The Devil's Own Blu-ray offers decent video and audio, but overall it's a mediocre Blu-ray release
Francis McGuire is an IRA terrorist who is responsible for many deaths and acts of terrorism. He travels to America to help his cause, assumes the name Roy Devancy and is placed with Tom O'Meara, an Irish N.Y. cop. Tom and his partner, Eddie are street cops who are good at their jobs, but they don't realize that Roy is there to purchase missiles from Billy Burke an arms smuggler. Along with his friend, Sean, Roy sets out to buy and transport missiles back to his homeland, but that's before Tom finds out his true identity.
Don't look for a happy ending. It's not an American story; it's an Irish one.
What happens when you combine arguably the hottest star of the 1980s -- Harrison Ford (Blade Runner), -- with
one of the biggest of the 1990s -- Brad Pitt (Ocean's Eleven)? Well, not much of
anything, sadly. It's not like
placing
two top-tier actors in a movie together spells instant doom. Take Heat, for example. Did
anyone have any doubt that a movie starring both Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro could possibly be
anything other than fantastic (not to mention under the direction of Michael Mann)? Then again,
the problem might be
that
Ford and Pitt really aren't top-tier actors like Pacino and DeNiro. Sure, they attract crowds and
sell
tickets, and they've been in some very good movies, but it seems like in The Devil's Own
the two had no idea how to play off of one another, not to mention being under the subpar
direction
of the late of Alan J. Pakula (The Pelican Brief). Once again, a movie takes a decent idea
(and believe it or not, I think that most movies, even the bad ones, are rooted in decent-at-worst
ideas, unless you're dealing with something epically bad like One Missed Call). Here, the idea revolves
around the purchase of missiles by a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) to be used to
further that organization's cause and the choice two men must face in light of their backgrounds,
personas, and level of trust. It's a good idea, though perhaps one that might be more befitting as
the plot of a novel where the storyteller would have more opportunity to flesh out the characters
and create a more immersive world and backdrop than what we see here.
Frankie McGuire appears stunned when his target informs him that he forgot to load the gun.
Frankie McGuire (Pitt), a young Irish lad of 8 years, witnesses his father murdered over dinner.
Years later, he's become a member of the IRA, fighting against those very people responsible for
his
father's death. Lacking sufficient military grade hardware to continue on with the fight against
the
heavily armed and modernized British Army, Frankie travels to the United States, assumes the
name Rory Devaney, and with the help of a new and sympathetic friend, plans to purchase
stinger
missiles from a black market arms dealer (Treat Williams, Deep Rising) which he'll take
back
to Ireland to help further his cause. Rory is housed with police officer Tom O'Meara (Ford), a good
cop with a conscience who puts people (including his suspects) ahead of himself, his aspirations,
or
his emotions. Ultimately, Tom will begin to piece together the true identity and motivations of
the
seemingly friendly Irishman living in his home, and he'll have to choose to help or hinder his task.
The Devil's Own, in the end, comes off as a completely uninspired and frankly
boring movie whose plot gets lost in dull cinematography, plot contrivances, mediocre acting,
badly placed and stereotypical Irish music,
a slow pace, and several sequences that have very little to do with the central focus of the story.
Other than fleshing out Tom's personality and morals, which is important to the story, two
sequences, one where he chases down a small-time thief and lets him go, the other where he
breaks up a domestic disturbance, really add no value to the movie, appearing completely
out-of-place and useless. I appreciate the need to get the audience's mindset in the right place
and
learn who the characters are and what it is they believe in to make the story work, but such
necessities are generally handled in some way relevant to the primary plot line, but not here. I
was taken out of the movie both times and found it difficult to get back in.
The movie's main problems stem from its lack of originality. Absolutely nothing stands out; as
mentioned above, the cinematography, the look of the film, is so drab as to make it difficult to get
into the spirit of the thing. We are presented with one generic scene after another, even the
shootouts dull and tedious. Even as a fan of loud action scenes with plenty of gun play, the ones
featured in this movie are so lifeless as to make them only moderately watchable and completely
forgettable. While I've heard worse accents than Pitt's (hear Kevin Costner's in 13 Days
or his co-star Ford's in K19: The Widowmaker), it sometimes distracts, sometimes not,
but the main problem with the character is his lackluster and clichéd persona. His story sounds
like a bad movie trailer: "when a young boy witnesses the death of his father, he'll grow up with
the singular goal of bringing justice to those responsible." It sounds like a bad Steven Seagal
movie, and the theme is one that's been done countless times before (Beowulf & Grendel comes to mind as a
crude yet perfectly fitting example). Worth a watch but completely worthless in terms of replay
value and thought-provoking stimulation, The Devil's Own ranks right up there with the
best of the most average movies Hollywood has ever produced.
