Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Domino Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 24, 2019

Almost unbelievably considering the number of well remembered films he has made over the course of several decades, can we be getting to “whatever happened to” territory with regard to Brian De Palma? There’s a case to be made for that kind of sad fact, including the data point that it’s been over half a decade since De Palma’s name has been on the credits list of a major film as director. And some curmudgeons may even take issue with calling an outing like Domino a “major film”, since it has a kind of made for television ambience that seems to deliberately mimic series like Homeland in its tale of counterterroism efforts by law enforcement. Christian (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is a policeman in Copenhagen who is devastated by a life threatening injury to his partner Lars (Soren Malling), a situation for which Christian feels at least partially responsible. Christian’s attempts to bring his partner’s attacker to justice soon embroils him in plots being hatched by a wider “terror cell”.

Again much like in Homeland, there are shades of gray running through depictions of some of the characters at least ostensibly involved with various terror cells, with Ezra (Eriq Ebouaney), the attacker Christian is initially in pursuit of, ultimately having a somewhat ambiguous context which involves both the CIA and ISIS. The "real" villain, an ISIS mastermind named Salah Al-Din (Mohammed Azaay) turns out to be considerably less shaded, and in fact Al-Din comes perilously close to "mustache twirling" bad guy territory in a series of patently over the top sequences. De Palma's well documented interest in voyeuristic tendencies, meta or otherwise, is once again on display here with a couple of sequences that utilize POV footage as part of depictions of terror attacks.

Domino has some interesting ideas, and it does keep a surprise or two up a rather well guarded sleeve, but it's frequently choppy and disorganized, trying fitfully to work up real human emotion with regard to Lars and Lars' significant other Hanne (Paprika Steen). Guy Pearce is largely wasted as a CIA agent who has his hooks into Ezra. The film must have had some kind of a budget based on a number of rather well utilized European locations, but nothing ever builds to the sort of frenetic energy levels De Palma offered in Mission: Impossible, a film the cover of this release touts.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf may have liked Domino just a tad more than I did. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Domino Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Domino is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb lists Arri Alexas as having been utilized, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. This is a kind of curiously variant looking transfer, with some moments looking crystal clear, with very nice detail and fine detail levels, and other moments, notably a few thankfully brief establishing or other outdoor shots, looking at least somewhat more ragged and less detailed. De Palma is up to his "old tricks" here with a number of bells and whistles, including split diopter shots and "arty" framings that try to offer a glut of information via elements like screens and even mirrors (see screenshot 4 for one example of what I'm talking about). The palette looks natural throughout and things are rather commendably free of "thriller" grading clichés. There are some slight wobbles with contrast, notably in a couple of scenes taking place in cars, which can have a kind of milky haze overlaying the imagery.

Domino Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Domino features a sporadically impressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one that bursts into life in some of those aforementioned POV sequences where carnage fills the screen. Some of the outdoor material also provides nice surround activity with well placed ambient environmental effects. There are some kind of hackneyed uses of edits and Pino Donaggio's score which may cause a bit of eye rolling, but the score itself sounds full bodied and is nicely splayed throughout the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.

Domino Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only supposed "Special Features" on this disc are trailers for other Lionsgate releases and Bookmarks, neither of which I personally consider to be "scoreable", hence the goose egg above.

Domino Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's one set piece in this film which brings a whole new meaning to the "red carpet" at film festivals. That sequence is actually one of the more audacious in Domino, despite content that some may well find disturbing if not outright objectionable, but that said, had the rest of this film aimed for the kind of lunatic heights, Domino may have made more of a lasting impact. There are some exciting moments here, but the film as a whole seems weirdly disorganized and unfocused. Technical merits are solid for those considering a purchase.