There are some movies that feel rather complex on first viewing, but like an onion, reveals itself layer by layer on each subsequence viewing. (within this genre Donnie Darko and Mulholland Dr. are best examples). Revolver is not that kind of movie, as each time you view it, more questions are raised instead of answers given. The problem here is accessibility and clarity. Rather than just using great dialog to drive this movie, a heavy lean towards visual stylization, and the effort to be to "deep" dogs the clarity of what Ritchie is trying to convey. I think if Ritchie thought to continue his formula of using razor sharp wit, and black comedy in this film, it probably would have come off as a better movie. But instead, we get a movie that falls under the weight of its own pretentious seriousness. Let's face it, there is a very limited dynamic of human emotion( everyone is angry as hell), and in the end, that limits how much you care about everyone, and anything in this movie. One so many levels, this film just fails to make it point, thereby leaving you wondering why it was really made. I didn't hate this film, I just didn't care about it once it ended.
Jake Green (Jason Stratham) is a con artist who has acquired "The Formula" that leads its user to win every game. It was actually discovered by a chess grandmaster in one cell, and a con artist in the other, both adjacent to Greens cell. For seven years Green watched these two worked out the formula, designed to exploit the greed and weaknesses of those around them. Once Green leaves prison, he immediately puts the formula to work, and gets rich in the process. While the money is great, what he really wants to do is muscle in on Macha's (Ray Liotta) empire, and snatch a nice piece away. He also wants revenge on Macha for sending him to prison. Green humiliates Macha, and Macha retaliates by sending out a couple of his hit men to take Green out. Green is snatched from the hails of gunfire by Avi (Andre Benjamin) and Zach (Vincent Pastore) who agree to protect Green if he forks over every last dime he has. He also has to follow every order they give without question. Green goes along with it, fully aware he has a rare blood disease that is expect to kill him in a few days. However Avi and Zach have their own agenda, which leads to a brutal war between Macha and a rival mobster (Tom Wu) and getting fat rich in the process.
Revolver shoots its way onto the Bluray format in a 1080p/AVC encode framed at a 2:35:1 aspect ratio that is unremarkable, too stylized, and a little mediocre when compared to the best images I have seen on the format. The source appears very strong, as there are no film related blemishes to be seen. Detail and clarity is pretty good in the foreground, but out of focus in the background most of the time. Colors vacillate between nicely saturated and strong, to weak and lacking in pop. Some scenes are too yellow or golden, and others are bathed in too much blue. This is especially so since Macha spends too much time in a sun tanning booth. Hues suffer the same fate, as they vacillate from non existent to fairly nice depending on scene. Blacks levels are weak, which tends to flatten the contrast as well. Grain is fine and consistent through out the film. Overall not bad, but not visually stimulating either.
Revolvers lossless 5.1 English Dolby TrueHD track, encoded at 24/48khz does an excellent job of supporting the visuals of this film, and conveying the mood of it as well. It can be aggressive at some points, and fairly subdued dimensionally at others. Ambience is strongly supported in some scenes via aggressive use of the surrounds. Listen to each time the characters are in the pool hall, or the gambling casino. You will here the sound of pool balls bouncing around placed in each of the main channels at various times, simulating the atmosphere of a real pool hall. The casino scenes feature the sounds of chips and chatter populated around the listening position in a very effective way. The LFE channel is used aggressively to support gun shots, Slammed doors, and walls coming down. Dialog is a mixed bag, with the general scene dialog quite clear and clean, while Statham's narration sounds like there is close mike cancellation in the midrange, and boundary reinforcement in the lower frequencies making his voice hollow, and bass heavy through my center channel. The mix is interesting and contributed heavily in making this movie bearable to watch.
Revolver features all of the extras from the DVD previously released earlier this year. You don't get the photo gallery, and all of the extra are limited to standard definition non anamorphic widescreen. Audio Commentary features Guy Ritchie and editor James Herbert and is filled with too much overly deep analysis designed to give a greater understanding of the complexity of the film. Not sure of their success though, as I found it rather convoluted and just plain weird. Featurette- The Concept (16 minutes) has James Herbert speaking on the editing of the movie. He also speaks of the collaboration of him and Ritchie that produced some unique ideas for the film. Featurette- The Game: The Making of Revolver (24 minutes) is a pretty comprehensive making of documentary that touches on Revolvers deep psychological underpinnings, the characters, and how close chess and a con really are, Ritchie's directorial style, and what the film's violence really represents. Revolver- Making the Music (14 minutes) has Ritchie taking a look at the score, which uses a minimalist instrumentation consisting of bass, drums, and an orchestra. He alternates between the mindset of the score, and some specifics sequences in depth going into the difficulty of landing just the right pace, and the intermingling of classical music which didn't really work out well. Deleted Scenes (24 minutes) features seven deleted and extended scenes. Outtakes (4 minutes) features a standard gag reel of blown lines, and clowning around. Music Trailer is a trailer that features just the music and visuals.
Also included among the extras are the trailers that open the disc. It is the only high definition content included in the extras.
I am going to be honest and frank. I cannot recommend this movie, not even to my dog Darnell. However if you are actually intrigued to watch it based on my not so positive review, rent it, that way you don't have to clutter up your collection with convoluted drivel trying to pass itself off as serious filmmaking. It spends too much time trying to be a mind screw that it just ends up a diffusive, empty, and rather pedestrian effort at recreating a mobster/gangster flick. It has no heart, so I just didn't feel it.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that they will bring five catalog titles to Blu-ray on November 18th. All five films - 'Blue Streak', 'National Security', 'Mirrormask', 'Southland Tales', and 'Revolver' - will feature 1080p AVC video accompanied ...
