The 2nd Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

The 2nd Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 20, 2020

With the title "The 2nd," the filmmakers have chosen the short version over the long version, which was reportedly Die Hard on a Dime: Dorm Edition. Here's a painfully unoriginal, entirely superfluous direct-to-video Action film that brings together two hot properties from the 1990s: pretty boys Ryan Philippe (Cruel Intentions) playing the hero and Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers) playing the villain. The two square off in a battle of wills, wits, and a war of their own making with the former protecting his son and his son's girlfriend, daughter of a sitting supreme court justice, over a battle centered on a presidential race and the second amendment. Truthfully, though, the political goings-on are just narrative filler that don't really make a lick of difference in the grand scheme of things. The movie is effective enough as a mindless time waster, if watching a couple of now middle-aged young stars go at it around low-rent sets and poorly choreographed action scenes qualifies.

The mechanics around the plot are entirely disjointed, but it boils down to the story of a presidential candidate named Senator Jeffers (William Katt) who is a strong proponent for second amendment rights. Eventually, the story shifts to a band of well paid mercenaries who pose as secret service and various school employees to kidnap Erin (Lexi Simonsen), the daughter of sitting Supreme Court Justice Walton (Randy Charach). Erin and her boyfriend Sean (Jack Griffo) are finding their relationship kicking into another gear. It just so happens that Sean's father, a decorated Delta Force operator named Vic (Ryan Phillippe), is en route to pick him up and spend some much needed father-son bonding time together. On campus, with Erin and Sean the only students remaining, Vic quickly realizes that there's something suspicious about Erin's new driver (Casper Van Dien). Vic calls the driver's bluff, beginning a bloody battle of survival with several innocent lives, and the fate of a nation, hanging in the balance.

The film begins inauspiciously with a satellite special effect that looks at least 15 years out of date. It portends nothing but the notion of a cheap, low-grade film, and in that regard The 2nd does not disappoint. The entire production reflects its budget, considering the simplistic set dressing, predictable plotting, wayward writing, and pulseless performances. Most of the budget was seemingly spent on bringing Philippe and Van Dien, the latter of whom has been in the DTV game for a while now, together onto the screen. Everything else was clearly made on a shoestring, from the aforementioned visual effects to the lighting and camera work (with the number of invasive artifacts present it’s quickly clear much of the fault lies at the source; see the “video” section of the review below for more).

Narratively, it’s all the same tired stuff. These DTV Action films tend to bog themselves down with excessive exercises in pointless plotting, and this is no exception. The film has something to do with a presidential election, a supreme court justice, and the CIA stepping in one way or the other, but it’s pretty incoherent. It’s fine as a jumping off point for the action but there are too many layers and too many crisscrosses for the audience, really only in it for time killing action, to truly care. Fortunately, the movie is most steadily focused on Vic, first on his self-insertion into the story, necessary to protect his son, but it does become personal for him a while later into the story. The rest of it is just noise, not necessarily needless but needlessly lengthened with story depth that does not mesh with the cut-rate action.

The 2nd Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 2nd was not made with the budget to give it that top quality polish. The result is a rather sloppy Blu-ray, albeit one that appears true to a source that is plagued with its own internal issues. There's no shortage of aliasing, whether along the edges of a digital effect satellite seen to open the movie or along some various city overview shots. The opening Jeffers interview is slathered in both banding and macroblocking, which are sadly not exclusive to that scene but pervasive throughout the film, disrupting even the opening shootout with endlessly sloppy backgrounds. Viewers will have to deal with extreme banding in many shots throughout the film, the macroblocking a little less so but both issues are common for the duration. Black crush is at work in dark scenes, too, absorbing detail and losing any feel for nuance in exchange for overwhelming depth. But it's not all bad. While much of the movie takes place in lower light, colors as available offer good depth and intensity, particularly red blood against Vic's white t-shirt or colors seen around campus as the film begins out in the daylight. Details are solid enough, too. Facial textures offer ample clarity, as do clothes, while the various locations seen in and around the campus (dorm rooms, a "weight room" which is the saddest college weight room of all time), or even just various corridors and other pedestrian interiors all reveal the production design's limited scope and budget with efficient clarity. There's not a lot here to get excited about, though. What works only works well enough while the various artifacts, particularly the banding, tend to overwhelm the experience and more than negate any superficial goodness the image has on offer.

The 2nd Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

5.1 channels carry The 2nd to audio respectability. The lossless DTS-HD Master Audio encode offers little of substantial impact, reference quality, or memorable output, but it gets the job done. Music is appropriately wide and detailed, covering the stage with dominant front end stretch and balanced surround extension. Action scenes never dominate but neither do they lack in any single area. Gunshots hit with passable report and punch and the frenzied mayhem of various shootouts and hand-to-hand battles (particularly one taking place in the aforementioned weight room) deliver pleasing depth and clarity as weights are smacked off faces. Light environmental effects prove noncritical but adequately inserted as necessary. Dialogue is clear and remains grounded in the front-center channel.

The 2nd Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The 2nd contains no supplemental content. No DVD or digital copes are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

The 2nd Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The 2nd hints at a sequel, at least insofar as the movie ends when a new sequence is seemingly just beginning. If there is another, it'll hopefully work in a more straightforward plot and do away with the extra noise. Chances of a sequel are near zero anyway, but if nothing else Philippe has proven himself to be a capable action star in the DTV field. Opposite, Van Dien makes for a serviceable villain, and in their brief screen time together the two share solid chemistry. They are easily the best that The 2nd has to offer; everything else is just filler, in one way or another. Universal's featureless Blu-ray delivers mostly poor video (granted much of it probably traces back to the source) and mediocre audio. Skip it.