6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
A female American reporter searches for her missing brother against the backdrop of violence and human smuggling across the US/Mexican border.
Starring: Sharon Stone, Billy Zane, Rosemberg Salgado, Miguel Rodarte (I), Giovanna ZacarķasThriller | 100% |
Drama | 69% |
Crime | 51% |
Mystery | 8% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Here's another example of a movie that gets right to the heart of a current event. Illegal immigration into the United States has been, and will likely continue to be, one of the top hot-button issues at the forefront of the right-left political paradigm, along with gun control, taxes, government spending, and health care. Border Run is an imperfect but at times fascinating fictional retelling of true events along the border and on both sides of it. It's a movie that begins simply enough as a missing person's case but evolves into something significantly more intense, dramatically moving and thematically complex both. The film doesn't spend too much time pushing an agenda; it does so subtly at times, even in its darkest and most unsettling moments. It plays things fairly straight, taking a personal and oftentimes harsh look at the realities -- or at least the film's realities -- of illegal immigration, obviously amped up for dramatic effect but capturing it from several radically different perspectives and through the eyes of people on both sides of the border and with varied views on the legal and illegal plusses and minuses of border crossings.
Crying: a most basic instinct.
Border Run features a well-defined high definition transfer. Anchor Bay's 2.35:1-framed image does feature light banding across darkened skies at the beginning, aliasing in an aerial city of Phoenix shot, and occasionally imperfect blacks, but otherwise the HD video source image looks quite good. Details are clean and crisp throughout the film; bright daytime scenes in particular reveal complex facial lines and desert terrains. Yet even in darker scenes, in those shots of Aaron's captivity or in the holding compartment of the converted tanker, the transfer manages to capture good, sharp details despite less-than-ideal lighting conditions. Colors are fine, largely even and accurate with only a hint of excess brightness under the hot sun. Flesh tones never drift too far from the norm. All in all, this is a good transfer, nothing spectacular but a solid HD image.
Border Run crosses onto Blu-ray with a solid Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. From the start, listeners will note a wide, natural soundstage. Deep, even bass is used to good effect, hinting at the impending drama, adding critical body to the music, punctuating the musical effect. Music enjoys wide, natural front-end spacing as well as a bit of surround support. Some of the more energetic ambient sound effects come across as a little much; a gaggle of press in one early scene sees shouts and other ambient effects spilling from every speaker. It comes across as a little forced, but still largely entertaining. A bar scene in chapter four offers a more balanced surround stage, and the effect from inside the smuggling container truck places the sound of the vehicle's engine all over the stage. A few gunshots ring out with fair power and presence, but a deep, heavy bass line rattles around with a rather unkempt feel near the end. Dialogue is even accurate, remaining firmly grounded in the center. Spanish dialogue will play with English subtitles, even if subtitles are turned "off."
This Blu-ray release of Border Run contains no extra content.
The packaging for Border Run's prominent featuring of a gun plants the seed that this is something a bit different than it really is. It's not an Action film but rather a sometimes scattered, sometimes terribly frightening, Thriller. The movie does so much well and so much not-so-well. Sharon Stone's performance improves the darker the film goes, but as she progresses the picture tries to turn itself into a twisty-turny crowd pleaser rather than build on the dramatic tension of the illegal crossings. The twists are interesting but feel somehow tacked on. It's an imperfect movie, but certainly not a terrible film, one worth watching but not really worth remembering and certainly not the definitive story of modern illegal immigration; see the fantastic A Better Life for that. Anchor Bay's featureless Blu-ray delivers good video and audio. Rent it.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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