Major Payne Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		1.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

Major Payne Blu-ray Movie Review

A Payne-ful Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 11, 2017

Movies are often an escape from life's hardships, some relatable, some not, and cinema sometimes explores those hardships on the screen so everyday folks don't have to experience them firsthand. The rigors of military training are one of those areas that's not exactly a staple of film but that's certainly produced some quality bits of entertainment, whether the hard-edged Full Metal Jacket or the sillier Stripes. Taking things down a notch -- literally and figuratively -- from even the comedic madhouse of Stripes is Major Payne, Director Nick Castle's (The Last Starfighter) 1995 Comedy that's essentially a Kindergarten Cop clone with older kids and an even harder instructor. The film tries to find that difficult balance between kid-friendly accessibility and enough crudity for adults. It doesn't always work, with the film's vulgarity too much for sensitive ears but just vile enough that the film might have worked better if it pushed harder. It's still a fun little movie, flawed to be sure but a decent little time killer with some hearty laughs and a good lead performance.

Major Payne (Damon Wayans) is a hard-edged military veteran who knows only one thing: dishing out pain. He'll even wound his fellow soldiers to take their minds off of other wounds. But the world has changed. He's singlehandedly killed all the bad guys. He's twice been passed over for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, so the Army sends him packing. But civilian life is not for him. Within a week, his violent tendencies land him in prison. It's not that he's a bad man, per se, he just has no "off" switch. His former commanding officer pulls a few strings and orders him to the greatest challenge of his career: whipping a ragtag bunch of green prep school ROTC cadets into shape. They're an assorted bunch of misfits of all ages and abilities who unite against their new leader, who is as verbally mean as he his physically hard on them. His goal: to make sure they win a coveted statewide trophy at the Virginia Military Games. But to get there, he and his cadets might just have to meet halfway between "soft" and "hard."

While the film certainly feels like a product made to fit its admittedly clever double entendre title, the end product winds up being more-or-less agreeable, offering plenty of laughs along a fairly linear and predictable story (minor story arc spoilers follow here, but really, a movie like this is so transparent there's practically no such thing as a spoiler). Payne is introduced to the audience, then the cadets. The cadets rebel with some mischief along the way. Payne always gets the upper hand. His heart slowly melts as he begins a relationship with a beautiful, caring woman. Kids and Payne gradually come to see eye to eye...and the rest is predictable history. But that's OK. The movie's value isn't in its unpredictability but rather the journey there. It finds enough laughs to keep the audience interested. The kids are diverse enough (the small vulnerable kid, the fat kid, the deaf kid, the older rebellious kid, and so on) to keep things interesting. The script is just sharp enough to bring it all together. This isn't award-worthy cinema, but it's a good little bit of escapism that's surprisingly re-watchable even all these years later.

Major Payne works its characters just hard enough to build them to the point that the audience cares. Payne isn't simply a smart-mouthed, hard-edged bully in uniform. The kids see him that way, but as the film moves on his tender underbelly is revealed. He can't escape that military persona -- and Wayans is really good at honing the hard side while gradually revealing the soft side -- but it makes for some good laughs when he ridicules his cadets or forces them to do humiliating things, like shave their heads or prance around campus in dresses. None of the kids really escape stereotype, though. They have fairly strict, rigid personas that fill a role. It's easier to think of them, really, as a single foil rather than a collected bunch of kids. Each of the actors fits their individual roles nicely, all of them have a decent rapport with Wayans, and they're enthusiastic enough for the material.

Major Payne Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Universal's wishy-washy catalogue Blu-ray releases continue to frustrate, and Major Payne's 1080p presentation is one of the most frustrating yet. On the plus side, the image does benefit a good deal from the added 1080p resolution. Textures are often pleasing at a macro level where facial definition and particularly some of the heavier material and stitching elements on Payne's military attire reveal quite a bit of detail. Colors are decent enough, with an abundance of spirited natural greens, Army fatigues, and the yellow tassels on Payne's hat showing commendable vibrancy. But the benefits largely end there. The image has been severely processed, filtered, and sharpened. At its worst, it's prone to waving (see a building at the 7:33 mark) and completely destroying an object's textural nuance (see an old-fashioned pay phone telephone cord at the 6:50 mark). Edge enhancement runs rampant. Whether straight edges or human form curvatures, outlines are frequent and characters often look as if they're surrounded by a force field. Noise reduction is apparent, and while it doesn't sink to Universal's most shameful lows, it's still readily evident. Vegetation is prone to smearing; the cadet's first outdoor meeting with Major Payne reveals far too many smudgy backgrounds. There's obviously a solid core underneath, a would-be satisfying film-based presentation with plenty of textural nuances and bright colors to display, but Universal has once again opted to simply throw an older, heavily manipulated master onto Blu-ray and call it a day. Yeah, it'll easily replace the old LaserDisc still sitting on the shelf...but that's about it. Faint praise.

Major Payne Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Major Payne's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack isn't as frustrating as its video counterpart, but it's still a flawed product. Most noticeable is its inability to properly balance and prioritize dialogue. It often plays at too low a volume at reference and in comparison to surrounding music and effects. Clarity fares well enough, but it lacks proper volume balance. Surrounds are frequently engaged. In fact, the entire soundstage is often home to multidirectional effects that zip and zoom about, as well as plenty of location-specific details that help define everything from a battle at the beginning to light ambience when the cadets muster outside. Clarity isn't going to pass for lifelike, but the track gets an A for effort. Music is appropriately wide and plays at a balanced volume, but again clarity comes up lacking beyond the basics. It's a decent enough track that works hard to make up for its shortcomings with a lot of surround activity and sonic movement.

Major Payne Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Major Payne contains no supplemental content. The film starts immediately upon disc insertion. No "top menu" is available with remote button press. A crude "pop-up" menu offers a "home" button which goes to "main menu" page with only language selection options. Also in the "pop-up" menu are audio and subtitle selection options; there's not even a chapter select feature.

Major Payne Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Major Payne is a fun little movie, hardly a classic but good enough to hold up to the occasional viewing. Wayans' performance is the highlight: he's capable of finding a perfect balance between goofy and tough (and whoever added the gold tooth to the character gets a gold star) and wise but not particularly understanding of how the world, or people, for that matter, works outside of his military-trained bubble. It's a shame that Universal saddled the movie with a terrible transfer and no supplements. The audio is underwhelming when it comes to dialogue reproduction, but at least it's otherwise active and interesting. It's worth an upgrade from VHS or Laser, and it does have some benefits over DVD in terms of raw clarity and resolution, but Universal is making it hard to recommended, even at bargain prices.