Nearly as disappointing an experience as the movie is this 2.40:1, 1080p high definition transfer
of The Devil's Own. While serviceable, this image clearly lacks clarity and definition.
Softness, albeit somewhat subtle in some scenes, is seemingly ever-present. The image
constantly looks dark and bleak, no doubt a stylistic choice employed by the filmmakers to suit
the
subject material, although it doesn't help that both Ireland and New York often appear drab and
overcast throughout the course of the film. Black levels are solid, serving as one of the transfer's
assets. I was not overly impressed at first, noting a mostly ho-hum reaction to the depth of the
blacks, but I become more impressed with them as the film moved along. A fine layer of film
grain can be seen throughout the picture, but it doesn't really benefit the look of the film insofar
as aiding in recreating the joyous cinematic/theatrical look and feel. I noted some instances of
shimmering and slight contrast wavering in the image, and flesh tones often appear red and
unnatural. Detail is also unimpressive. On occasion, we see some fine nuances in the picture,
the best I saw being the leather of McGuire's leather jacket in several shots, or in the texture of
the leather making up the backseat of a car. Otherwise, detail is disappointingly low in this
movie, the result a mostly flat and lifeless picture. There also appear to be a few instances of
sharp edges on naturally smooth surfaces. Take a look, if you buy or rent this movie, at a
wooden chair at the dinner table about 21 minutes in. The edges of the smooth, rounded chair
definitely exhibit a case of the jaggies. Even taking into account the age of the movie, this is a
very lackluster transfer, though much of the depressing look of the movie does appear to be
intentional rather than any fault of the disc. Still, The Devil's Own never approaches the
level of quality or reference material we're beginning to see in so many releases, new or
catalogue.
Neither angelic nor demonic is The Devil's Own Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround sound mix.
Overall, the sound track is sufficient, but it certainly lacks the punch and definition we've come to
expect from superior mixes. Granted, The Devil's Own is more of a drama than an action
film, but there are several action sequences, most of which come off as drab and uninspired from
an audio perspective. Gunfire doesn't really make much of an impact. It's represented here as
standard-fare sound with decent reverberation and presence, but there is no hard-hitting thuds
to make us feel like part of the action. The subwoofer felt subdued during many such scenes,
notably the shootout near the beginning of the movie, and the overall result was disappointing to
say the least. The film's music is also simply adequate. Much of it comes across as subdued,
especially the cheesy, clichéd, and seemingly out-of-place and forced Irish tunes that play over
the more easy going and heartwarming scenes of the movie, a respite between the more tense
and/or chaotic sequences. It does sound pleasant enough, not quite awe-inspiring, but good
enough as to have you believing you just popped in your favorite Celtic-themed CD for some
relaxing music while cleaning house. Dialogue reproduction proves to be one of the strengths of
this disc, never presenting me with any reason to rank it below the level of "excellent." This disc
doesn't feature much surround activity, and ambience only really caught my ear a few times,
notably and pleasingly in the film's third act during a sequence in an abandoned warehouse. The
entire soundstage is well-used, and imaging is excellent. Loud voices echo with a natural verve,
water drips off to the side of you and, eventually, shotgun blasts ring your bells and create in this
room (and the listening area) a fine and frightening resonance. Still, this soundtrack is lackluster
at best, falling way short of attaining the heights of the elite sound mixes yet released on Blu-ray.
I guess the producers of this disc decided their fans wouldn't want any supplements, so the decision
was made to release this disc almost completely bare-bones. The Devil's Own Blu-ray
contains only 1080p trailers for Damages: The Complete First Season and Rescue Me:
The Complete
Third Season (the same two previews that appeared on The 6th Day), as well as a Blu-ray promotional
montage, also presented in 1080p.
It seems like I have been reviewing quite a few movies recently that I've seen before but had
forgotten about, the movie obviously not holding my interest back then, and once again failing to
entertain me now. The Devil's Own is another such movie, one I saw on DVD back when it
first hit that format, but hadn't watched since, remembering only Brad Pitt's questionable accent.
The story here is a good one, the IRA always making for a good backdrop to a film, but this one just
can't seem to keep up a decent pace or figure out exactly where it is going. Even Brad Pitt wasn't happy with the final product, and
production and script squabbles, not to mention egos, plagued the filming of the movie. To make
matters worse, this subpar film is now a subpar high definition Blu-ray release. Perhaps the dullest
audio and video quality yet from Sony, The Devil's Own's subdued and bleak look doesn't
help a transfer that exhibits some flaws but also proves itself worthy in a few other areas, and its
sound mix is a very average one at best. With no supplemental materials relating to the film to be
found on this disc, I cannot even recommend a purchase to fans of the movie who already own a
copy on DVD.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has announced that they will release the Harrison Ford film 'The Devil's Own' for Blu-ray on May 6th. Video will be presented in 2.40:1 1080p AVC, and be accompanied by a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. No extras have been announced ...
