Malice Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.5

Malice Blu-ray Movie Review

"You ask me if I have a God complex. Let me tell you something: I am God."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown June 13, 2025

Director Harold Becker and screenwriters Aaron Sorkin and Scott Frank's twist-laden 'Malice' was originally released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in 2015. That edition has since gone out of print. Enter Sandpiper Pictures, who brings 'Malice' back to Blu-ray with solid video and audio, albeit with the same barebones supplemental package as Kino's version. The film stars Bill Pulman, Nicole Kidman, Alec Baldwin, George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, Peter Gallagher, Tobin Bell, Josef Sommer, Debrah Farentino, Gwyneth Paltrow and David Bowe.

Andy Safian (Bill Pullman) is the Associate Dean of Students at a small women's college in a Massachusetts town. He and his wife, Tracy (Kidman), have purchased a crumbling Victorian mansion that they are slowly restoring, but Andy's meager salary won't even pay for the plumbing work. To raise money, the Safians reluctantly decide to rent the third floor to a tenant, and just as they do so, Andy encounters a high school classmate, Dr. Jed Hill (Baldwin), a hotshot surgeon recently relocated to the area, where he is already impressing and intimidating his new colleagues at the local hospital. Tracy doesn't care for Jed, but Andy offers him the lease. The circumstances under which Andy encounters his former classmate are not happy ones. The college has been living under the threat of a violent serial rapist, who attacks students in their off-campus residences when they return from class. Andy's concern for his students, who are leaving the school in droves, and his frustration with the inability of the local police, led by Det. Dana Harris (Bebe Neuwirth), to develop any solid leads, have left him frustrated. Hill's tenancy with the Safians, meanwhile, quickly irritates Tracy, as the charismatic doctor enjoys the perks of success, which include spending nights with worshipful nurses like Tanya (Debrah Farentino). But Tracy soon has bigger problems, as the abdominal cramps she has been experiencing with increasing frequency develop into a medical crisis, and she finds herself in the emergency room in need of immediate surgery. Naturally the surgeon on duty is Hill, who encounters unexpected complications.

Click here to read the rest of Michael Reuben's review of Malice, which he warns "is a film so thoroughly built on deception and misdirection that even its fans accuse it of cheating." However, he adds, while "it really shouldn't work at all," the fact "that it does is a tribute to everyone involved, especially the lead cast, all of whom pitch their performances on a razor's edge of believability, and several of whom have to negotiate some tricky turns. Their performances are consistently interesting, and in Kubrick's famous dictum, interesting is better than real."

Malice Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Darkness and shadow are key players in Sandpiper's 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer, as Malice takes on an almost enigmatic appearance dripping in noir influence and pseudo-erotic melodrama. Delineation is limited but intentionally so, owing its heavy swaths of black mystery to Godfather cinematographer Gordon Willis' love of light and the lack thereof. Colors are often muted as a result yet reds still make a noble stand when the lights rise, skintones remain lifelike and perfectly saturated throughout, and detail is quite good. Though a bit withdrawn from terms like "razor sharp," edges are clean and nicely defined (without any unsightly artificial sharpening or ringing), textures are relatively revealing, and grain is natural and filmic, ebbing and flowing with the photography in a way that's pleasing and rarely distracting. Compression is a slight issue here and there, but banding and more significant macroblocking are nowhere to be found. On the whole, Malice is deceptively striking, which suits its twists and turns just fine.

Malice Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Malice arrives on Blu-ray with the same DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo track. It's not bad by any means, but it also leaves a lot to the imagination, flattening what might easily be an immersive, enveloping surround experience that would certainly enhance the film's mysteries. Still, dialogue is intelligible and well-represented, without any prioritization issues. Effects are lent some weight and presence, and Jerry Goldsmith's score is given room to work its magic. I continually craved a more engaging surround presence but beggars can't be choosers, and it could certainly be worse.

Malice Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only extra included on the Blu-ray release of Malice is its theatrical trailer.

Malice Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Malice is the perfect guilty pleasure: fun, wicked and just vicious enough to keep you glued to your seat. Its finer plot points threaten to snap under too much scrutiny, but there's a slick neo-noir amusement to it all where you just know the screenwriters were having a blast with how far they could push things. Pullman, Kidman and Baldwin are especially fierce, and a few surprise performances from supporting actors complete the puzzle. Sandpiper's Blu-ray release isn't perfect, particularly with its barebones supplemental package, but strong video and solid audio hold it up under pressure.