Half Past Dead Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Half Past Dead Blu-ray Movie Review

'Half Past Dead' is more than half past Seagal's peak.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 22, 2008

Put a little thug in it.

At one time Steven Seagal (Under Siege 2) was one of the more marketable action stars around, seeing his heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s. At that time he had some decent films to his credit, including Above the Law, Out For Justice, Under Siege, Executive Decision, and my personal favorite, Hard to Kill. Now, he's been reduced to girdles (supposedly) and long coats in his roles to hide the extra pounds he's packed on, but thankfully for him nobody really cares anymore, and everything he does goes straight to video. I must admit to missing the good old days of Seagal. He had a great screen presence and could turn a neighborly smile into a dead-on serious look while snapping a .45 in your face in the blink of an eye. That's the kind of character we know and love him for, not the direct-to-video hero who's movies are dull and unoriginal, coming off as nothing more than facsimiles of one another with bad dialogue, boring action, and no plot. Half Past Dead seems a transition film for Seagal, a last hurrah for the star who had already begun the descent into home video mediocrity with the likes of Ticker and Exit Wounds, but before the slump truly began and people stopped caring about his movies altogether. Ever heard of Today You Die, Attack Force, or Pistol Whipped? I thought not.

Steven Seagal: guilty of making bad movies in the 21st century.

Half Past Dead stars Seagal as Sasha, a man who, after passing a lie detector test to establish his credentials and thwart any worries that he might be working for the FBI, joins a crime boss' gang that has deep ties to his family that are revealed later in the picture. Sasha's friend of two years, Nick (Ja Rule, Shall We Dance?), also works for the same crime boss. After the two are involved in a shootout with the FBI, they find themselves incarcerated at "New Alcatraz," a prison using the same name and facility as its famous predecessor but recently re-opened to much criticism from the press due to its state-of-the-art execution center where death row inmates have the choice to die one of five ways -- lethal injection, gas, hanging, firing squad, or electrocution. The first prisoner to be executed is named Lester (Bruce Weitz), a man who stole $200,000,000 worth of gold bricks but killed five federal agents in the process. He's not divulged the location of the gold, and the FBI has spent seventeen years in search of it. Prior to his execution, a team bent on learning the location of the gold infiltrates the prison, takes the judge who oversaw Lester's case, Jane McPherson (Linda Thorson), hostage, and threatens to kill her should Lester not divulge the whereabouts of the gold. Only Lester's new friend Sasha, who was once legally dead for 22 minutes ("half past dead") and may be more than he seems, can lead his fellow inmates into battle and keep everyone alive.

Half Past Dead is as generic as it sounds. It's also paltry and dull, thanks in large part to its insistence on receiving a PG-13 rating. Make no mistake, there is a decent R-rated action picture trapped inside of this one, screaming to come out. The lyrics to the various songs heard throughout are edited for content. Action is loud and extreme but visible gore and blood are minimal. Foul language is kept to a minimum. Granted, you don't need vulgarities and copious amounts of blood and guts to make a great action movie, but Half Past Dead has so little going for it to begin with that making it a PG-13 film takes away any chance it has of being memorable to action fans. The film is a completely vacuous one with a haphazard story and lifeless characters who are portrayed by over-the-top actors who'd rather be in their trailers than on the set. Only Tony Plana, who plays the warden, offers a decent performance. Maybe he got the next-biggest check after Seagal.

As if the lack of R-rated action material in an otherwise terrible movie wasn't bad enough, Half Past Dead sports a look that is goofy, overplayed, and over-stylized, trying too hard to be more important than it is. The result is a barely watchable and never entertaining action movie that plays out better as comedy. It also borrows heavily from other, better films, especially in the style and action sequences. You can see places where it ripped off films like The Rock, Underworld, and The Matrix. Indeed, like all of the other interchangeable Seagal flicks from later in his career, Half Past Dead really offers nothing new for action fans and someday, looking back on your life, you won't regret having missed it.

