6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
A photojournalist and an environmental activist join forces in a risky murder investigation of a famous environmentalist deep in the hot and steamy Amazonian jungle.
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Craig Sheffer, Juan Fernández (I), Judith Chapman, Steven RabinerAdventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
It's not an enchilada.
Roger Corman is the man behind the curtain for some of the most memorable and entertaining low-budget fare of the past few decades. His movies
might be
trash, but pictures like Death Race 2000, Forbidden World, and Starcrash are at least unpretentious trash. These and other
Corman-produced films know their place, stick to formula, and have fun jabbing at modern society, grossing out audiences, or impersonating better
films. All hail from the Producer's golden era New World Pictures heyday from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, but something happened on the
way
to the 1990s: Fire on the Amazon. The Corman-produced flub of a movie, directed by Anaconda's Luis Llosa, is a terribly inept picture that tries to command
some great meaning but only serves to infuriate the wrath of the more critical of viewers or, at its best, frustrate even the most forgiving of
audiences.
What's wrong with Fire on the Amazon? It might be easier to try and count what's right about it. Aside from having its heart in
the
right place and a few choice shots of a naked Sandra Bullock, there's really nothing of interest to see here.
Rough crowd.
Though the movie might be in need of serious help, Anchor Bay's Blu-ray transfer for Fire on the Amazon holds its own. This 1080p, 1.78:1-framed presentation isn't going to wow even the casual Blu-ray viewer, but this is a steady all-around image that enjoys far more plusses than minuses. Things don't get off to a particularly good start as the opening titles wobble around as if they were stuck in a bounce house, but the solid detailing and color that's follows more than makes up for this relatively minor shortcoming. Indeed, the transfer nicely reveals crisp and precise imagery that proves capable of displaying a fine amount of detail on anything from the textures of a fallen leaf to the dirt terrain of the rainforest, from the slimy scales of a snake to the hardened shell of a turtle. The transfer's fair level of detailing also shows up with regularity in skin and clothes textures. Colors are far from dynamic but they're well balanced and pleasant enough. Whether the earth tones as seen around the rainforest and in many of the locales throughout the movie or the brighter shades of foliage green and flashy early 1990s clothes, viewers should be satisfied with the transfer's color palette. Black levels tend towards the sloppy and exhibit a fair bit of crush, but skin tones appear fairly accurate. The image is slathered in a natural grain field that manages to give the presentation a nice, but not breathtaking, film-like texture. All in all, this is a decent enough Blu-ray transfer.
Fire on the Amazon sports a passable Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. There's a clear lack of energy running through the proceedings, no surprise, really, given the haphazard-at-best attention to detail paid to even basic filmmaking techniques; no doubt sound design was low on the list of priorities with this one. Fortunately, dialogue is clear enough and centered up the middle, but there's not much else to inspire confidence. Jungle atmospherics are heard aplenty and emanate from any of the speakers around the listening area, but rarely, if ever, will the listener feel immersed into the rainforest environment. Rain and thunder both spill forth from various speakers, again, though, never truly engaging the aural sense to any real effect. The track finds some power and heft as various pieces of heavy machinery destroy the rainforest, and a few gunshots partway through the film ring out with a fair bit of oomph, but a barrage of gunfire late in the film plays as decidedly puny and indistinct. This is a nuts-and-bolts sort of track; there's just enough here to make for a passing grade, but there's nothing at all remarkable about this serviceable but ultimately forgettable mix.
Only the Fire on the Amazon trailer is included.
Boring, confused, ineptly assembled, far too self-important. Fire on the Amazon sacrifices everything that's good about Roger Corman movies by trying to pander to viewers through a message that never resonates. Corman's best known for tossing out trashy movies that aim to be nothing more than trashy movies, but Fire on the Amazon is a mess of a picture that not only fails to weave in its intended message, but also fails to weave together a coherent movie. Awful editing, lazy acting, a bland script, and sloppy direction are the hallmark elements of Fire on the Amazon; whatever semblance of a message there may be is lost to the dimwitted movie around it. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release is absent any supplements of note, not that that's much of a surprise given the caliber of the movie. To the studio's credit, the disc features a fair technical presentation accompanying an otherwise terrible movie. Don't watch this movie; go plant a tree instead.
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