Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Black Water Blu-ray Movie Review

Monogram Soldier?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 18, 2018

Black Water’s title probably inevitably, and some may argue intentionally, will bring to mind “Blackwater”, the so-called “private military company” that is now, after two name changes, known as Academi. One of Academi’s chief benefactors (and beneficiaries, actually) has been the Central Intelligence Agency, and CIA “black ops” provide the foundation for this almost hilariously rote exercise in contemporary action thrillers that have a spying element. Black Water bears some curious similarities to Escape Plan, not just with regard to plot dynamics surrounding being confined in a high tech prison, but (minor spoiler here if you haven’t seen the Stallone-Schwarzenegger film) where that prison is. Kind of weirdly, while Lionsgate released Escape Plan 4K in UHD, ostensibly to promote the then upcoming Escape Plan 2: Hades, they have yet to send a review screener for that sequel, perhaps thinking that Black Water is, as they say, “close enough for jazz”. The pairing of Jean- Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren may not have quite the pop cultural resonance of teaming Ah-nold with Sylvester, but that’s just one of several problems this clunkily written escapade has.

One of the screenplay’s manifest shortcomings will be apparent to anyone who pays attention to “point of view”, especially with regard to flashbacks. When Scott Wheeler (Jean-Claude Van Damme) awakens in some kind of barren prison cell, he’s confused and disoriented. He makes contact with the prisoner next door, Marco (Dolph Lundgren), who encourages him to try to recall the last thing Wheeler remembers. (Even the introduction of Marco is handled clumsily, and for a minute or two, I assumed Marco was a guard, not another inmate.) That leads to a flashback detailing what got Wheeler incarcerated, but for those with enough energy to devote to this sort of picayune dissection, there is a whole set of sequences that depart from anything Wheeler himself could be remembering, making this a kind of “omniscient” flashback, so to speak.

Despite the structural inadequacies of the flashback, it at least gives the lowdown about some elements of Wheeler’s predicament, including the fact that he’s suspected of killing some of his CIA cohorts while he and his partner (in more ways than one, if you catch my drift) Melissa Ballard (Courtney B. Turk) are attempting to uncover a mole, a quest which has something to do with a top secret file on a USB drive. The whole flashback is so ineptly handled that even Melissa’s introduction is confounding, seeming at first to be an interaction with a “villain” (and/or villainess) before it’s revealed that she and Wheeler simply have a rather peculiar idea of foreplay. It’s all kind of head scratching ultimately, with a completely unexplained shootout that leads to one supposedly devastating death, and which then just kind of segues willy nilly right back to the undersea prison where Wheeler and Marco are incarcerated.

Fans of this kind of story are probably going to guess each and every turn Black Water takes, down to and including who exactly is the “real” bad guy (and/or gal) who has brought Wheeler to the murky deep. Let’s just put it this way: if there are two main characters involved in Wheeler’s interrogation, and one of them is a complete jerk out to prove Wheeler’s guilt, and the other is a completely “normal” seeming advocate for Wheeler’s innocence, whom do you think is going to be “unmasked” (to use an espionage term of art) as the actual nemesis in the film’s ostensibly shocking set of reveals in the third act? Add to that the completely predictable return of another character who turns out to have a part in the shenanigans, and it all seems cobbled together from some Master List of clichés that some top secret screenwriting organization keeps on their USB drive.

Without getting into any spoiler territory, suffice it to say that much of the film plays out in the confines of the submarine prison, with Wheeler and two other CIA operatives either pointing guns at each other or working together, depending on the vagaries of any given moment. Marco is also freed and joins in the “fun”, which includes an insane amount of gunfire in an enclosed space. (I’m no naval expert, but isn’t it contraindicated to fire weapons in a pressurized submarine? — asking for a friend). Unsurprisingly, good triumphs over evil, with a little coda that seems to set up the perhaps troubling idea that Wheeler and his "new, improved" main squeeze and partner (and maybe Marco) will be back for a sequel.

My colleague Brian Orndorf was at least marginally more pleased with Black Water than I was. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Black Water Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Black Water is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Pasha Patriki served as both director and cinematographer for this effort, and while I haven't been able to find any real technical data about the shoot online, this features competent technical merits, even if Patriki has the rather odd tendency to fill the frame with out of focus "blobs" in the foreground (typically people, but not always), with the supposed "focal" element (no pun intended) further back and to the side of the frame. That distancing element, along with a number of pretty murkily lit sequences in the submarine, can keep fine detail levels tamped down at times. That said, the film utilizes the kind of unnatural lighting environment of a sub to rather evocative effect at times, with deep reds and blues permeating the frame. In normal lighting, the palette looks natural and fine detail levels perk up considerably. There are some passing moments of noisiness in some of the darker sequences, though these tend to be fleeting.

Black Water Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Black Water's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track gets the job done, but perhaps with just a bit less force than action adventure adrenaline junkies may have wished for. There are certainly bursts of forceful LFE in the gunfight exchanges, and the "thrum" of the submarine underwater also resonates nicely through the subwoofer and surrounds, but in a lot of scenes the sound design is kind of uninspired, with a minimum of really impressive surround activity. That said, dialogue and an overwrought score are both presented clearly and cleanly, with no signs of any distortion or other problems to warrant concern.

Black Water Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While the Main Menu touts supposed "Special Features", those turn out to be trailers for other Lionsgate releases and a Bookmarks feature, neither of which I consider a "scorable" bonus offering.

Black Water Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

That perhaps perplexing "Monogram Soldier?" comment under the title of the film above is my probably bonehead attempt at a pun based on what is arguably the best remembered previous collaboration between Van Damme and Lundgren, Universal Soldier. If "Universal" is understood as a studio, my comment is meant to suggest that this effort is decidedly smaller scale, a B-movie at best, in the time honored tradition of "poverty row" consortiums like Monogram. Fans of either or both of these performers may find enough here to warrant a look, but this is by the numbers filmmaking on any number of counts. Technical merits are generally solid for those considering a purchase.