5.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.4 |
Set against the backdrop of the Pittsburgh river system, a river patrol cop is on a quest to catch a serial killer at all costs.
Starring: Bruce Willis, Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Farina, Tom Sizemore, Brion JamesCrime | 100% |
Thriller | 92% |
Action | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
French: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Psst. Pittsburgh Police.
The Cop movie lives on a road well traveled, the past several decades in particular a venerable
caravan of hopefuls, each only wanting to somehow, some way, stand out amongst the copycats.
It's practically become a genre
unto itself, and like any genre, it's got its own collection of worthwhile titles, bottom feeders, and a
plethora of selections that fall somewhere into a middle ground that's akin to a pile of football
players scratching, biting, and shoving their way to the ball. The 1993 Bruce Willis (Die Hard) outing
Striking Distance throws its weight onto the heap and emerges unscathed. A solid entry in
every regard, Striking Distance delivers a worthwhile picture that won't win any awards but
should satiate the appetite for a good all-around effort that maintains a fair level of suspense,
features an assortment of typical but never at all ridiculous action scenes, and creates a world that
is populated by several intriguing characters.
The cops that saved the fish that saved Pittsburgh.
Striking Distance veers onto Blu-ray with a satisfactory 1080p image framed inside a 1.85:1 window. This transfer delivers a good, crisp image throughout, with only the occasional hiccup or otherwise distracting shot to take away from what is, generally, a rather good film-like appearance. Striking Distance isn't slathered in film grain, but it is there in small doses. Several shots -- the film's open in particular -- appear mostly free of grain but don't appear to be digitally manipulated. Throughout the film, colors appear natural if not the slightest bit reserved, more an attribute of the film's intended look than any shortcoming of the transfer. The level of fine detail throughout the film never goes above and beyond the call of duty, but there are never any occurrences where the image falls short of delivering a suitable upgrade over typical standard definition imagery. Though not terribly sharp, Striking Distance never appears abundantly soft; only a few select scenes take on a distractingly undefined appearance. Flesh tones and blacks never fall too far out of line, save for the film's climactic scene where contrast wavers a bit and blacks take on a brighter, slightly unnatural appearance. Free of all but a few scattered artifacts, Striking Distance, on the whole, looks rather good on Blu-ray.
Striking Distance washes up on Blu-ray with an active and satisfying Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The rear speakers are exercised regularly throughout in several key areas: in support of the action, delivering discrete effects, and creating a realistic environmental ambience. A thunderstorm heard early in the film, for instance, delivers a rather good effect. The rain won't exactly drench the listening area, but it does pour to good effect across the front and with noticeable, but not completely enveloping, rear channel participation. Fortunately, the action sequences pack a good wallop. Explosions deliver the goods; they're not quite up to par with the latest in whiz-bang sound effects, but for an early 1990s, moderately-budgeted Action flick, the aggressive nature of such effects comes as a welcome surprise. Likewise, the car chase that ends the film's first act feature a plethora of entertaining effects; vehicles slam onto the ground as they roll over multiple times; they zoom through the listening area to good directional effect; and the metal-on-metal crashes play with both volume and clarity. The track delivers a fine level of atmospherics, too. One scene delivers a chirping cricket that sounds all too real, where only the pause button reveals whether in fact it's in the soundtrack or back in the corner of the room. Rounded out by flawless dialogue reproduction, Striking Distance delivers an all-around solid listen.
This Blu-ray release of Striking Distance features no film-related supplements. Only a generic BD-Live (Blu-ray profile 2.0) page and 1080p trailers for The International, Lakeview Terrace, The Da Vinci Code, Tears of the Sun, Vantage Point, and 88 Minutes are included.
Striking Distance stays within the comfortable confines of its genre but sits on one of its higher perches. Though clearly not one of the great Action films of all time, or even the greatest Bruce Willis Action picture out there, Striking Distance nevertheless manages to do everything right, the film featuring adequately developed characters, decent acting, solid direction, and an interesting plot that maintains a suitable aura of suspense. There are certainly far, far worse ways to spend the Action movie dollar; Striking Distance delivers just enough quality content to make it a worthwhile investment. Sony's Blu-ray disc delivers a consistently good 1080p picture and a strong lossless soundtrack. It's just too bad the disc lacks any film-related supplements. Still, this Blu-ray release of Striking Distance earns a recommendation when it hits a price befitting a featureless catalogue title.
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