Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Elephant White Blu-ray Movie Review

Not as good as Ketracel white, but it'll do.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 25, 2011

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.

In the seedy streets of Bangkok, a determined and imposing assassin named Curtie Church (Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond) has taken the initiative of removing the worst human elements from the equation in hopes of cleaning up the town. His work hasn't gone unnoticed. He's propositioned by a grieving father to take revenge on the high-profile sex traffickers who enslaved, addicted, and killed his beautiful, young, and innocent daughter. Church takes the job and arms himself with powerful weapons he acquires through an underground English arms dealer named Jimmy The Brit (Kevin Bacon, Tremors) who also works for the very people Church aims to take out. Before the operation begins, Church is visited by a mysterious young girl named Mae (Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul) who remains with him throughout his engagements with the enemy and whose presence promises to forever alter his perspective on killing and the sex trade.

It's sometimes a challenge to critique a movie, particularly one like Elephant White. Granted the film tries to be a little bit different -- a big plus in its favor -- by putting a unique yet at the same time rather odd spin on its finale (and it's not at all difficult to see coming), but the film is little more than rehashed Action movie elements, this one about a brawny warrior who finds himself doing the good work of taking out the world's worst people because, well, someone has to do it, and he's being paid, too. Elephant White is a decent film in the sense that it's well made, nicely acted, and all that jazz. It's not particularly good, and it's not at all bad; it just is, a newborn film that's going to have some legs as it slowly but surely gets seen by its target audience, only to be forgotten soon thereafter and disappearing into the night as a wholly inconsequential little film that is far from good enough to be praised and nowhere near poor enough to be remembered as an all-time dud. Technical know-how and effort can only take a movie so far; Elephant White is a perfect example.

Elephant White does get a few things right. Despite always looking rather cheap -- the movie just doesn't have that big-budget polished look of a high-dollar studio film -- Director Prachya Pinkaew makes good use of his limited resources, which seems to have been spent on prop guns, plane tickets to Thailand, and Actors Bacon and Hounsou. Indeed, Elephant White is only all the better for each, and while there's an undeniable repetitiveness to the movie, several critical elements -- Hounsou's on-screen presence, Bangkok's neon lights, and lots and lots of weaponry (and this movie really knows its weapons) -- infuse the picture with just enough glitz, glamour, excitement, and adrenaline that even as the film basically shows only Hounsou killing people, talking to a girl, killing people, talking to a girl, killing people, talking to a girl, beating the snot out of Kevin Bacon, killing people, and killing more people, it never really tires the audience out. It knows when to quit, and even if it quits on a somewhat unique note -- again, it's not hard to see coming, but it's so goofy one almost hopes it's not true -- it at least quits while it's more or less ahead. If nothing else, Elephant White shows that Djimon Hounsou is at least an actor who's up to the Action movie challenge. He sure does look pretty menacing behind a rifle.

Elephant White Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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.

Elephant White Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Elephant White Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Only the Elephant White trailer and a handful of additional Millenium Entertainment previews are included.

Elephant White Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.