Gothika Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.5

Gothika Blu-ray Movie Review

(1)Yawn.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 16, 2007

Are you scared? You should be.

Rather than try to wax poetic and try to provide some kind of meaningful insight into the Halle Berry "fright-fest" Gothika, I thought it would be fun to see how many different ways I can think of to say "average" throughout this review. All you really need to get out of this review is that Gothika is a rather (2)lackluster film. Halle Berry's performance throughout is (3)flat and (4)uninspired. The image on this Blu-ray disc is (5)middle-of-the-road. Warner has included a rather (6)ordinary Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. A (7)mediocre set of supplements complete this (8)unremarkable package.

oooh...scary!

I've purchased quite a few movies over the last 10 years (ask my wife about the clutter!) but Gothika was not among them. I don't know why. I never heard anything terribly bad about it, but I never heard anything terribly good about it either. Believe me, I've got some reals gems in my collection, both of the good and bad variety. There's also a lot of (9)so-so stuff in there, too. So why Gothika never found it's way into my collection is a real enigma. Halle Berry is a fine actress with a best actress Oscar on her shelf for her performance in Monster's Ball. Charles S. Dutton (Alien 3), Penelope Cruz (Vanilla Sky) Robert Downey, Jr. (U.S. Marshals), and Dorian Harewood (who played "Eightball" in the classic Full Metal Jacket) costar along side Berry.

As Gothika opens, Dr. Miranda Grey (Berry) is interviewing one of her patients, Chloe Sava (Cruz). Chloe has murdered her stepfather and she claims that the devil visits her cell on a nightly basis. Miranda speaks to hubby Douglas Grey (Duton) who gives her a lesson in psychology 101 to help her understand what's going on in poor Chloe's head and then proceeds to eat his own wife (well, not really, but for a moment I thought he was going to bite her head off). On her way home from work during a clichéd heavy rain storm, Dr. Grey loses control of her car while attempting to avoid hitting a child standing in the middle of the road who promptly bursts into flames. Cut to Dr. Grey awakening in a cell, now herself a patient in the very hospital she works at. As the story progresses, Dr. Grey will piece together the mystery of the girl she saw in the middle of the road on that fateful night as well as the identity of the devil visiting Chloe. Both secrets will shatter her world and change her perception of everyone and everything she knows in it.

This is one of those movies that just might hold your interest if you are channel surfing at 2:00 AM and nothing else but infomercials are on. And that's if you have never seen it before. I can't imagine watching this again once you know its secrets. Gothika is the epitome of the (10)run-of-the-mill psychological thriller. It's worth a watch once when you have nothing better to do, and your mind will likely wander throughout. Have you ever read a boring book and instead of focusing on it, your brain becomes preoccupied with another matter? All of a sudden you re-focus on the book and realize that while your eyes have gone over the words on the previous two pages, you have no idea what you just read? That's Gothika in a nutshell. A story is there, and an (11)OK one at that, but hardly one that will keep most viewers glued to the edge of their seat.

Gothika Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This 1.78:1, 1080p, VC-1 encoded transfer is (12)fair. Like the cover, this film has a blueish tint about it. In all honesty there is nothing overtly wrong with this image, but it doesn't scream "great" either. Blacks levels are solid throughout. There are only a few visible hiccups, and they are minor. Some noise and a touch of edge enhancement are visible at times. There is also some grain in a few scenes, but for the most part it fits into the mood of the shot and doesn't distract. This is just your (13)ordinary (oops, did I use that one already?) (13)typical Blu-ray transfer. It looks pretty good, about what we have come to expect from the medium, but it just doesn't stand above the crowd. It gets the job done, and that's all we can hope for.

Gothika Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unfortunately, Warner has chosen not to include a lossless track for Gothika. A PCM or Dolby TrueHD track could have moved this disc into the realm of slightly better than (14)commonplace but alas, a (15)DVD quality track is all that we get here. There is some (16)decent ambience to be heard and surrounds are pretty active with whispers, the sounds of distant screams, flickering lights, and natural atmosphere. Sounds flow efficiently from one speaker to another, always keeping perfect pace with what is happening on-screen. Dialogue sounds realistic enough. It's consistent and clear during the runtime of the movie. The score accompanying this film is representative of a film of this nature. It's got the appropriate "chilliness" about it, and it crescendos when secrets are revealed and it is tense when it needs to be with thumps of the drum working out the subwoofer. Come in expecting a (17)humdrum track with a few nice touches and you won't be disappointed.

Gothika Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

On the surface this appears to be quite the cornucopia of supplements. The special features screen is filled to the brim with words, but when it comes down to it, the majority of it is (18)mundane and the very definition of "fluff." We get an audio commentary track with director Mathiew Kassovitz and Director of Photography Matthew Libatique. It's a (19)conventional track that provides the kind of information you would expect, dealing with the lighting, costuming, casting, filming, etc. It's (20)nothing special.

On the Set of Gothika (480p, 16:08) features cast and crew discussing why this movie is worth our time and money. It's the same kind of promotion-veiled-as-insight type of feature we have seen a thousand times before. Most of the movie is given away in these 16 minutes. You could watch this, the trailer, and the last 15 or 20 minutes of the movie and still get the entire story. It doesn't get much more (21)pedestrian than this, folks. Painting With Fire (480p, 7:04) is a (22)bland look into the special effects featured in the film.

Next we have a lot of odds and ends that might be of some interest to psychology students, but probably to nobody else. Dr. Parson's Notes, Patient Artwork and Personal Narration, and Woodward Penitentiary Interview Archives are sets of short clips that have nothing to do with the movie as far as I could tell. They feature doctor's narrations about patients, patient's narrations about their random doodles, and interviews with patients. These are yet more filler pieces that serve only to make the press release announcing this disc longer and the features on the disc appear more robust than they really are.

Next up are several MTV related extras. MTV Making of the Video 'Behind Blue Eyes' (480p, 19:17) is apparently an episode of MTV's Making the Video. MTV 'Punk'd' Featuring Halle Berry (480p, 3:59) is next. In this short piece, a plant from MTV posing as security official is trying to lock Halle Berry out of her own premiere, and her dress nearly falls off when she finds out she has fallen victim to a joke. Um, OK. Finally, the music video for Behind Blue Eyes (480p, 4:32) by Limp Bizkit and a 480p (23)by-the-book trailer for Gothika finish off this disappointing and (24)forgettable set of supplements.

Everyone involved seems to be genuinely proud and excited to have worked on this film, or at least they act pretty excited. There's really nothing wrong with this movie, and if I had made it I'd be pretty proud if it. It's a legitimate film that doesn't embarrass itself or the people involved, but it doesn't distinguish itself in any way at all, and in the grand scheme of things this is a film that few will remember merely years from now.

Gothika Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

To recap, the following words are synonyms of "average:" (1)yawn, (2)lackluster, (3)flat, (4)uninspired, (5)middle-of-the-road, (6)ordinary, (7)mediocre, (8)unremarkable, (9)so-so, (10)run-of-the-mill, (11)OK, (12)fair, (13)typical, (14)commonplace, (15)DVD, (16)decent, (17)humdrum, (18)mundane, (19)conventional, (20)nothing special, (21)pedestrian, (22)bland, (23)by-the-book, and (24) forgettable. Whew. I'm glad I got to review (25)Gothika. Who knew it could be so educational? Time to go relax after an afternoon of learning by watching (26)Predator 2.