Apex Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		0.5

Apex Blu-ray Movie Review

Die Soft.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III January 28, 2022

Edward John Drake's brain-dead thriller Apex is every bit as bad as you haven't heard. It's "straight to the bargain bin" entertainment with a limp co-starring role for none other than Bruce Willis, who has worked with the director on two previous projects (Breach and Cosmic Sin, both released in the last year), each less impressive than the last. This film offers yet another take on The Most Dangerous Game with a little Predator thrown in, but with store-brand characters and an absolutely terrible script that makes this 93-minute film a real chore to watch. Part of me wants to just link to Brian Orndorf's theatrical review and call it a day, but this one's bad enough to deserve two takedowns.

Apex introduces us to a future sport where the ultra-wealthy are welcome on Apex Island to hunt and kill human prey. Badass trillionaire -- yes, trillionaire -- Big Pharma exec Dr. Timothy Rainsford (Neil McDonough) is the reigning champ and wipes out his prey with relative ease, so the good doctor is obviously looking for a real challenge. Enter Thomas Malone (Bruce Willis), a prisoner in solitary confinement for the last few years; he's reluctant to accept the challenge, so game master / part-time hologram West (Alexia Fast) promises freedom if he survives the hunt for just 24 hours. Along with fellow players Bishop (Nels Lennarson), Lyle (Lochlyn Munro), Jeza (Megan Peta Hill), Carrion (Corey Large, who also produced and co-wrote), and Ecka (Trevor Gretzky), the hunt is on... and it couldn't be less exciting.

A tight flow with more action and suspense would have elevated Apex to marginally passable heights, but instead this film spends most of its time on the supremely uninteresting hunters while Thomas watches from afar... wearing a red jacket and somehow never detected. He really doesn't have to do all that much: their own egos and personal rivalries are more than enough to gradually thin the herd, although Thomas isn't above stirring the pot when chances arise. This stop-and-start episodic flow goes on for quite some time: a bland supporting character is picked off or murdered by a fellow hunter; rinse and repeat. It's not until the final stretch where Apex just straight drops in a new batch of players (dubbed "Mongrels") and turns into a brief free-for-all before the big showdown between Thomas and the doc, who's all too eager to spout bullshit philosophy and platitudes that attempt to give Apex some kind of lofty "human condition" mythos. It's way too little way too late, but thankfully isn't as drawn out as the previous 70 minutes.

There are a few fleeting moments of self-aware humor -- two of which reference well-known Willis properties, including of course Die Hard -- that actually earned a chuckle, and portions of its free-for-all action are kind of fun... but for the most part, Apex is just plain dumb. It's total amateur hour where supporting performances are concerned, the dialogue is god-awful, and its characters have no concrete motivation, believable backstory, or even a threatening aura. But the real kicker is that Willis only appears alongside one actor during a brief hand-to-hand fight; in every other encounter he's either shot separately, we see the hands or back of his (much younger) stunt double, or, in one case, he's dropped in via green-screen. Perhaps it was COVID prototcol, but I'm willing to bet he wasn't even in the same ZIP code as the remaining cast and crew for 95% of his limited screen time. Be like Bruce: stay away from this stinker.

RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray nonetheless offers decent A/V specs and a soon-to-be-even-lower price, but the complete lack of bonus features (mercifully?) means that there's not much content to dig through here. I'm sure a few die-hard Bruce fans might get tricked into streaming this movie or grabbing it from a Redbox machine after checking out at the grocery store... but I really can't imagine Apex being in anyone's permanent collection, even ironically.

Apex Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray does what it can with this low-budget source material, which was obviously the result of limited digital equipment that's mostly hand-held. Image detail and textures are lacking but it's probably no fault of the 1080p transfer or disc encoding, which show no glaring signs of posterization, compression artifacts, or even noticeable banding aside from harsh gradients. Black levels and color saturation are fine too, digging reasonably deep with no real crush or bleed visible, and the admittedly ironic red-green contrast of Thomas' jacket with the green foliage stands out nicely. The limited effects are mostly integrated well with the live- action footage, while a few practical effects (including a rather unsettling knife to the head) are put to good use too. But while Apex doesn't offer a uniformly impressive visual experience, its limited means are at least supported decently enough on the Blu-ray.

Apex Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Likewise, the DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix reaches modest heights, balancing mostly crisp dialogue with surround effects that occasionally creep into the rear channels depending on the location, number of people present, or of course the presence of whizzing bullets. A few stray explosions pack a decent punch, while the sporadic original score by Hugh Wielenga -- which takes a really weird turn halfway through during a short comedic scene -- also has a solid presence during key moments. While again there's not a lot of striking detail achieved, what's here at least offers some base- level excitement that supports its occasional action scenes but mostly serves the terrible script.

Optional English (SDH), Spanish, and French subtitles are included, if you like to read bad dialogue too.

Apex Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with slick artwork and a matching slipcover. No extras are included.

Apex Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Edward John Drake's Apex marks another bottom-of-the-barrel role for Bruce Willis, who appears alongside only one co-star for maybe two minutes and is otherwise about as (literally and figuratively) removed as possible. It's a phoned-in bit of stunt casting for a movie that shouldn't have seen release outside of straight-to-video purgatory, but either way there's not much of real interest here. RLJ Entertainment's Blu-ray matches the experience, offering passable A/V specs and exactly no bonus features. I wouldn't even rent this one, and you probably shouldn't either.