5.9 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.8 |
As a young girl living in the remote mountains of Colorado, Vivian (Bruckner) watched
helplessly as her family was murdered by a pack of angry men for the secret they carried in
their blood. Vivian survived the attack by running into the woods and changing into a wolf.
Ten years later, Vivian is living a relatively safe and normal life in Bucharest, Romania.
Vivian spends her days working in a chocolate shop and nights trawling the city’s
underground clubs, fending off the reckless antics of her cousin Rafe, and his gang of
delinquents he refers to as "The Five".
Vivian’s life begins to unravel when she has a chance encounter with Aiden (Dancy), an
artist researching Bucharest’ ancient art and relics for his next graphic novel. Aiden pursues
Vivian until she relents and begins to see him, but she can’t bring herself to tell him the
truth - and lives in fear of showing him who she really is. Even though Vivian has sworn
never to kill, she is as much an animal as she is human, and her love for Aiden threatens to
cast him to the very wolves who saved her life and who are waiting for their chance to hunt
him as prey.
Horror | 100% |
Romance | 55% |
Teen | 42% |
Fantasy | 28% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: LPCM 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
That is the world I remember and one I wish I'd never known.
While Vampires continue to be Hollywood's golden children du jour, raking in untold
millions of dollars in movie tickets and merchandising (thanks, Stephenie Meyer), the mythical
figures known as Werewolves seem more an afterthought these days, even if Tinseltown has
churned out several pictures in their honor over the past few years. Werewolves have a rich
history
on-screen; Universal's classic The Wolf Man starring Lon Cheney, Wolf starring
Jack Nicholson, and An American Werewolf in
London are several of the standard-bearers of on-screen werewolf
mythos. More recently, these furry friends have been depicted in the Underworld films
opposite
their arch-enemies, those moneymaking Vampires, to moderate financial success, these Kate
Beckinsale-in-tight-black-leather movies at the very least recouping their
budgets and earning a tidy profit to the tune of several millions of dollars. Two of the Werewolf's
most recent appearances on-screen, The Wolfman and
Blood and Chocolate, haven't been as fortunate. The former -- despite a star-studded
cast -- failed to recover its hefty
budget in gross domestic ticket sales, and the latter, well, it made enough to pay the New York
Yankees' team salary for a game or two. Based on a novel by Annette Curtis Klause, Blood &
Chocolate proved to be nothing short of a disaster upon its theatrical release in
2007, a mere three-plus years ago. Don't remember it? Don't worry. It tanked faster than the
Baltimore Orioles' 2010 season.
More than meets the eye.
An earlier release from Sony, Blood & Chocolate sports a mid-level 1080p, MPEG-2 encoded, 2.35:1-framed transfer. The picture's brighter scenes sport good color reproduction, a fair sense of depth, and solid detailing on the various locations in and around Bucharest; viewers will be pleased with the texturing on streets and building façades, but the transfer stumbles when the film shifts to its almost ever-present darkness. Here, the transfer goes smooth and lacks depth and vibrancy; shadow detail is generally poor, save for some deliciously-realized exterior shots of Bucharest at street level as light fixtures shine down on wet pavement and brick walls. Generally, blacks tend to drown out details around the screen, and faces and other objects within the shadows lack texture. Skin tones, too, take on a decidedly orange tint, whether in daytime or nighttime scenes. There's little of note to this transfer; it's murky, not particularly sharp, and just isn't very attractive during its many dark sequences. It seems fairly representative of the filmmakers' intent, features a bit of grain, and lacks much in the way of intrusive noise. It's a decent enough transfer, but it's not going to wow anyone except for those who enjoy Blood & Chocolate as their first Blu-ray experience.
Blood & Chocolate spills out a decent PCM 5.1 uncompressed soundtrack. No great shakes but not exactly a poor effort, the track seems more a victim of the movie's lackluster sound design than a middling effort on Sony's part. It does make good use of the surround speakers in the way they support the primary musical cues, but there's a notable absence of seamlessness, space, and clarity to the music, traits associated with the upper-tier lossless and uncompressed soundtracks. A dance club scene in chapter two proves to be about the best the track has to offer, with what is an almost mesmerizingly deep and cavernous presentation as the entire soundstage is filled with the music's dreamlike quality. Unfortunately, the remainder of the track never quite lives up to that potential. Additionally, it lacks a more natural atmosphere; the city locales seem ripe for a more potent environmental support structure, but rarely is there more than passing indication that there's anything going on outside the frame. A series of gunshots and shattering glass heard near the end of the film also fail to pack much of a punch. In the track's defense, a light rainfall as heard in chapter ten delivers the most seamless and natural environmental ambience in the entire film, the track doing well to make it seem like it's raining throughout the soundstage. Otherwise, this one is a basic nuts-and-bolts offering that delivers everything the movie needs to get by -- including problem-free dialogue reproduction -- but there's little of substance here to elevate it into the upper stratosphere of Blu-ray soundtracks.
Blood & Chocolate arrives on Blu-ray with minimal supplemental support. The primary extra is an audio commentary track with Director Katja von Garnier and Actor Olivier Martinez. This is one of the more bland commentary tracks out there; it's by-the-book, the participants speaking affably enough but covering the most basic of elements, describing the on-screen action while speaking on the shooting locales, filming the wolf scenes, the manner and order in which the film was shot, the special effects and the implementation of "wolf eyes" in characters while in human form, and other random tidbits that provide a fair bit of pertinent information. Unfortunately, the track is slowly-paced with many stretches of silence throughout, making it something of a chore to get through. Also included are 15 deleted scenes (480p, 11:41) and 1080p trailers for The Messengers, Ghost Rider, The Covenant, The Grudge 2, Catch and Release, and Stomp the Yard.
Blood & Chocolate is OK. That's really the best way to describe it. It has very little going for it outside of a behind-the-camera technical proficiency, but it's still far from being an awful movie. Dull characters, middling acting, a transparent plot, but passable special effects and decent production values make Blood & Chocolate a movie that Twilight fans might want to watch if only to see a similar story told from a different perspective, but for everyone else, there are far better Werewolf movies to enjoy. Blood & Chocolate's Blu-ray release, much like the film, barely registers a blip on the radar screen. A mediocre transfer, a slightly better uncompressed soundtrack, and a paltry collection of extras equal one of the lesser offerings from Sony. Worth a rental for Twilight fans and readers of Annette Curtis Klause's book.
1943
1968
25th Anniversary Edition
1992
Alternate Cut
2011
1990
2012-2013
2012
Collector's Edition
1982
1931
Includes "Drácula"
1931
1936
2012
Bram Stoker's Dracula
1974
1979
2012
Lisa e il Diavolo / The House of Exorcism
1973
2022
1989
1995
1923