5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
When the governor of Tokyo is murdered, it falls on ex-CIA agent Travis Hunter (Steven Seagal) to track down the responsible terrorists. However, the plot to kill the Governor is only the beginning of a web of corruption and violence. Hunter discovers a plan by a rising Yakuza leader to build an enormous drug-dealing network with the Chinese Mafia. With time running out and the Yakuza determined to see their plan through, Hunter must thwart the operation and get out alive.
Starring: Steven Seagal, Chiaki Kuriyama, Matthew Davis (I), Takao Ôsawa, Eddie GeorgeAction | 100% |
Thriller | 72% |
Martial arts | 34% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Into the Sun feels a little late to the party, tracking far behind both chronologically and in raw cinema quality the better of the more recent vintage (read, last quarter-century or so) "American-law-enforcement-officials-in-Japan" movies, the sub genre probably best defined by the proficient and largely enthralling films Black Rain and Rising Sun, two pictures obviously sporting bigger budgets and more robust and satisfying source material but still pretty much the standard-bearers for these sorts of stories. It's a surprise Into the Sun isn't titled Black Sun, which would be a fitting "tribute" to its predecessors and also something of an apt negative double entendre seeing as how the film is largely a blotch on an otherwise good genre. Into the Sun is mostly a lazy, slow-paced, wholly inconsequential and dramatically vacant Direct-to-Video motion picture that stars Steven Seagal on the precipice of irrelevance (he would "star" in the abysmal Attack Force a year later) as an American returning to his Japanese roots to, what else, solve a crime and kick some behind.
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Into the Sun isn't a blindingly beautiful Blu-ray, but Mill Creek's transfer gets the job done and mostly satisfies if one keeps the disc's budget roots in mind. It's quite smooth but not detrimentally so. Details are still rather robust and complex, whether elephant hide and grasses in the early Golden Triangle sequence or later in the urban jungle of Japan. Skin textures and clothing lines are suitably revealed, and the image enjoys a generally crisp outline. Colors are quite vibrant, from jungle greens to hot sports car reds, and the palette captures the many neon and other exceedingly bright lights and hues of big city Japan nicely enough. On the down side of the ledger are some scattered edge halos that are never overly pronounced. The image shows little in the way of banding, blockiness, misguided black levels, or wayward flesh tones. All in all, this is a watchable, dependable low-budget transfer from Mill Creek.
Into the Sun features a heavily aggressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. In fact, it's often too aggressive, failing to find pinpoint realism and sacrificing clarity in exchange for raw power and excess noise. At film's open, listeners will experience harsh, muddled elements that might work well enough in support of raw action -- there's plenty of gunfire and explosions that flow from every corner of the soundstage -- but that lack the nuance to truly immerse the listening audience into the mayhem. It's not at all precise, but at a very fundamental level it's quite entertaining. Much the same may be said of the rest of the track, whether music or subsequent action effects. It's all quite heavy but never truly focused or thoroughly convincing. The track does find adequate spacing in music and acceptable clarity even at booming levels. There's decent bass at a club, fair exterior city atmospherics, and a quality sense of space and distance when thunder booms in chapter twelve. Dialogue is mostly even and front-middle focused, but it does go a little shallow at times, notably during a meeting between Hunter and Block as heard in chapter three. Of note is that Japanese dialogue, of which there is quite a bit, does not auto-subtitle with the subtitle option turned "off." Listeners who require subtitles will need to manually turn them on whenever Japanese dialogue begins or simply give in and leave the subtitles running for the duration.
This Blu-ray release of Into the Sun contains no supplemental content.
Into the Sun certainly proves itself a step or three above the absolute worst of the unfortunate Steven Seagal-Direct-to-Video collaboration, but make no mistake about it: it's still a slow, linear, little-thought production that slogs through a bland and overplayed story with no payoff save for some relentless hack-and-slash video game-like swordplay at the end. Precious few real emotions, unoriginal characters on both sides of the coin, and a generically thin plot line all point to Into the Sun as a movie that's destined to be eclipsed by the best of vintage Seagal and forgotten in a universe in which it's but one of countless many DTV wannabes. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Into the Sun contains no supplements. Fair video and audio are included. Skip it.
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