5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
A gritty story of a take-no-prisoners war between dirty cops and an outlaw biker gang. A drug kingpin is driven to desperate measures.
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Ed Harris, Milla Jovovich, John Leguizamo, Penn BadgleyDrama | 100% |
Crime | 35% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
It’s probably not a complete coincidence that Sons of Anarchy, a tale about a vicious biker gang in the town of Charming, California, was regularly described as being Shakespearian, while an actual Shakespeare play, his latter day tragedy Cymbeline, has now been transported into the world of biker gangs in this fitfully interesting but ultimately unconvincing film from Michael Almereyda, a Shakespeare revisionist who has previously modernized The Bard with his 2000 take on Hamlet. There’s a problem with this “mirror image,” though, one that does not reflect particularly well (sorry) on Cymbeline. Contrasting this “revisionism” with, say, the Ian McKellen Richard III, perhaps can help to elucidate why. Much like this Cymbeline, the McKellen Richard III modernizes the story and puts it in a completely unfamiliar context—except for the fact that Richard III retains its trappings of royalty, simply transporting the monarchy to something more akin to a fascist regime in the 1930s. By contrast, Cymbeline attempts to extract the royal subterfuges and machinations of the original play and then insert them into a biker gang scenario. It’s an odd fit at best, and one that probably calls attention to itself in a less than helpful way. Part of Richard III’s relative success was due to the fact that the modernization and recontextualization actually played directly into Shakespeare’s original formulation of a scheming, power mad would be monarch. What possible good does it do to stuff Cymbeline into a veritable Shakespearian The Wild One or in fact Sons of Anarchy, other than to draw attention to the fact that such a “stuffing” has been accomplished?
Cymbeline is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Shot on a relatively paltry budget, director Almereyda and director of photography Tim Orr sometimes try to mask their lack of opulent sets and costumes by shooting in dimly lit or downright dark environments, something that tends to cast a pall on superb levels of fine detail. When the film ventures into the bright sunlight, things perk up measurably, with a vividly saturated and accurate looking palette and excellent fine detail (see screenshots 3, 12 and 15 for some good examples of the brightly lit moments in the film). While the darker sequences are at least relatively less convincing in terms of providing overwhelming amounts of fine detail, in certain lighting conditions, things are still quite commendable (see screenshot 2). At least some of the interior sequences are bathed in a kind of buttery ambience which tends to smooth over fine detail in midrange shots, while maintaining a baseline of excellent general detail. There is a certain murkiness in many of the darker sequences, though, with inadequate shadow detail making things seem downright hazy at times.
Cymbeline offers a serviceable lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that cleanly and clearly supports dialogue, but which has few real opportunities to really exploit any significant surround activity. Some of the outdoor material is populated with lifelike ambient environmental effects, and there is occasional underscoring that also offers some sense of immersion, but this is a relatively restrained mix, especially when one considers the rebooted context involving biker gangs. Fidelity is excellent and there are no problems of any kind to report.
- Ethan Hawke (1080p; 3:47)
- Dakota Johnson (1080p; 2:57)
- Ed Harris (1080p; 2:12)
- John Leguizamo (1080p; 3:54)
- Anton Yelchin (1080p; 3:44)
- Penn Badgley (1080p; 2:45)
Cymbeline sports an interesting idea, but unfortunately that idea does little to support the already somewhat difficult text of the play. In fact the use of a biker gang seems almost a desperate attempt to link this "update" to Sons of Anarchy, when the ironic thing is the Kurt Sutter series was typically compared to Hamlet, not Cymbeline. Performances are generally quite good throughout, and technical merits are generally strong for those considering a purchase.
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