Half Past Dead Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Half Past Dead comes to Blu-ray with a transfer that's neither good nor bad, finding a middle ground of rather uninteresting high definition imagery. Framed at 1.85:1 and presented in 1080p, the transfer exhibits no major strengths nor any glaring weaknesses, and like the movie itself, is just kind of "there." The movie is generally dark, covered in shadows and bathed in pale lighting, most of which is found in the interior of the prison. Black levels don't hold up very well, generally appearing slightly gray and lifeless, but detail in close-ups is nice and is the best aspect of the transfer. Look at the beginning when Sasha is being interrogated and receiving the polygraph test. Close-ups nicely reveal the nuances of his face, the pits and blemishes that prove once and for all that movie stars aren't perfect. Colors are drab and uninspired. Take a look at the Alcatraz scene in chapter three when the prisoners first arrive. The quality seems to slightly fluctuate as the orange jumpsuits go from a dull to a brighter, more natural, shade. These suits are probably the highlight of the transfer when it comes to color, and while they look nice, they fail to elicit any "wow" factor. The interior of Alcatraz is a dull, lifeless gray that proves to be a most uninteresting set visually, although the textures of the walls and the murals that adorn some of the surfaces look nice enough. Grain is fairly heavy in many sequences, flesh tones never veer too far from natural, but there are some random blemishes on the print. Half Past Dead won't make you glad you bought an HDTV, but it looks good enough for what it is.

Half Past Dead Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

If you are in the mood for some bass-heavy hip hop or a nonstop barrage of loud action noises in lossless audio, pop in Half Past Dead on Blu-ray and play one of the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mixes provided. Lows rattle the furniture and your ribcage to great effect in all the action and music sequences. The music is one of the highlights of the track. It's loud, arguably too loud, but the movie has to make up for its shortcomings somewhere, so it throws a salvo of music and action effects our way from every direction in an attempt to take our minds off the rather poor quality of the movie. The shootout in chapter two is simply devastating to the ears at reference volume. I was forced to turn it down quite a bit. It's very loud and unfocussed, sounding more like a jumble of random gunshots and explosions -- audio overkill. I love loud shootouts as much as the next guy, but I also love clarity and finesse, too, as we've heard in another Sony title, Black Hawk Down. That track offers something more akin to realism and grace under fire, while Half Past Dead just tries to pack as many noises into the fray as possible. It does work your sound system hard; surrounds and bass are ever-present in every action scene. Dialogue is fine, too; in this aspect of the soundtrack, I was never presented with any volume or clarity problems. This is an enjoyable track, but one that is far from perfect and should be played slightly lower than your normal volume.

Half Past Dead Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Half Past Dead doesn't offer a lively set of extras, but what we have isn't terrible. A commentary track with writer/director Don Michael Paul is first. Paul begins by discussing the origins of the film, it's delay thanks to Michael Bay's Alcatraz-based film, and the themes and mixture of styles present in the film. The track generally delves into the technical and becomes rather dry. Paul talks up the film and lays the praise on his actors, which is to be expected. He tells us that "this movie isn't meant to be high art or high cinema. It's just a fun little action movie, don't take us too serious, and have some fun along the way." Overall, the track is an average one but will probably put you to sleep thanks to Paul's monotone voice. Three deleted scenes (480p, 3:31) are next. The Making of 'Half Past Dead' (480p, 13:17) is a standard behind-the-scenes look at this "new breed of action movie." The piece begins with a recap of the movie that plays like a bad trailer and moves into clips from the movie intertwined with some discussions about various aspects of the making of the film, its casting, and more. 1080p trailers for Half Past Dead, Men in Black and Close Encounters of the Third Kind are included. Finally, this disc is BD-Live (Blu-ray profile 2.0) equipped. Fans are taken to a page that allows viewers to view more trailers, take a survey, and more.

Half Past Dead Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Half Past Dead is another in a very long line of action movies that don't break any new ground, or even cover established ground all that well. You'll see plenty of people running around shooting at things, some explosions, and very little actual violence. Half Past Dead isn't even all that polished, just rehashing the same-old-same-old. At least something like xXx: State of the Union is nice to look at, sports some impressive visuals, and despite itself only being an average action movie, has enough awareness, production values, and care put into it to pass as decent action. Sony's release of Half Past Dead on Blu-ray is nothing spectacular. Sporting terribly uninteresting visuals that make for only a mediocre high definition image, a soundtrack that is arguably too loud and aggressive, and a slightly below average grouping of extras, there is very little incentive to purchase this disc. Half Past Dead might make for a nice rental when you've seen most other discs available at the store.