Enter the Dangerous Mind Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

Enter the Dangerous Mind Blu-ray Movie Review

Extremely Dumb Movie?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 15, 2015

At some point in most of our lives, many of us encountered an angry parent refusing to believe we were actually listening to music and instead insisting that we “turn that noise down.” It’s kind of funny thinking back to now seemingly innocuous tunes by the likes of Lennon and McCartney and remembering older folks with their heads about to explode over the supposed cacophony of songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” I’ve tried to be a bit more reserved with regard to my own teenaged sons’ musical tastes, especially with regard to my older, now college aged, boy, who has had a long interest in so-called Electronic Dance Music (EDM). While this son delights in tormenting his poor old Dad with my evident ignorance about the difference between “house” and “trance” and any of the other seemingly innumerable subgenres within EDM, he’s also not above coming to his semi-musically proficient old man to ask about things like chord structures and various rhythmic gambits his favorite EDM crafters are employing to construct their songs. EDM is something of a phenomenon for elders like myself who grew up with traditional theory and composition classes, however. Kids nowadays (and, yes, I’m aghast that I’ve actually just said that) don’t think in terms of 32 bar song formats and tropes like I-vi-IV-V, instead building dance worthy pieces out of cut and pasted loops, “drops,” and other elements that at times make their creations something akin to patchwork quilts. Perhaps that aspect in and of itself indicates something of a fractured state, no matter how organically any individual tune may ultimately end up, an element that Enter the Dangerous Mind (a not so subtle play on the acronym EDM) exploits in its portrayal of an unhinged EDM creator who goes off the deep end and becomes a slice and dice (or perhaps more appropriately aim and shoot) killer. The context of Enter the Dangerous Mind is probably its most distinctive feature, but writer and co-director Victor Teran ultimately settles for more hoary horror clichés, making the film a cinematic equivalent of white noise rather than any otherwise unforgettable song.

Jim Whitman (Jake Hoffman, Dustin’s son) is a promising EDM “composer” (sorry, can’t resist the quotes) who has a significant online presence but virtually no person to person contact whatsoever, other than his nagging roommate Jake (Thomas Dekker). Jake considers himself a lothario of sorts and is out to be Jim’s somewhat petulant “wingman,” though Jake is so seemingly genetically shy that he can’t even consider a relationship with an actual real live girl. Enter the Dangerous Mind plays with interesting elements like an overactive sound design to depict not just Jim’s adventures in creating EDM but the roiling noises of his psyche, a chaotic soundtrack that is obviously pushing the hapless young man toward a debilitating psychotic break.

Enter the Dangerous Mind isn’t especially subtle about referencing certain cinematic antecedents, and it's therefore really not that much of a spoiler to indicate there’s little question that films as disparate as A Beautiful Mind and Pi inform various shadowy corners of Teran’s overheated screenplay. If the whole “imaginary friend” (and/or roommate) element is pretty much a given from the get go, Teran and his co-director Youssef Delara are even less circumspect about more or less lifting one of the central (and most disturbing) images from the Aronofsky film, which similarly dealt with a savant of sorts attempting to come to terms with mental illness.

The main arc of the plot is set in motion when Jim shows up at a woman’s shelter where an old counselor of his named Kevin (Scott Bakula) now works. Kevin introduces him to sweet seeming Wendy (Nikki Reed), the shelter’s administrative assistant whose computer is having problems (though Jim discovers it’s actually “just being a PC”). Jim is obviously interested in Wendy but too shy to do anything about it, while Jake issues a nonstop litany of abuse over Jim’s inability to act like a man, displaying the kind of cocky confidence Jake insists is what women really want.

Against considerable odds, Wendy and Jim actually do end up on a date of sorts together, but a moment of passion leads to an embarrassing early denouement (so to speak), which horrifies Jim, though Wendy seems to be perfectly understanding. Jim retreats in agony, followed by Jake, who offers nothing but harangues for the figurative and literal mess Jim has made. Jake’s taunts that Wendy is now calling all of her friends to laugh about Jim’s inability to control his comings and goings (again, so to speak) ultimately leads to one of the more gripping moments of the film, albeit one that is obviously modeled on Pi.

The film’s third act is arguably its most disturbing, when Jim, now completely off the psychiatric rails, shows up at a dinner party Wendy is attending, taking the guests hostage and trying to exterminate the voices in his head with a gun aimed directly at various victims. It’s an unsettling sequence, one that is made even more so by some deliberately shocking “up close and personal” violence.

Enter the Dangerous Mind is fairly strong on style, much less so on the substance side of things. Teran and Delara play with all sorts of bells and whistles in their visual and aural depictions of Jim’s fractured mental state. Visual analogs to things like turntable scratch effects dot the film, and the sound mix is filled not just with the almost menacing thumps of dubstep and other EDM subgenres, but with actually quite interesting effects like Jim “hearing” what he’s saying a nanosecond before it comes out of his mouth.

The supposed “rationale” for all of Jim’s trauma is somewhat more discursively handled, with tropes like quick cut montages detailing some sort of horrific incident in Jim’s youth involving the death of another kid. Kevin seems to know at least some of the story, and spends a great deal of the film attempting to uncover the rest of it, but suffice it to say it’s a fairly tawdry situation and one that ultimately provides no real surprises, up to and including the fact that Jake was involved.

Performances are generally quite good here, though they struggle at times to overcome the narrative shortcomings of the film. While Hoffman does a creditable job evoking Jim’s vulnerability and despair, the film probably ultimately belongs to Reed, whose chilling fear in the film’s disturbing final sequences provide a number of resolute acting “beats per minute” that establish her as an actress who can hopefully find more fulsome material in which to display her obvious talents.

Enter the Dangerous Mind Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Enter the Dangerous Mind is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. This is one of the most relentlessly color graded offerings in recent memory, with virtually the entire film either somewhat desaturated (see screenshot 2) or swathed in shades of slate gray (screenshots 5, 6 and 13) or a sickly yellow color (screenshots 7 and 11). Just for good measure, there's a rather interesting quasi-sepia tone that informs the central flashback sequences detailing the horrifying childhood encounter that set Jim on his perilous journey toward mental illness (see screenshot 9). Coupled with the low contrast and low light ambiences that are utilized for the bulk of the film, detail and fine detail sometimes struggle to provide precision, and in fact many scenes are bathed in a kind of murk that makes even the edges of the frame inchoate (see screenshot 12). In relatively normal lighting and without an abundance of color grading, detail is actually commendable (see screenshot 15), but overall this is a fairly flat looking presentation that never really pops, part of which is certainly by design. There are no issues with noise, despite the omnipresent darkness of the film, and no issues with image instability.

Enter the Dangerous Mind Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Enter the Dangerous Mind features a throbbing DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that offers a glut of EDM inspired cues that are sliced and diced variously to indicate Jim's descent into madness. Coupled with some of the more inventive "tricks" like the aforementioned scene where Jim's thoughts precede his speech by a second offer nice immersion and at times ingenious ping ponging and/or panning effects. The low end of this track is quite forceful quite a bit of the time, giving the subwoofer a real workout. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and there are no problems of any kind to cause concern.

Enter the Dangerous Mind Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (1080p; 1:53)

Enter the Dangerous Mind Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Enter the Dangerous Mind has a frankly fairly interesting setup and an at least somewhat unusual setting (insofar as the EDM scene is explored), but it's simply too derivative and ultimately too nonsensical to ever create the feeling of angst it so obviously wants to. An almost Grand Guignol third act gives way to a pretty cheesy sting at the end which almost casts the film as a camp-fest. Performances are generally very strong and technical merits are generally excellent for those considering a purchase.