6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
Terrorists attempt to disrupt the Atlanta Olympics by kidnapping the U.S. women's swim team. If their demands are not met, the team will be executed. Only janitor Jack Bryant, a former Olympic gymnast champion of Tae Kwon Do felled by injuries and alcoholism knows of their real plans. And only he, with the guidance of former terrorist-fighter Leo, can stop them.
Starring: Linden Ashby, Andrew Divoff, Kimberly Warren, Rutger Hauer, Norbert WeisserAction | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
BDInfo
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
Take a gander at the key art right above this review. Look a little familiar? No? What if I said "Yippee kai yay" (with maybe an expletive added to the end just for special emphasis)? Still nothing? Well, then, look here. Now to be fair, it seems that this art was not part of Blast's marketing campaign when it appeared as what I assume was a straight to video release in 1997 (you can see some of that art on our main movie listing page here). It seems positively weird to make Blast seem like a DTV version of Die Hard , with perhaps one salient example being this story does not take place in New York and features virtually no exploding skyscrapers. Instead, I guess Blast might be likened most to outings like Munich, though the difference in quality probably doesn't need to be mentioned. In fact, perhaps Blast shares the most similarities with a film which has evidently not yet been made, though it's been teased several times through the years, and is listed on the IMDb as The Ballad of Richard Jewell. That as yet unrealized production is supposedly going to document the travails of Atlanta Olympics security guard Richard Jewell, who of course was wrongly accused of having planted the devastating bomb that interrupted that Olympics celebration.
Blast is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual's new MVD Marquee imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is a competent looking transfer of a lo-fi production that is often drenched in deep blues (as can be seen in several of the screenshots accompanying this review), and which also features a lot of supposed "closed circuit" material (see screenshots 3 and 9). Aside from that intentionally pixellated material, detail levels are routinely quite good throughout this presentation, though several darker moments suffer from deficits in shadow detail and fine detail. Grain was just a trifle heavier at times than I personally was expecting, but it resolves without any problems and gives this effort a nicely organic looking quality.
Perhaps because it was evidently a straight to video release, Blast's LPCM 2.0 track never really goes for the gusto in terms of showy sonics, but there is some noticeable stereo imaging at times in some of the more boisterous sequences that involve fighting. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly, but I found the amplitude on this entire track just a tad anemic, and in fact I kept trying to turn my receiver "up to 11" (so to speak). That said, all elements are rendered well enough, and there are no signs of distortion, dropouts or damage.
Blast's advertised "marquee" stars are Andrew Divoff, Linden Ashby and Kimberly Warren, but my hunch is many fans will probably recognize Rutger Hauer's name before any of the others, and aside from a brief dip in the pool at the very end of the film, he can barely be seen in any of his already brief interstitial appearances earlier in the film. Blast is DTV fodder of typically small ambition and realization, but if there are Divoff, Ashby and/or Warren fans out there jonesin' for a chance to see their favorites, this release sports generally solid technical merits.
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