Hell's Five Hours Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Hell's Five Hours Blu-ray Movie Review

Hell's 80 minutes.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 13, 2015

Hell's Five Hours plays the hype game with its darkly chilling title and promise of "top suspense story of the nuclear age!" prominently slathered on its artwork. It's unsurprisingly neither hellish nor particularly suspenseful (and citing the "nuclear age," while technically correct, hints at something the film never delivers or even toys with, like pending or occurring radiological disaster). The film, the one and only from Writer/Director Jack L. Copeland, is instead the simple story of a disgruntled former employee at a rocket fuel manufacturing facility who takes it upon himself to threaten the destruction of the plant at which he used to work. It's a much simpler story than its loud pronouncements and amped title suggest, but it's still a serviceable, and compact, Thriller that actually feels rather relevant today, in 2015, with a story that seems more at home in the terror age than the dawn of the nuclear age.

Disgruntled.

With the development of powerful advances in rocket fuel comes a great danger. What if it was destroyed at its source -- the local power plant? That's a nightmare scenario for family man Mike Brand (Stephen McNally) who is called in to the plant late one night when a fire is reported. Unfortunately, the fire is a result of theft and sabotage. A man has taken dynamite from the site and strapped it to himself. He's a disgruntled former employee named Nash (Vic Morrow) who has rigged himself with enough explosives to level the entire facility and, worse, spread a toxic gas throughout the nearby town of Meritville. He's also taken Brand's wife (Coleen Gray) and son (Ray Ferrell) hostage. With the town evacuating and tensions running high, the fate of a family, an entire town, and perhaps even the future of scientific advancement are all at stake.

The film touts its story as a cautionary tale in the "modern age of science." Replace "science" with "terror" and the film feels eerily relevant in 2015. The news is filled with stories of planned, and sometimes executed, attacks on "soft targets," including the digital infrastructure and the power supply. There's also an endless stream of reports concerning the disastrous consequences of attacks on nuclear power facilities and other high value targets that represent a real threat beyond the immediate attack and aftermath, attacks that could leave a region -- a nation -- crippled in their wake. The Fukushima disaster, while a natural rather than manmade disaster, is representative of the real danger that a detailed and coordinated attack could engender. And as with the antagonist in Hell's Five Hours, the dangers of a lone wolf attack -- which are on the rise -- is very much at the forefront of the modern war on terror. Though several decades old, one cannot help but watch Hell's Five Hours and marvel at its prescience and the parallels evident in its plot, as simplistic as it may be yet relevant to and reflective of life in the modern world.

Though the film dabbles in an interesting premise that's held up over the years, it is, technically, a rather forgettable venture. While the cast squeezes a fair bit of tension from the material -- Vic Morrow is impressive as the disturbed and disgruntled ex-employee with a grudge -- the movie in its total cannot quite execute to the story's maximum potential. It's a film of iffy pacing, beginning strong but fading rather fast as it settles into predictable routine. Character development is fine but not particularly deep; even Morrow's character lacks dimensionality, even as the actor efforts to inject him with as much depth as he can, and largely by way of superficial traits and a core performance that enjoys a tangible blend of lunacy and desperation. The film's setting is stale with only a small handful of primary locations that demand in compensation heightened character drama and tension which the film cannot deliver. The ultimate outcome never seems in much question and a few turns to melodrama lessens whatever mild intensity lingers.

Hell's Five Hours Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hell's Five Hours features a decent 1080p transfer that's representative of the quality fans have come to expect from older Olive titles. Generally, the image satisfies. Grain retention is consistent and the result is an attractive, film-quality veneer that positively accentuates basic details like clothing and faces. The grayscale is usually fine, with good blacks -- save for some poorly defined stock footage (or what appears to be stock footage) -- and crisp whites. However, the image suffers from a fairly regular attack of spots and speckles. Mild blocking and banding are also evident throughout. The image is perfectly watchable and, for a relatively obscure title, this is probably about the best-case scenario.

Hell's Five Hours Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hell's Five Hours doesn't unleash much of a fury on Blu-ray. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack is basically effective but never pushes beyond the film's meager needs. A few beefier elements, like rocket blasts, play well enough with a decent amount of heft but certainly don't explode or rattle the listening area with realistic thunder. Blaring police sirens are likewise clear enough but lack more than cursory distinction. Dialogue and a few bits of narration early on enjoy good basic clarity. An underlying hiss and scratchiness may be heard throughout. The two channel presentation pushes towards the middle, creating a "phantom center" effect. Nothing strays from the imaged middle and the cluster of sound lacks the sort of healthier space -- even across the front end -- that might have made the track a little more enjoyable.

Hell's Five Hours Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Hell's Five Hours contains no bonus content. The main menu only offers selections for "Play" and "Chapters."

Hell's Five Hours Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hell's Five Hours doesn't live up to the promise of its title or the hype of its tagline, but it's a decent Thriller that's eerily relevant decades after its release. While the movie is technically bland, it sports a few good performances and is worth a watch more for its prescience and less for its other characteristics. Olive Films' Blu-ray release of Hell's Five Hours features fair video and passable audio. No extras are included. Rent it.