7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Police officer Lin Kai is assigned to be an undercover in a drug cartel.
Starring: Yihong Duan, Yueting Lang, Feng Zu, Xuan Huang, Yanhui WangForeign | 100% |
Crime | 12% |
Action | 8% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Mandarin: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Hey, who gives a flying fig about handicapping the upcoming Academy Awards when we have the Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards to talk about? As I mentioned yesterday in the Reset Blu-ray review, I had frankly never even heard of the Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards until I started doing some background research on Reset in preparation for writing that review and discovered that Yang Mi from that film had been named Best Action Movie Actress at the 2017 ceremony (one wonders what the actual statuette for a Jackie Chan Action Movie Award might look like, but I digress). The Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards have evidently been around since 2015, tied to the similarly named Jackie Chan Action Movie Week which is part of the Shanghai International Film Festival. In looking over the just three years of awards thus far, several of the films feted have been reviewed by yours truly, including Wolf Warrior (Best Action Movie, Best Action Movie Actor — Wu Jing, Best Special Effects and Best Fight), Ip Man 3 (Best Action Movie, Best Action Movie Director — Wilson Yip, and Best Fight), and Operation Mekong (Best Action Movie Director — Lin Chaoxian). Extraordinary Mission now joins that august (?) group as a multiple winner of the Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards, having taken home trophies for Best Action Choreographer — Li Zhongzhi, Best Action Movie New Performer — Huang Xuan, and Best Special Effects. Not to disparage the Jackie Chan Action Movie Awards, but it’s probably a good thing that Extraordinary Mission was able to score a trifecta at that ceremony, since my hunch is it probably won’t be showing up on many nomination lists for major awards like, you know, the Oscars. Extraordinary Mission is in fact rather like Operation Mekong in at least a couple of ways, as it deals with the notorious drug trade in the so-called Golden Triangle.
Extraordinary Mission is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm and Crimson Forest with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists the Red Epic Dragon as having digitally captured the imagery at resolutions of up to 6K, with a 2K DI from which I assume this transfer was culled. This is a rather nice looking transfer on the whole, at least within the context of a kind of drab, dark and kind of "medical green" grading strategy that can tend to skew the palette in a kind of odd way. Several longish outdoor sequences offer excellent renderings of complex patterns like foliage and swirling water. Close-ups also offer abundant fine detail, at least when lighting conditions allow. All of this said, this has a curiously "digitally tweaked" look at times, with moments that almost look like upscales. It's an intermittent and transitory issue and I really can't account for it (other than that the IMDb does list several source resolutions of the original digital capture), but it did catch my eye on occasion.
Extraordinary Mission features a nicely vigorous sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that has a lot of low end courtesy of both LFE and regular use of kind of rolling synth pads in the lowest frequencies that spill through the surround channels. Things like car (and other vehicle) chases offer great opportunities for excellent immersion and well placed effects. Dialogue (including some voiceover narration by Lin Kai) is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.
It's probably too easy to dismiss Extraordinary Mission as anything but extraordinary, but it does deliver several well staged and exciting set pieces that may deliver enough of an adrenaline jolt that viewers will be willing to let the film's other manifest shortcomings slide. Video has some kind of oddities on occasion, but audio is great for those considering a purchase.
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