The Contract Blu-ray

The Contract

 (2006)

Crime | Drama | Thriller



While on a hiking trip to reconnect with his son, Ray Keene (John Cusack) stumbles into a nightmare scenario of paid assassins and ex-military guns-for-hire. Frank Cardin (Morgan Freeman) is attempting to fulfill a contract to assassinate a high profile businessman when things go awry and he ends up in the custody of the U.S. Marshalls. After an ill-fated attempt by his com[patriots to free him, Frank finds himself in the custody of ex-lawman Ray and his son (Jamie Anderson). As they try to make their way back to civilization they are relentlessly pursued by Frank's friends who are intent on freeing their leader in order to collect on the contract. But one may be more foe than friend.

For more details about The Contract on Blu-ray, see The Contract Blu-ray Review

The Contract Blu-ray, Video Quality

 


If there’s one plus to the mess that is The Contract, it’s that the film looks excellent on Blu-ray, featuring a 1080p/VC-1 transfer that’s crisp, colorful, and free of any technical troubles. You’ll notice straight away that there’s a great sense of overall clarity. All of those moles, freckles, and lines on Morgan Freeman’s iconic face are reproduced with fine detail, tree trunks are composed of sharp lines—without any trace of edge enhancement—and even the toppings of cops’ donuts pop in high definition. As much of the film takes place in a Pacific Northwestern forest, the transfer’s strong color palette is comprised of verdant greens, rich browns, and other earthy hues. Skin tones look natural too, if a little yellowish at times. Toward the end of the film there’s some really artificial-looking day-for-night shots—you know, the kind where they use a deep blue filter—but you can’t really blame the transfer for this. Thankfully, as there is a lot of darkness in the film, black levels are plenty deep without crushing shadow detail, and contrast on the whole is tight, especially during the daylight scenes. Grain is apparent but very minimal, and I didn’t spot and blocking, banding, smearing, or ringing. It’s definitely not enough to change my opinion of the film in any way, but The Contract looks great for a straight-to-video offering.

The Contract Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 


On the audio side of things, The Contract’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track could stand to be a little beefier, but it’s still a more than adequate affair. And the film does have a couple of what you might call “showpiece” audio moments during a few of the bigger action sequences. During an early car accident, metal smashes against metal, twisting and screeching, while glass shatters and sprays all over the pavement. Later, when a helicopter crashes into the forest, its rotor blades shoot through the rear speakers as tree branches crack and splinter. The surround channels come to life frequently throughout the film; thunder rolls and buckets of rain pound heavily into the foliage, a river flows around us, and insects buzz while birds chirp in every conceivable direction. It’s all balanced competently, both the action and the quieter moments, and I don’t think I touched my remote control once during the film. Dialogue is unproblematic as well, sounding clean and natural throughout. Normand Corbell’s score is entirely forgettable—standard thriller movie fare—but it’s at least bombastic and sounds relatively full. It could be more aggressive, but really, I’ve got no overt complaints about this track.

The Contract Blu-ray, News and Updates

• First Look Announces The Contract and More - July 31, 2008