The Minute You Wake Up Dead Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

The Minute You Wake Up Dead Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 9, 2022

When you have the redolent tones of Morgan Freeman's voice in your film, do you really need anything else. Sadly, The Minute You Wake Up Dead might be a potent argument that the answer to that obviously joking question is a decided "yes". This is a film that in fact begins with Freeman delivering the kind of "down home" hokum via voiceover that would probably engender unrepentant laughter were it not being offered with a voice with "that" gravitas. Freeman portrays a Mississippi sheriff named Thurmond Fowler (did black people of that era really name their children after one of the more notorious segregationists of his time? -- but I digress). Fowler is a philosopher, of course, as he reveals in the opening voiceover, but this film's attempts at delivering anything more than potboiler formulas is in fact laughable a lot of the time. The basic plot here involves a shady day trader type named Russ (Cole Hauser) who's in hot water with the locals for his bad investment advice. Fowler warns Russ he may be facing consequences, but that doesn't stop Russ from sticking around and courting Delaine (Jaimie Alexander), a waitress at the local diner. When Delaine's father turns up dead, things start to get (supposedly) convoluted.

While The Minute You Wake Up Dead engages in such a litany of clichés that any putative "spoiler warnings" are probably unnecessary, suffice it to say that things aren't exactly as they seem, though that wily Thurmond Fowler is on to the whole rotten assemblage of characters basically from the get go. What's kind of sad about The Minute You Wake Up Dead is that there are at least pieces of a decent thriller here, and one that would seem to have the opportunity to exploit a good ol' Southern Gothic ambience, but the film is so ham handedly written and structured that it's ultimately kind of pointless. One major structural misstep is arguably its very early reveal of what's actually going on, though that said, if you haven't figured it out by the time it is revealed, you probably haven't been paying attention. For good reason.

The Minute You Wake Up Dead Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Minute You Wake Up Dead is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. I was actually frankly kind of shocked to see the Red logo in the closing credits roll, since it tends to be my preferred technology for capture, at least when compared to Arri Alexa, but this is a really kind of odd looking transfer that has had a rather dirty digital grain field applied that is not particularly organic looking and which can mask clarity and fine detail levels. A lot of the palette has been graded to an almost neutral peach-tan tone that keeps things from popping. Low light scenes offer relatively little in the way of shadow definition.

The Minute You Wake Up Dead Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Minute You Wake Up Dead features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that offers some intermittent immersion courtesy of outdoor scenes with ambient environmental sounds, and some of the interior sequences where characters are dispersed. Producer Andrew Stevens (yeah, I think that one) is also credited as co-writer for a bunch of tunes used as source cues, all of which sound fine if generally forgettable. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

The Minute You Wake Up Dead Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:13)

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

The Minute You Wake Up Dead Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Maybe Morgan Freeman is going to be the new "face" of Grindstone now that Bruce Willis has sadly been forced to retire. I hope he got a nice paycheck and enjoys wherever this was filmed, because someone should have gotten something out of this pretty dreary enterprise. Technical merits are okay (video) to solid (audio), for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.