Skiptrace Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Skiptrace Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 28, 2016

Renny Harlin hasn’t exactly had a storied career in the film industry, as might be evidenced by his five nominations for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director. Harlin at one point seemed to be on the fast track to action adventure helmer of note with films like Die Hard 2: Die Harder and Cliffhanger, and even Harlin’s early horror entry A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (available on Blu-ray as part of A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection ) received good reaction from both critics and audiences. But Harlin has never been able to consistently deliver the goods, as evidenced by some fitfully fun but flawed entries like The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and Cutthroat Island. Harlin is a director who seems to default to “bigger is better,” with no more potent example than his last at bat before Skiptrace, The Legend of Hercules 3D. That penchant for visual hyperbole can help (at least in dribs and drabs) to mask deficits in story and even acting at times, but it also tends to make many of Harlin’s films too busy for their own good. While Harlin’s proclivities toward excess are more than generously on display throughout Skiptrace, perhaps surprisingly the film doesn’t buckle under the weight of all the manic energy. A kind of mashup of buddy comedy, crime thriller and road movie a la Midnight Run, Skiptrace doesn’t have any surprises up its sleeve, but it’s generally amiable and moves at such a breakneck pace that few will probably care all that much about its narrative clichés.

Harlin’s predilection for busy camera angles is on display in the film’s opening sequence, a harried hoped for rescue by cop Bennie Chan (Jackie Chan) of his partner Yung (Eric Tsang), which culminates in Yung’s death and Yung importuning Bennie to watch over Yung’s daughter. The two had been looking for a mysterious anonymous criminal nicknamed the Matador, and in one of the film’s odd sidebars, someone strapped a whole bunch of dynamite on Yung, but Yung doesn’t actually tell Bennie who did it (one would assume it’s the Matador, and that Yung would want Bennie to know who the Matador is). One way or the other, the film is off on a well worn path already, with a cop out to avenge the death of his partner.

The film fast forwards several years to find Bennie still obsessively trying to track down the Matador, whom Bennie has come to assume is really a prominent Hong Kong business named Victor Wong (Winston Chao). Bennie and his team tail Wong to a meeting place, but a little interchange with a Doberman Pincer ends up wreaking havoc, with Bennie’s antics destroying a whole row of already kind of dilapidated canal homes. Bennie’s taciturn boss is having none of it, convinced Bennie is a madman, and tells Bennie to take a month off. Is any of this sounding familiar yet?

Meanwhile, an American con man named Connor Watts (Johnny Knoxville) is introduced, hanging upside down in some lair where he’s about to be pummeled by a bowling ball. The film then takes the rather hiccupping decision to engage in a lengthy flashback (initially narrated by Connor, another odd element) that details how this grifter ended up in such a predicament. Suffice it to say Connor’s attempts to scam a Macau casino brings him into contact with both a criminal element as well as Yung’s now grown daughter, Samantha (Fan Bingbing). Before too much longer, Bennie is on the hunt for both Samantha and Connor, ending up attempting to free Samantha from kidnappers while also using an important clue Connor (of course) has that will positively identify Wong as the Matador and finally bring him to justice.

There’s absolutely nothing unexpected that follows in the wake of these developments, other than some kind of bizarre locations for Bennie and Connor to maraud through as they attempt to bring everything to closure. The film is strong on slapstick and sight gags, but kind of anemic in the verbal humor territory, something that’s especially apparent since the characters are so formulaic to begin with. Harlin stages things generally very well, even if his tendency to tart up set pieces that don’t really need aggrandizing can be annoying at times.

Skiptrace Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Skiptrace is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. The IMDb lists the Red Epic as the camera utilized which was then finished at a 2K DI. The look here is sleek, smooth and generally extremely well detailed, especially when the film ventures out into bright, sunlit environments like the long stretches that take place in the desert. Here detail levels are generally very high and precise looking, and the palette looks fresh and natural. Perhaps refreshingly, the film really hasn't been color graded to within an inch of its life, and so everything from evocative nighttime shots of Hong Kong to evocative locales like Mongolia offer a naturalistic ambience and some breathtaking depth of field. Occasional digital murk creeps into a few darker scenes, as well as a couple of the (rare) graded scenes which are bathed in blue. I personally wished contrast could have been boosted a time or two (see screenshots 3 and 11), but overall things look solid. There are no issues with image instability and no compression anomalies.

Skiptrace Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Skiptrace's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix has a glut of surround activity in the film's big set pieces, with explosions, hand to hand combat and the occasional horse whinny providing lots of opportunities for discrete placement of sound effects. The sound mix is often fairly busy sounding, but things are well prioritized throughout, and there's an appealing fullness to both the midrange and (especially) the lower frequencies. Dialogue is generally clear and clean, even if Jackie's accent is a bit heavy at times. Fidelity is excellent and dynamic range very wide on this problem free track.

Skiptrace Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Director Commentary


• When Jackie Met Johnny (1080p; 5:03) offers some agreeable interview footage with the pair interspersed with snippets from the film.

Skiptrace Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you don't approach Skiptrace with any outsized expectations, it delivers pretty much what a pairing of Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville would seem to, namely basically juvenile verbal humor and lots of slapstick. The film is amiably brisk and easy to take, even if it's almost instantly forgettable. Technical merits are strong, and with expectations set properly, Skiptrace comes Recommended.