6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
When the newly-adopted daughter of American couple Steven and Shannon goes missing while the family is abroad, they quickly discover that all is not what it seems with the adoption agency — and find themselves in a fight for their lives when they encounter Benjamin and Reigert, the culprits behind a high-stakes human-trafficking ring. To expose the truth and save their daughter, they will have to risk everything...including their lives.
Starring: John Cusack, Ryan Phillippe, Rachelle Lefevre, Jacki Weaver, Luis GuzmánThriller | 100% |
Crime | 30% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Don’t most internet scams require you to never actually meet the person or people doing the scamming? Isn’t that in fact the very essence of “catfishing” — if one were to meet one’s internet “acquaintances” of any type, a la Catfish itself, one might be in for a major disappointment, right? Investigative journalists like those muckrakers on 60 Minutes and its kin have even spent considerable time tracking down so-called “Nigerian princes” to expose their fraud, and Dr. Phil has a cottage industry of sorts detailing various hapless women who have fallen prey to various internet scams. And so with that thought in mind, let’s just start with one of many logical absurdities that Reclaim trots out to attempt to fashion a heartwarming story of adoption, child trafficking and (just for good measure) hostage taking and ransom demands. It isn’t much of a spoiler to detail the fact that Reclaim deals with a young American couple who have been unable to conceive and who have decided to adopt a young Haitian orphan, flying to Puerto Rico to complete the “deal”. While there, they are wined and dined (figuratively) by the internet company handling the adoption, given the little girl, and told to wait for a few days until final documentation comes through. Though there are a few needless subplots interjected seemingly to pad the running time of the film, what ultimately happens is that the little girl disappears and the couple discovers they’ve been the victims of an epic scam to part them from their hard earned cash. Really? A supposed internet company would go to those lengths, actually allowing potential victims to see and interact with the perpetrators, before delivering the death knell and moving on to their next victims? Alas, that’s just the first of several suspensions of disbelief that are required to get through Reclaim, a film that wants to decry something very abhorrent like child trafficking, but which resolutely refuses to be anything other than a really rote, undemanding thriller.
Reclaim is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. However dramatically inert the film is, from a visual standpoint it's quite enjoyable, with good use made of several nice locations like Puerto Rico. There are some oddly ragged looking establishing shots which may have been sourced from stock footage, as well as an opening that combines newsreel footage of the Haitian devastation along with faux footage containing shots of Nina, and occasional interior shots look slightly soft at times, but other than these few moments, the bulk of this presentation boasts a clean, sleek and sharp image, one filled with nicely saturated and accurate looking colors. There are no issues with compression artifacts and the image is nicely stable throughout.
Reclaim's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix gets off to a nicely robust start with the envelloping sounds of the ocean, and then continues to provide regular immersion throughout. A number of set pieces, including frantic searches and a couple of footchases, offer good opportunities for discrete placement of ambient environmental effects as well as Inon Zur's score. Dialogue is cleanly presented and the track has no issues of any kind to cause concern.
There's no doubt a riveting drama to be made about the horrors of child trafficking. Unfortunately, Reclaim wants to boil things down to a kind of pint sized version of Taken. Phillippe and Lefevre are largely believable in their roles, which is something of an accomplishment given the absurdities of the plot, but this is an exploitative piece that only pretends it's about something important. For those who are fans of the film, technical merits are very strong.
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