6.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
When the 1989 "one-hit-wonder" glam-metal band "Sonic Grave" embark on a trip to coachella in hopes of a comeback, their peyote trip pit stop in Joshua Tree incites an "unworldly" viscous attack, and they must "rock" themselves out of harms way.
Starring: Sean Astin, Jake Busey, Tom Arnold, Michael Horse, Leisha HaileyComedy | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.38:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
For those of you who may have been spending a lot of time wondering what a film combining elements of This Is Spinal Tap and Them! might look like, your long national nightmare is over. Unfortunately, it may have only been replaced by another somewhat shorter national nightmare, since Dead Ant, while intermittently goofily amusing, is never quite able to sustain its manic comedic fury. Instead, the film tends to tip over into relentless noise, and in fact it’s the almost ceaseless decibel level of this entry that may end up putting some viewers (and/or listeners) off. A has been band called Sonic Grave has been trying to retweak its seriously dated image, courtesy of some endless haranguing by manager Danny (Tom Arnold). Bandmates Merrick (Jake Busey) and Pager (Rhys Coiro) aren’t seeing eye to eye, with Merrick lamenting their bygone days at the top of the charts courtesy of a “power ballad”, a genre that Pager doesn’t even want mentioned in his presence. A chance of a comeback looms in any case, courtesy of some booking magic on the part of Danny, though he only sheepishly admits after some prodding that the band’s tour trailer (they’re not even in an RV) is not headed toward Coachella, but instead to a perhaps lesser known alternative called No-chella.
Dead Ant is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.38:1. I continue to be generally more pleased with RED captures than Arri Alexa, mostly due to what to my eyes is often better shadow detail in RED captures, and that continues to the case here. As can easily be seen in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, while some of the "CGI" is almost hilariously lo-fi, hokey and soft looking (see screenshot 16 for a good example), the overall image is appealing sharp and well detailed when divorced from green screen or SFX aspects. An especially robust outdoor palette is another notable feature, with some incredibly blue skies on display. A number of close-ups offer excellent levels of fine detail, though a few isolated close-ups are supposedly drug induced POV shots, and are understandably skewed and softened. Quite a bit of the film plays out in the somewhat darkened confines of the trailer, where a number of characters take refuge, and occasionally there is some haziness in fleeting shots, but even here detail levels continue to be quite impressive.
Dead Ants features an extremely boisterous and robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one which regularly utilizes the surround channels and which provides some ample low end, courtesy of both sound effects and some of the churning music. So why "only" a 4.5 score? This is a track that pretty much turns everything "up to 11" (if I may quote a certain Nigel Tufnel), and rarely lets up. It just gets to be tiring after a while, or at least it was to me. That said, especially for those with a higher tolerance for just a nonstop onslaught of both screamed dialogue and goofy sound effects, this is a whirlwind track. I will say that some of the high frequency "ant noises" got close to shrill "fingernails on a blackboard" territory for me.
As can be gleaned from the timings included below, almost all of the supplements are very short snippets, generally detailing some behind the scenes activity.
Without encouraging any kind of substance abuse, it's my considered opinion that large swaths of Dead Ant may well play better to "enhanced" and/or "altered" eyes and ears. It has some fun bits, and it's completely obvious that everyone involved is winking fairly broadly at the audience, which helps, but a lot of the film can't help but come off as derivative, even if what it's stealing from turns out to be highly variant. Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.
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