6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Following a failed mission, a soldier finds himself stranded in the desert, where he'll have to face nature, the local guerrilla groups and his progressive mental and physical deterioration.
Starring: Armie Hammer, Annabelle Wallis, Tom Cullen, Clint Dyer, Geoff BellDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
If you can get past what is a ludicrously incredible setup and what turns out to have needlessly soap operatic moments down the line, Mine is an at least intermittently interesting viewing experience, and one which provides Armie Hammer with a role where he’s onscreen, often singlehandedly, for virtually the entire running length of the film. Written and directed by Fabio Guaglione and Fabio Resinaro, who bill themselves as “Fabio & Fabio”, Mine begins with a viscerally disturbing sequence the finds sniper Mike Stevens (Armie Hammer) with an alleged terrorist in his rifle scope sights as Mike crouches on a cliffside in some unnamed North African country, though the identification isn’t secure and once it becomes apparent the target is actually in the middle of the desert for a secret wedding ceremony, Mike hesitates to take the guy out, despite the repeated insistence of “send it” (i.e., pull the trigger) by his best buddy and scout Tommy Madison (Tom Cullen). Of course, Mike’s hesitation does two things: first, it establishes that the character has a moral conscience, not wanting to kill a guy at this particular event, and second and probably more importantly, it ends up stranding Mike and Tommy in the desert once things go haywire and the terrorist’s henchmen notice the good guys on the cliff. And right here is the first moment requiring a rather major suspension of disbelief: in the Fabios’ rather unlikely screenplay, Mike and Tommy have evidently just materialized on this plateau without any support within shouting distance. That means once they’re discovered by the bad guys, they have to take off—on foot, all while calling for help, which is not an immediate prospect. Now, I’m no expert, but I’ve watched a lot of Homeland, and this is not the way I imagine Special Forces working to remove threats (and, yes, the foregoing is said with tongue planted firmly in cheek). Even this implausible conceit is doubled down upon when a kind of desert version of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s iconic leap off of a precipice leaves Tommy’s wrist bound GPS unit smashed and not working. And then there’s the violent haboob the guys have to withstand, just for good measure. By the time Mike and Tommy stumble into a desert mine field, the film is already perilously unbelievable, though it’s to the Fabios’ credit that these opening scenes bristle with an excitement that the rest of the film only occasionally manages to muster.
Mine is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. While technical data is once again scarce to come by, some of the making of featurettes on this disc briefly show Arri cameras, and this has the typically sleek and generally well detailed look of capture by Alexa. The film is made up of long segments in an environment devoid of virtually any real identifiable elements other than white sands and often pale skies, and as such the palette is often near monochromatic. The Fabios do tend to like extreme close-ups, and those offer excellent fine detail, especially with regard to Mike's increasingly weathered face. Some flashback material has been graded, as even some of the desert scenes seem to have been. There are intermittent signs of banding, especially in some of the brighter desert moments where the camera pans across varying brightnesses.
Mine features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is quite subtle due to the lack of "wow" sonics, but which still provides near constant immersion in terms of minimal but still fairly ubiquitous ambient environmental sounds. There are one or two brief moments of LFE, but overall this is a rather quiet film, one which tends to play out within the confines of Mike's inner world, and as such showy sonics are rarely if ever in evidence. Fidelity is fine and prioritization is well handled, perhaps because there's very little competition for whatever dialogue is being uttered at any given moment.
- Power Positive Thinking (1080p; 1:55)
- Commitment (1080p; 2:22)
- Confrontation (1080p; 10:23)
- Quicksand (1080p; 1:36)
- Mineboards: From Page to Frame (1080p; 4:45)
- The Other Side of the Dune: Mine VFX Breakdown (1080p; 5:01)
- The Making of with Armie Hammer (1080p; 13:09)
Mine doesn't always work, and it in fact increasingly strains credulity to the breaking point, but Hammer is excellent and the general concept is really rather riveting. The film tends to wallow a bit too much in overly soap operatic elements, but Hammer fans may want to check this out since it offers the actor near constant screen time. Technical merits are generally excellent for those considering a purchase.
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