5.2 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
Church, an assassin, is contracted by a wealthy businessman to avenge the murder of his daughter by white slave traders in Bangkok. With the help of his weapons supplier, Church seeks out and annihilates the gangsters responsible, but in the process he inadvertently frees a young prostitute. Church reluctantly stashes the girl in his Temple hideout, setting in motion a series of strange and extremely dangerous circumstances.
Starring: Djimon Hounsou, Kevin Bacon, Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul, Sahajak BoonthanakitThriller | 100% |
Action | 75% |
Crime | 60% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Happiness is a warm gun.
Elephant White is a straightforward Action/Revenge picture with a twist that it doesn't exactly keep very well hidden. It's also a frustrating
picture in that it so desperately wants to speak out about the evils of human sex trafficking, even tacking on sobering statistics at the end of the movie
as if the movie itself didn't do a good enough job of conveying the ills of the trade, and in truth it doesn't. Instead, Elephant White winds up
playing as just another run-of-the-mill Action movie that's pretty much Djimon Hounsou sniping bad guys from a distance until he actually has to get
his hands dirty at the end. The film just never capitalizes on its backdrop at an emotional level, the entire thing overwhelmed by gunplay and
Hounsou's towering presence. Neither really elevate the film to any kind of otherwise-unachievable heights, and that the nuts-and-bolts of the plot
never really resonate is a real shame, but it's not a mood or movie killer, at least as long as audiences can break the movie down and accept it as a
well-meaning but ultimately fruitless Action picture that's good for a shoot-em-up fix and little more.
Church takes out the trash.
Elephant White's 1080p Blu-ray transfer is quite good, one of the better out there, in fact, compared against similar lower-budget and smaller-profile releases. The picture was shot in HD video, and while Elephant White certainly retains that glossy, flat, and sterile look to it, the source is at least clean and clarity is superb. Indeed, noise, blocking, and banding are kept to a very tolerable minimum, with noise the most egregious offender of the three. Black levels are consistently excellent; the many nighttime shots around Bangkok where neon lights bounce off impenetrably deep and true blacks makes for the visual highlight in the film. Detailing is superb, too, particularly evident in close-up shots of faces, usually of Djimon Hounsou behind a rifle and picking off bad guys from his elevated position (that, for whatever reason, is never really counter-attacked). Colors are well-balanced and dependent on the many varied locations and light sources that are scattered throughout the film. Elephant White's 1080p transfer isn't a new reference-standard, but most viewers should be more than pleased with the results of this nice-looking release from Millenium Entertainment.
Likewise, Elephant White delivers a satisfying Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Music enjoys a deep, penetrating clarity; it's spacious and clean, particularly evidenced by the opening vocal music. A club scene plays loud, thumping background music with an appropriate mushiness to better replicate the experience of the location. The low end is hefty and energized throughout; not only does it support music, but it gives a terrifying heft and power to gunshots, whether more standard-power rifles or the .50 caliber behemoth Church turns to later in the film. The track also expertly delivers wide city ambience that does a fine job of pulling the listener into the shadiest corners around Bangkok. Dialogue is center-grounded and generally clear, but it occasionally struggles to separate itself from background noise. The track sometimes mixes music and speech at the same, or close to the same, level, yielding a somewhat jumbled, straining listen. Nevertheless, this one is far more often a hit than it is a miss; Millenium's lossless soundtrack is about as good as one might reasonably expect for a movie such as this.
Only the Elephant White trailer and a handful of additional Millenium Entertainment previews are included.
Elephant White isn't a bad movie; it's a solid effort all around that works well enough despite a repetitive structure and a borderline silly finale that's not all that hard to see coming. However, it fails to resonate once it ends, either as an Action movie worth anything more than a courtesy watch or as some purposeful movie meant to bring attention to its core issue of sex trafficking. Action fans will want to check it out, but there's no reason to propel Elephant White to the top of the must-see list. Millenium Entertainment's Blu-ray release of Elephant White yields strong video and audio but no extras of substance. Worth a rental, and maybe a purchase if found on a good sale.
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