A Common Man Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

A Common Man Blu-ray Movie Review

Mishandled audio further pulls down an already struggling release.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 15, 2013

I'm not Superman. Invisible Man, more like.

Director Chandran Rutnam's A Common Man is a remake of the highly rated and critically acclaimed 2008 Bollywood Thriller A Wednesday. Unfortunately, Rutnam's film doesn't warrant the same level of praise. His well-intentioned film is one that probably doesn't need to exist considering the close proximity of the original version. This is a stale, largely listless picture that does admirably restrain itself from incorporating the sort of over-the-top manufactured thrills so often found in these sort of "time's ticking"/"negotiation" movies. Unfortunately, it goes to the opposite extreme, resulting in a sloth of a picture that, even when it aims to create tension, fails to find much verve. The plot is fine and the developments interesting and sometimes borderline captivating, but the journey isn't quite worth the payoff, even considering the picture's stance as something more of a thinking man's Thriller rather than a cookie-cutter "thrill ride."

A man (Ben Kingsley) leaves several black bags scattered around Colombo, Sri Lanka, including on a bus, a train, and inside a police station. Upon depositing five bags around the city, he retreats to an overlook rooftop and sets up shop, making use of advanced cellular telephone masking techniques. He makes a call to the local lead investigator, Morris Da Silva (Ben Cross), and informs him of the bombs. His demand: freedom for four imprisoned individuals. He threatens to wreak havoc around the city if his demands are not met and shows both his honesty as well as his mastery of bomb making techniques by revealing the location of one of the bombs and providing authorities with the means of disarming it. He also communicates with a local television reporter whom he keeps one step ahead of the police. As his plan unfolds, his motives are revealed; it's just a question of whether he will be stopped or understood first.

A Common Man's second and third acts never do match the quality of its speedy, intensive opening. Kingsley sells the unknown with great skill as he surreptitiously plants black bags around public places, clearly up to no good but doing well to mask his intentions to not only those around him, but to the audience as well. Is his motive murder? Revenge? Or something entirely different? Is he engaging in terrorism or making a point? Does he want blood or understanding? The movie's structure and Kingsley's performance both leave audiences uncertain of how to respond. Certainly the initial reaction, if indeed there are bombs in the bags, is disgust, but Kingsley shows something beyond the methodical, blind ideology, hate, or lunacy that signals that, just maybe, there's hope for the character and the situation, that his end game goal is other than pointless death and destruction. As the story unravels, audiences will learn the truth. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie doesn't live up to the borderline subtle brilliance of its open, leaving the resolution little more than a formality rather than a satisfying conclusion.

The picture's downward spiral is a result of several factors, chief amongst them a bland, no-effort, low-development cast beyond Kingsley. The picture tries its hardest to make the lead inspector on the case a character of greater depth but fails to realize much of anything beyond a stereotype. The remainder of the players -- whether a news reporter pawn or an officer whose wife and baby are on board one of the trains with a bomb -- come across flatly and as pieces rather than real flesh-and-blood individuals with whom the audience may relate in some way (though there is a nice comic relief-light character in the "cool" computer hacker who enters to aid the police track Kingsley's character down). The middle stretch, and much of the end, devolves into visually flavorless chase scenes and insipid back-and-forth dialogue that does work to reveal the truth behind the plot but fails to engender much in the way of dramatic tension. Ultimately, the picture simply lacks energy and enthusiasm. It ends nicely enough with a quality finishing scene but the picture, regrettably, loses its audience well before.

A Common Man Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Common Man features a snazzy, sharp, and highly enjoyable high definition transfer. Anchor Bay's 1.78:1 image appears razor sharp in nearly every scene and reveals pinpoint details and picture-perfect clarity in nearly every shot. It's very bright -- brilliant, at times -- and showcases HD video eye candy throughout. Details are spectacular. Of course, clothing and facial textures are top-notch, but the many distance and overhead city shots reveal an amazing level of accuracy, too. Definition in these longer shots is flawless. Likewise, ground-level and closer-in images show more pristine details, whether on city buses, trains, or leaves. Colors are quite bright and balanced. The image takes on a very realistic appearance with none of its hues pushing warmth or coldness, never appearing washed out or over cooked. The city offers a fairly diverse array of colors to enjoy, and the Blu-ray handles them all remarkably well. Black levels and flesh tones both are stable. Compression issues are not a problem. This is a fine transfer from Anchor Bay.

A Common Man Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For the most part, A Common Man's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack excels, except in one key area. Before the deal breaking negative, the positives: from the open, listeners will enjoy a rather robust room-filling sound signature. Balanced bass, smooth surround details, crisp notes, and welcoming ambient support give shape to a fine general presentation. Rumbling trains, passing traffic, revving motorcycle motors, the din of a police station, and all sorts of sound effects create a nicely enriched and realistic listening environment. The film's opening minutes are completely focused on these sorts of elements as Kingsley's character plants the bombs around the city. No dialogue is heard until the six-miniute mark, and that's when things turn ugly. Not only is the dialogue sometimes a bit muddy and tinny, but the lip synch is off -- way off. It's not a millisecond out ahead or behind but a full word or two, most of the time. It's so bad it looks like a poor dub, but the off-kilter mouth movements do seem to match the dialogue. Some scenes are borderline tolerable, others are flat-out atrocious. It's a wonder how a sync issue this bad could have slipped past quality control, and for the entire duration of the movie for that matter. It makes A Common Man borderline unwatchable. The problem was verified on two separate Blu-ray playback devices.

A Common Man Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of A Common Man is featureless.

A Common Man Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Chances are A Common Man will at the very least spark an interest in tracking down a copy of A Wednesday. The Ben Kingsley remake is, sadly, not up to the challenge of delivering meaningful, hard-hitting drama, instead settling for a fairly lazy, slow structure that's all downhill after a rather strong open. The picture does little right -- even Kingsley's performance feels a little flat beyond the first act -- and only hints at the material's potential rather than capitalizes on it. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray is maybe even worse than the film. Though it features standout video, it delivers faulty audio and no supplements. Skip it.