Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Physical Evidence Blu-ray Movie Review

Guilty of unoriginality.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman June 3, 2013

An edgy cop accused of murder. A young lawyer looking to make her mark. A determined district attorney. Bad men, corruption, and danger around every corner. Sound familiar? If it does, don't expect much in the way of bright ideas and new trends to emerge from 1989's Physical Evidence, a by-the-books procedural that incorporates and embraces all of those pieces and fails to find even a smidgen of novelty from setup to resolution. The film maneuvers through the paces effectively enough to keep things entertaining, though not always interesting. It banks more on star power than it does narrative to draw in audiences, more on standby plot elements and devices more so than creativity to tell its story, more on thin plot threads rather than bold twists and turns to bring it to conclusion. It's throwaway cinema at its finest, a movie that shouldn't be on any cinephile's "must see" bucket list. Yet it's technically competent all the way around and, despite the lack of originality, not much of a chore to watch. It's the ultimate in see-and-forget, but don't go to any great lengths to see. After all, the forget part will certainly come far more easily.

I didn't do it!

Disgraced and suspended cop Joe Paris (Burt Reynolds) has been accused of a murder he claims he didn't commit, framed when two cops enter his apartment and "reveal" bloody, incriminating evidence. Considering his reputation for violence and checkered past history with the victim, it seems like an open-and-shut case for District Attorney James Nicks (Ned Beatty) and his prosecution team. Paris is assigned an up-and-coming public defender named Jenny Hudson (Theresa Russell) who refuses to strike a bargain with Nicks and who comes to believe in her client's claim of innocence. Meanwhile, Hudson struggles through a tepid, dissolving relationship with her wealthy playboy fiancé, Kyle (Ted McGinley), and finds herself drawn to the rough-and-tumble Paris.

"Competent yet uninspired" best describes the late Director Michael Crichton's film. For a man as creative as he -- both on the page and up on the screen with titles like Westworld and Coma under his directorial watch -- it's difficult to fathom his name attached to a movie as thematically vacant, structurally simple, and wholly forgettable as this. It's a movie that falls comfortably into routine from the outset and never once attempts to veer away into darker or, at least, more interesting territory. While the final revelations aren't transparent, there's no sense of surprise, either, once the truth is revealed, largely because the lead-up doesn't accomplish much in the way of engendering a heightened sense of interest in the whodunit angle, which is pretty much the film's singular core focus. That doesn't bode well for any other element, and indeed, the ancillary pieces of Physical Evidence define a film struggling to maintain any sort of positive on the way to clearing the hero of...duh-duh-dum!...a crime he didn't commit.

Physical Evidence does piece together a decent cast. Burt Reynolds lends a name and face but little more to the role of the wrongly accused detective. He does little more than go through the motions and is often relegated to a background figure behind lead Theresa Russell who manages a Sharon Stone-inspired performance as a smart-but-sometimes-sultry attorney who does a decent enough job hammering away at the case both in the courtroom and outside of it. The film spends a little too much needless time on her relationship with her snobby and snotty fiancé and too little time working on the fairly well constructed sexual tension that slowly brews between the Russell and Reynolds characters. They make a decent enough pairing, but the flimsy script, unimaginative plot devices, and procedural cadence don't get nearly enough out of the stars. They're another example of how the movie just seems to piece together whatever it needs to advance, not expertly blend together the ingredients for a superior film.

Physical Evidence Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Physical Evidence actually looks pretty nice. Mill Creek's Blu-ray presentation fares well all around, save for a few scattered spots and speckles. Grain retention is welcome; it's largely even, not too heavy, and aids in revealing the finer textural details to be seen throughout. To be sure, this is no stunner, but details come through well enough, from faces and clothes on down to smaller background details in Paris' apartment, Kyle's place, or the courtroom. Clarity is fine and the stable, rather sharp image makes this a very watchable and enjoyable HD experience. Colors are satisfactory; the palette never really pops but it's not excessively dull, either. Brighter scenes aren't awash in great colors, but darker scenes don't absorb the palette, either. Black levels are quite sturdy, ditto flesh tones. All around, a very pleasing presentation from Mill Creek.

Physical Evidence Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Evidence points to another middling Mill Creek DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. Physical Evidence's presentation is certainly underwhelming but that's not particularly much of a surprise. The track finds enough spacing -- front-end range -- and clarity to get by on the basics. Musical delivery is adequate, smooth enough and with a decent bit of crispness and definition, though ultimately there's nothing at all memorable about it. General sound elements fail to impress; passing traffic, a car splashing through a couple of puddles, the background din of a busy courtroom or bar, chirping birds and seagulls and all variety of ambient support never immerse the listener but at least define the environment well enough. Dialogue, at least, comes through with enough precision that there's no struggle to define each syllable. It's not a winner, but it's not a loser either. It suffices for a low-end movie released on the lower end of the Blu-ray scale.

Physical Evidence Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Physical Evidence contains no supplemental content.

Physical Evidence Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Physical Evidence will satisfy moviegoers looking to kill a little over ninety minutes with a movie they need not follow all that closely to walk away satisfied. It's all built on stale pieces, from the characters to the payoff. The script on down is bland, though the movie does manage a spark from the under-explored sexual chemistry from its leads. It's a serviceable movie, nothing more, nothing less. Mill Creek's Blu-ray release of Physical Evidence delivers no supplements, but decent video and passable two-channel audio are included. Skip it.