6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Ewan is a secret service agent faced with the task of pursuing and eliminating a suicide bomber and his terrorist cell.
Starring: Sean Bean, Abhin Galeya, Charlotte Rampling, Peter Polycarpou, Tuppence MiddletonThriller | 100% |
Crime | 75% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Cleanskin is not, repeat not, a film about personal hygiene, and in fact it deals with some dirty little facts of contemporary life, including incipient terrorist attacks and the radicalization of young Muslim males by “mentors” who prey upon their insecurities and disaffections, creating zealots and, often, dangerous extremists in the process. The term “cleanskin” has become commonplace in London especially after that city experienced the devastating terrorist bomb attacks of a few years ago. A cleanskin is a terrorist with no known former ties to extremist groups, one who seemingly appears out of nowhere to suddenly wreak incredible havoc. In this film, the descriptive title applies to Ash (Abhin Galeya), a young British Muslim who has been turned to “the dark side” and in the film’s bristling opening sequence is involved in an incredibly violent shootout with a British Secret Service Agent named Ewan (Sean Bean) who is guarding an international arms dealer. Ash ends up getting away with a briefcase Ewan had been taking care of which includes a huge stash of plastic explosives, enough to devastate London. Ewan’s bosses (played by Charlotte Rampling and James Fox) are understandably worried (being British, they don’t actually outright panic) and insist that Ewan track down Ash and retrieve the explosives. Playing out against this cat and mouse enterprise are a number of flashbacks where writer-director Hadi Hajaig seeks to explicate what led Ash into this lifestyle. If the motives are a bit hackneyed in Cleanskin, the action is completely visceral and at times incredibly gruesome. While Cleanskin wants to present a relatively nuanced take on one of the major problems facing contemporary society, its tendency to concentrate on over the top, overly bloody knock down drag out fight sequences intentionally or unintentionally undercuts any supposed intellectual aims Hajaig may have had with this film. This is not to say Cleanskin isn’t an involving thriller, because it is. It just doesn’t go very far to explaining why things like “home grown” terrorists happen.
Cleanskin is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Entertainment One with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The biggest problem with this high definition presentation is its frequently washed out contrast, which deprives the image of fine object detail in midrange shots especially. The entire film tends to look like it's just slightly coated with a milky white light. Aside from this aspect, things look decently sharp and clear, though color is not especially well saturated and flesh tones tend to be on the pallid side of things (which may in fact just be a true and accurate representation of what British skin looks like). Close-ups tend to reveal considerably more detail, and in a couple of moments contrast improves dramatically and everything snaps nicely into place. There are no compression artifacts of any major import to report, and given reasonable expectations, most viewers should find Cleanskin an agreeable enough visual experience.
Cleanskin has a nicely immersive lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which both nicely articulates the quieter dialogue scenes as well as delivers the goods in the film's bombastic action sequences. As boisterous as a number of shootouts and other violence prone segments in the film undeniably are, it was actually in some of the really more relatively mellow sonic moments that really caught my attention with their fine attention to detail. When Ewan, obviously ruminating over several troublesome memories, sits at his apartment kitchen table, we hear the sounds of children on a distant playground and a barking dog, offered with a really beautiful feeling of spaciousness and accurate ambience. Later, Ewan meets one of his handlers in a beautiful sylvan field and the ambient environmental sounds are lushly interwoven into the sound mix. Cleanskin offers a really nicely nuanced sound design, one that offers a surprisingly wide amount of dynamic range along with its excellent fidelity.
There are no doubt going to be those who see Cleanskin and react, no matter how well intentioned the film is, with a resounding, "There's no excuse for terrorism." Hajaig hedges his bets in a few too many ways here, giving Ash some "plausible deniability" and also depicting the character as a basically good kid who gets sucked into something he can't control. (One scene where Ash attempts—unsuccessfully—to keep a couple of "civilian casualties" from meeting their fate is an especially heavy handed attempt to humanize the character.) But that all goes out the window when Ash straps on a bomb and sets out to murder lots of civilians, all of them just as innocent as the two he supposedly wanted to protect earlier. It's that kind of muddle headed approach that sinks the political content of the film. Hajaig might have been better off to have just concentrated on one of the real terrorists—the kind who make no bones about wanting a Jihad and who aren't shy about killing to achieve their aims. As it stands, Cleanskin isn't entirely effective, but it does have a nicely brooding undertone which helps to establish a sense of doom and urgency. Bean is extremely effective and several of the supporting cast are equally impressive. Though the video here isn't quite what it could have been, the audio is largely superb. This isn't a film for everyone, but for those who can take Cleanskin's political posturing with a grain of salt, there's quite a bit to enjoy here.
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