Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Bending the Rules Blu-ray Movie Review

If It Bends, It's Funny . . .

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 20, 2014

An ongoing effort at WWE Studios has been assembling projects for its more photogenic stars in the hope of igniting or assisting nascent film careers. The effort seems to have given a boost to the celluloid aspirations of John Cena, with whom WWE made Legendary and The Reunion, but the 2012 buddy-cop crime comedy Bending the Rules failed to provide a similar lift for Canadian brawler Adam "Edge" Copeland. It's hard to say why, because Copeland is appealing in the film, which is constructed according to the basic WWE formula: an efficient, if unoriginal, script (by Dylan Schaffer, who also wrote Inside Out for the studio); an experienced director (Artie Mandelberg, whose extensive TV credits include Saving Grace and Moonlighting); and a seasoned cast to help carry the fledgling star, including Jamie Kennedy, Jennifer Esposito, Alicia Witt, Alias' uber-nerd Kevin Weisman, Philip Baker Hall and the still-beguiling Jessica Walter, whose credits go all the way back to Clint Eastwood's directorial debut, Play Misty for Me.

In stark contrast to his wrestling persona as "Edge", here Copeland plays an easygoing New Orleans police detective named Nick Blades, whose preferred style of dress, even in court, is an oversize camp shirt and a pair of shorts. At the moment, Blades is spending most of his day in court, because the most zealous Asst. D.A. in town, Theo Gold (Kennedy), is trying to put him behind bars for corruption. Blades is guilty, of course. Like Nick Conklin in Black Rain, he's skimmed drug money from busts to keep his family afloat, but he's basically a good cop. He also has complete faith that no jury in the Big Easy will ever convict him.

The prosecutor shortly has other problems. His boss, D.A. Gunn (Gary Grubbs), passes him over for a promotion, because, despite Gold's skill, everyone in the office hates him. The sole exception is his second-chair assistant on the Blades case, Rosalyn Wohl (Witt), who looks like she has either a crush or career aspirations (or both). Gold's wife, Kelly (Elena Lyons), announces that she's leaving him, because she's tired of living on a prosecutor's pay. His mother (Walter), a retired actress, is convinced that his father (Hall), is having an affair and demands that her prosecutor son do something about it. And, worst of all, the family heirloom, a bright red mint condition 1956 Studebaker Goldenhawk, is stolen from Gold's garage. If his father finds out, it'll kill him. And the police department won't help Gold, because they all hate him for prosecuting a cop.

As it happens, though, Gold has an unlikely ally in Nick Blades, the very man he is trying to put away. On his way to court that day, Blades interrupted the attempted holdup of a small-timer named Gil (Weisman), who was acting as a courier for some sort of coded message. Decoded with the help of Blades's friend, Officer Garcia (Esposito), the message pointed to Gold's Studebaker, among other things. Blades isn't sure how it all fits together, but Gold is a good place to start, even if the two of them can't stand each other--and even if Blades's superior, Lt. Glass (Clyde Jones), reads him the familiar riot act about not doing anything, because he's on administrative leave pending the outcome of his trial plus an inquiry by Internal Affairs, and why the hell is Blades still carrying a badge and gun anyway?

Buddy-cop movies depend on feuding, mismatched pairs, and Blades and Gold have animosity built in from the outset, but Copeland and his director clearly understood that less was more in the wrestler's portrayal of Blades. Between sheer size and the sense of presence he'd developed in the ring, Copeland makes the detective the calm center of a storm, while the more experienced cast members emote and cut up around him. It's an effective combination that keeps the story interesting and amusing, even as Schaffer's script stretches credibility to the breaking point. Nothing in Bending the Rules bears even a remote resemblance to real law enforcement. Then again, have you ever tried examining a Lethal Weapon film?

Bending the Rules Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Definitive information about the shooting format of Bending the Rules was not available, but the credits suggest it was shot on film and finished on a digital intermediate. The cinematographer was Kenneth Zunder, who has shot seven films for WWE Studios to date and has extensive credits in both features (Bye Bye Love) and television (Judging Amy, among others). With both the director and the DP sharing a TV background, it's not surprising that the film has a primetime look, with everyone clearly and brightly illuminated, even at night, and nothing especially artful or eye-catching in the use of shadows or colors. Note that this isn't a criticism; that kind of "invisible" style is well-suited to comedy.

RLJ/Image Entertainment's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray provides a solid, clear, noiseless and detailed image. But for the credits listing various personnel involved with film and the appearance of film cameras in production footage in the extras, the image might almost be mistaken for digital capture, because, as is so often the case in today's DI-processed work, the film's grain pattern has been virtually eliminated by the kind of sophisticated software that translates grain into pixels without loss of detail. The color palette tends toward the bright and cheerful, in keeping with Nick Blades's upbeat temperament ("I've always been lucky", is his mantra) and the flamboyant red of the vintage Studebaker. Even the donuts are colorful.

At an average bitrate of 19.00 Mbps, the compression is somewhat tight, but the film has a lot of quiet, talky scenes that allow conservation of bandwidth for the few busy action sequences (and there are only a few). Compression artifacts would have stood out in this smooth surface, and I didn't see any.

Bending the Rules Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bending the Rules's original 5.1 track is encoded as lossless DTS-HD MA. It's a serviceable but unremarkable track consistent with the film's modest budget. Despite the presence of a major wrestling star, the film lacks any major action set pieces; indeed, only one scene involves significant gunfire. The surrounds provide an expanded sense of environment and a larger presence for the generic score by Trevor Morris (Olympus Has Fallen). Dialogue is clear, and dynamic range is wide.

Bending the Rules Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Cutting Edge: Meet the Star (1080i; 1.85:1; 6:26): Just as the title indicates, an introduction to the film's star, who is appropriately modest about his big-screen debut.



• Edge & Jamie: Bonding in the Big Easy (1080i; 1.85:1; 6:16): An examination of the comic chemistry between the two stars, with a few examples of Kennedy's ad libs.



• Alternate Ending: Paying Respects (1080i; 1.78:1; 3:41): Contrary to the usual practice, this extra does not contain an actual alternate ending. Instead, it describes two variations on the original ending and shows production footage from the attempt to shoot them. The original scripted ending had to be abandoned when adverse weather conditions wreaked havoc with the outdoor set and shooting schedule. A second version was hastily conceived and shot, but then dropped during editing in favor of the scenes now included in the finished film. The second version is not provided.



• Garage Pass (1080i; 1.78:1): Portraits of the two vehicles that serve as additional "characters" in the film.
• The Hawk (5:27)
• The Scout (5:36)



• Edge Presents: Top Five Bending the Rules Moments (1080i; 1.78:1; 6:27): The "moments" in question are from Edge's wrestling career.



• Photo Gallery (1080p; 1.78:1): Approximately 41 photographs from the production.



• Bonus Trailers: The film's trailer is not included. At startup the disc plays trailers for additional titles from WWE Studios: Barricade, The Chaperone, Inside Out, Knucklehead, Legendary, No Holds Barred, The Reunion and That's What I Am. These can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Bending the Rules Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Bending the Rules is a pleasant enough entertainment, especially for Edge fans. It's competently written, acted and shot, and the Edge shows enough presence on screen to deserve another chance. But the film isn't likely to stick in the memory or spawn any catchphrases, unless you count Jamie Kennedy's on-set nicknames for his costar ("Yeti!" "Sasquatch! "Viking!"). Worth a rental.