Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Super Hybrid Blu-ray Movie Review

Super Boring.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 19, 2011

There's something seriously weird about this car.

A "Creature Feature" in the tradition of "Nothing Even Worthy of Being Mentioned in the Same Sentence," 2010's Super Hybrid rolls onto video with little fanfare and hardly any anticipation amongst even hardcore cinephiles. The picture aims to please gear heads and Horror hounds both by combining the two into a single feature that showcases a car with a secret and that's on the rampage against a group of auto mechanics. Yes, good 'ole grease monkey Joe (or Jane, in this case, can't have a Horror movie without a female hero) is the new 21st century breed of Chill movie champion, getting his hands dirty both under the hood and in the name of truth, justice, and the American way. Super Hybrid isn't quite that generic -- actually, it might have been a bit more fun had it played fast and loose rather than taken itself so seriously -- but whatever originality it has to offer is wasted under the weight of a bad script, subpar acting, lame special effects, an awfully dark setting, and a terrible pace. Steven Spielberg got more mileage out of Duel and Stephen King got more fuel economy from Christine in a shot and a page, respectively, than Super Hybrid earns through its entire runtime.

Better than the Prius!

Tilda (Shannon Beckner) knows everything about cars. Everything. She knows every model, every year, what's under the hood, and dimensions down to the millimeter. But she's never seen anything like the car in the Chicago garage in which she works. To the untrained eye, it looks like any other generic beater decades-old car. To the touch, however, it's immediately striking as different. It doesn't feel metallic, and something about it doesn't sit well with the crew. Unfortunately, hardcore team boss Ray (Oded Fehr) doesn't want to hear about it. When one of the mechanics goes missing in the vast and terribly dark concrete facility, the team gets testy. It doesn't take them long to realize that the car is somehow alive, able to sense its victims and kill at will. The best hypothesis the gang can come up with is that the car is actually some kind of radically evolved mutating creature that can imitate anything it wants. In essence, they believe it to be a shapeshifter. Can they discover the true identity of this killing machine and, far more importantly, figure out how to stop it before it kills the entire crew?

Super Hybrid isn't atrocious in the tradition of SyFy and Asylum, but this one nevertheless lingers pretty close to the bottom of the barrel. The picture has an admittedly good hook and begins interestingly enough, but the plot developments are weak, the revelations uninspired, and the atmosphere poor. It's the latter, however, that might be the picture's worst enemy. For whatever reason, Director Eric Valette (One Missed Call) has mistaken darkness for atmosphere. The picture's setting couldn't be any less conducive to providing anything of value in terms of ambience. It's basically a dark concrete box inside of which people and cars move about. It's supposedly sufficiently cavernous and twisty enough to provide some cover for the poor souls stuck in this movie to hide from the car -- it's almost too dark to really tell -- but there's no character to the location whatsoever. The plot and characters certainly aren't strong enough to hide or make of no importance the dullness of the set, either. A picture like this should command a setting that's a bit spicier in some way -- particularly since it doesn't have anything else of value to offer -- but all this one really has are a few sparse light sources and a pit, neither of which contribute in any way to making the movie better or helping in the visualization of the characters or the enemy they're up against.

Worse, the "evil car" has no character, either. It has blood-red "car-o-vision" that's sort of like night vision paired with Predator's infrared electronic-aided mask. Oh, it also makes a squishy sound effect when "transforming." When it lurches, hurtles towards a victim, or changes shape, there's no sense of fear, anticipation, or "coolness." In fact, the only thing that's "cool" is the "Knight Rider"-inspired box art, and even that's somewhat misleading. The human characters are dull, too, unlikable and undeveloped both and played by a roster of no-names who, to their credit, aren't bad in their parts, but they do just sort of skirt along as they get dirtier, sweatier, and bloodier the longer they survive, allowing their look to do their acting for them. On the plus side, Super Hybrid is partway clever at times and serves up a halfway decent game of survival against the unknown. The characters semi-smartly manage to use their environment to their benefit to stay safe from and go on the offensive against the car, while also struggling to maintain their sanity thanks not only to the endeavor in which they find themselves embroiled, but to the personality clashes that only increase as the tension mounts. Still, it's not nearly enough to save the movie; it's a token kind gesture at best to even point it out, but mama always said that thing about saying something nice or saying nothing at all.

Super Hybrid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Super Hybrid is an insanely dark movie. Anchor Bay's 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer does all it can with the material, but much of the time there's just not a whole lot to actually see. Blacks are critical to the film, and for the most part they hold up well; there's no excess crush, and they never wash out or go gray. Fine detail ranges from adequate to quite good, at least as evidenced in those few brighter scenes, such as in the moderately well-lit garage office. Facial and clothing textures fare quite well, but the image appears a bit soft and flat on the whole. Colors are sparse but again handled well enough in the brighter scenes, perhaps best evidenced by the purple clothes the secretary wears. This digitally-shot picture sports some light banding and a touch of background noise, but is otherwise in fair shape. This isn't a substandard transfer by any means, nor is it all that great, either.

Super Hybrid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Super Hybrid rolls onto Blu-ray with a passable Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track never enjoys pinpoint clarity, instead often sounding a little mushy and harsh. Music lacks that last little bit of realism, instead coming across as somewhat artificial and flat. Heavy sound effects are slightly muddled and play as if a jumble of sound rather than a distinct element. There's a heavy rumbling low that runs in the background through much of the movie; it's a touch sloppy but handled rather well all things considered. Light atmospherics -- notably dripping water -- add a little flavor to the proceedings and emanate from anywhere and everywhere throughout the listening area. Lastly, dialogue reproduction is sound, center-focused and never really lost to contending music or effects. Much like the video, there's nothing to really love about this track, but there's nothing much to outright dislike about it, either.

Super Hybrid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Super Hybrid contains only one extra. Under the Hood of 'Super Hybrid' (1080p, 34:15) is an unnecessarily lengthy supplement that covers the entire production process of this "little movie that could," beginning with the idea, pitch, and stigma of the genre and moving on to cover the making of the many special effects, the work of Director Eric Valette, casting, character developments, shooting locales, set design, shooting in digital, working with the cars, creating the complex vehicle stunts, and more.

Super Hybrid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Super Hybrid was probably never destined to be anything but a mediocre movie in the best of hands. It's just too fundamentally unimaginative to excel, but the picture as-is doesn't even live up to its meager potential. It's hindered by a terrible atmosphere and dull characters who are grossly underdeveloped and not in the least bit sympathetic. Worst of all, there's no motive, no reason for the killings; it's the ultimate in thoughtless entertainment. To be blunt, the movie is simply boring. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of Super Hybrid features decent technical specs and one extra. Skip it.