Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie Review

Cuba on Fire.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 22, 2011

To make Holy.

Sacrifice is a movie that's on the right track but that sometimes gets turned around and heads in the wrong direction. It's a movie with a good story to tell but not quite the technical expertise or the quality of script to pull it off at a higher level of excellence. It's a movie that commands one's attention but just as often pulls its audience out of the story thanks to heavy-handed direction and a feeling that it's trying oh so hard to be the grittiest of the gritty drug-world movies. Its hero is a man made from the exact same stuff that cinema has used on many occasions to construct dark, troubled characters in search of personal redemption both in the professional world and from within, healing a tattered soul first by turning to the bottle and then by putting it all on the line in the face of unspeakable evil to save an innocent life and make the world a slightly better place. There's nothing new in Sacrifice; it's an edgy but nevertheless sometimes dull picture that lacks a refined feel and a superior flow, but genre fans should nevertheless enjoy what is a fairly hard-hitting story and a few fine performances, even if the positives are sometimes overshadowed not by an glaring negatives, but by that sense that the movie is just trying too hard to be better than it needs to be.

Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Creasy, er, Hebron.

America's war on drugs is an unending, violent struggle, fought on street corners rather than on battlefields, but the damage is just as deadly and the war just as dangerous. For officer John Hebron (Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ticking Clock), the war has hit home. His wife and child have been murdered, and he's been reduced to a shell of his former self, wallowing in his misery by refusing to sell his home and move on with his life, all the while sinking further into the depths of alcoholism. At the same time, the war on drugs is taking its toll on a young pusher named Mike (Devon Bostick, Adoration) who's under the thumb of a devious dealer named Jade (Lara Daans). He wants to escape the violence and fear and make a better life for himself and his kid sister Angel (Arcadia Kendal). Mike seizes one of 20 statues of the virgin Mary that were imported into the United States but that are secretly made of narcotics, hoping to use it as leverage for his escape. He hides it in a church pastored by a war veteran named Father Porter (Christian Slater, Heathers) after he witnesses the church's own Mary statue destroyed by a thug. When Mike's and John's lives collide, Angel's fate will hang in the balance through a barrage of gunfire, an abundance of fear, and honorable sacrifice as just another chapter in the ongoing and unending war on drugs.

If one can look past Sacrifice's troubled editing and heavy-handed direction, a good story with well-developed characters will emerge. It's too bad that Director Damian Lee is his own worst enemy; his greatly over-excited structure gives the film an ungainly sort of feel, always on the precipice of toppling over on its own head. It's as if Lee didn't believe in the script or his actors and took it upon himself to jazz up the movie with a gritty, hard-hitting style, only to make the movie, at least from a purely technical perspective, an unmanageable mess from which it never recovers. That's too bad, really; there are some good themes in Sacrifice -- could they have been explored to a greater degree, sure -- and several ideas are strong even if the plot is relatively mundane, playing like a poor man's version of Man on Fire, a film that also centered on a washed up drunkard who takes on the task of ensuring the safety and security of a little girl in the midst of a dangerous drug war. In that case, Director Tony Scott's kinetic visuals and amped-up stylings worked in the film's favor; here, Lee's attempt at the same only manages to harm the end product. In another director's hands, Sacrifice might have been a better movie. Lee is no Tony Scott and Sacrifice is no Man on Fire, but that doesn't mean that Sacrifice is without merit.

Maybe the best part of Sacrifice is the collective performances of its cast, notably the efforts by Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Devon Bostick. Gooding, who has taken some slack in recent years for his fall from grace and emergence as a staple of the low-budget direct-to-video Action film, delivers an engaging performance that's definitely Man on Fire Denzel-light, but one that finds the essence of the character and the story quite well. There's a few times where Gooding, well, sacrifices his dignity for the sake of the picture, lacing up some ice skates in a fairly ridiculous scene where he must tackle an assailant -- maybe better to have left that one on the Sudden Death cutting room floor -- and a few more where he doesn't quite capture an honest, natural vibe of a man drinking his pains away, but he takes the part seriously enough and, when the picture gives him some strong footing on which to stand, he does all he can with the part. Christian Slater is relatively strong in a somewhat small but certainly critical and borderline memorable role as an Afghanistan veteran-turned-preacher, but Devon Bostick is the film's best as a young man struggling to escape the dangerous world of the underground drug trade and secure a brighter future for his little sister. Bostick plays the part with plenty of energy and emotion, directing both towards his character's primary task and giving a good bit of life to the urgency with which he plays the part and the importance he gives the protection of his little sister, for whom he is willing to give all for her safety and future.

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sacrifice features a decent 1080p Blu-ray transfer that's fairly typical of a low-budget HD video production. The image is expectedly flat with little life to it, but details are still commendably strong -- particularly evident in facial textures -- and colors are steady but mostly unremarkable. Black levels are quite good, maybe a bit too heavy and detrimental to finer details in especially dark shots, but never do they appear washed out or unnaturally bright. The image is very smooth with little noise but it does showcase regular bouts of banding and occasional blocking. It's not a particularly noteworthy transfer, but aside from the banding it's a fairly nice-looking image that suits the movie well.

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Sacrifice's Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack is much like its video presentation: generally effective but not particularly exciting. The picture regularly plays with a low end that's fairly loose and maybe even a little too heavy, sounding awfully crunchy and indistinct throughout. Dialogue, too, is sometimes shallow and hard to hear, notably during the hockey rink shootout near the beginning of the movie and at several other junctures, but fortunately the spoken word is, generally, quite clear and cemented in the center channel. Music enjoys a fair bit of clarity and spacing across the front channels, and atmospherics are also delivered primarily through the front three channels, giving the surronds most of the 90+ minutes off. Gunfire is a source of strength, each shot delivering a suitably punchy and punishing energy. This is a fairly raw track; it's one of those "gets the job done" listens that's about right where on would expect it to be with a movie like this.

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Sacrifice features only an assortment of previews for additional Millenium Entertainment releases, the Sacrifice trailer (1080p, 1:32), and a brief behind-the-scenes featurette (480p, 11:49) that sees cast and crew discussing the film's story, themes, and characters.

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sacrifice is a frustrating picture that's on one hand a grossly over-directed mess and on the other a picture with a good story to tell and better-than-average performances backing it up. It's perhaps best watched as something of a companion piece to/an inferior take on Man on Fire, the two films sharing somewhat similar themes, plot lines, and characters. Sacrifice should find favor with Action movie fans who approach with lessened expectations and can look past the mangled direction so as to enjoy the other core values that make Sacrifice worth a watch. Millenium's Blu-ray release of Sacrifice features fair video and audio but not much in the way of supplemental content. Recommended as a rental or a purchase at a reduced price.