5.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
A homicide detective teams up with a criminal profiler to catch a serial killer whose crimes are inspired by the children's game Hangman.
Starring: Al Pacino, Karl Urban, Brittany Snow, Joe Anderson (VI), Sarah ShahiCrime | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
The rather severe fall off in “source material” from Se7en's religiously iconic septet of deadly sins to Hangman’s use of, well, the children’s game of hangman is perhaps the perfect symbol for how ridiculously lowbrow this formulaic and almost kind of sad enterprise is. Al Pacino, seemingly still in need of a paycheck this late in his career, or perhaps so fond of the spotlight that he can’t stand to be out of it no matter how squalid the actual material is, is on hand as a retired detective named Archer (no, not that one), who is addicted to solving crossword puzzles (in Latin, no less), something that makes him not so coincidentally perfectly positioned to solve a series of crimes instigated by a crazed killer who is carving letters into the corpses of his victims (some of whom are found hung, just in case the police are a little slow on the uptake). Archer is sucked back into more or less active duty by his former partner Ruiney (Karl Urban), a cop struggling to maintain emotional equilibrium despite the relatively recent brutal murder of his wife. (The fact that screenwriters Michael Caissie and Charles Huttinger spell this character’s surname the way they do when it’s pronounced “Rooney” is just one more indication of the lack of subtlety running rampant throughout this enterprise.) Ruiney is also attempting to navigate the roiling waters of having an unwanted tagalong on his beat, an investigative reporter named Christi Davies (Brittany Snow), who has her own troubled past and who becomes a kind of third wheel in the investigative process until she completely expectedly becomes the Damsel in Distress in the film’s patently absurd climax. The reason Ruiney calls upon his old buddy Archer is that the first crime scene he gets to has both his badge number and Archer’s badge number carved into a desk at the school where the body is found, something that seems to indicate the killer is trying to send a message, and that any nearby Western Union offices must have been closed (yes, that’s a joke). The fact that the corpses also appear to be spelling a word, one letter at a time, seems to make Archer an excellent candidate to ferret out clues.
Hangman is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Hey, here's an idea: how about a thriller or police procedural or serial killer drama (take your pick) which isn't graded in deep blue tones for much of its running time? I vote for chartreuse as the next "it" grading color. All joking aside, this is in fact another film that has large swaths pretty much swimming in blue tones, resulting in a noticeable loss of detail when compared to more abundantly lit or less agressively graded scenes. With that one perhaps major caveat aside, this is a fine, competent if not all that inspiring looking presentation that preserves good detail and fine detail levels (at least when lighting conditions permit). Director Johnny Martin and cinematographer Larry Blanford do exploit a lot of extreme close-ups of the focal triol, offering elements like the various signs of age on Pacino's face, or supposed scars on Snow's, with commendable precision.
Hangman's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track provides a listening experience that is, much like the video component of this release, perfectly competent without ever regularly visiting "wow" territory. There are a number of pretty traditional startle effects scattered throughout the film, but some of the more menacing sonics come from subtler uses of washes of LFE that kind of pervade the side and rear channels at various crime scenes. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.
I'm really, really excited to see a film about a serial killer obsessed with tiddly winks, because after having sat through Hangman, I firmly believe that if this film got produced, something like that film can't be that far behind. Pacino is overly mannered, Snow is kind of annoying, and Urban frequently looks like he's passing an extremely unpleasant kidney stone in this unfortunate offering, but if there are in fact those considering a purchase, technical merits are fine if never overly impressive.
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