5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, a wild card CIA agent joins forces with three international agents on a lethal mission to retrieve it, while staying a step ahead of a mysterious woman who's tracking their every move.
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'oThriller | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
The 355 currently heads the pack to be nominated for, and win, the award most bland, generic, and inconsequential film of the year. Here's a picture with a decidedly stellar cast but a decidedly not-so-stellar story. Here's a film with decent choreography but underwhelming characterization. Here's a film that runs two hours long yet has not even two seconds of originality to it. Here's a film that just can't excite any part of the movie watching senses. Director Simon Kinberg (Dark Phoenix), who co-wrote the screenplay with Theresa Rebeck (Harriet the Spy), sputters about as he tries to mask the film's narrative, character, and structural shortcomings with action, which never differentiates itself from so many other likeminded pictures. In short: this is an entirely passable time waster, but audiences shouldn't expect it to rock their world, engage their brain, or stir their movie watching response in any way, shape, or form.
This is a topflight 1080p transfer from Universal. The film was digitally sourced, and the resultant picture is remarkably clean, colorful, and efficient, pushing the Blu-ray format to its very limits. The image sparkles with unmatched clarity and definition, showcasing wonderful facial textures which reveal lines, pores, and scruff with precision definition. Clothes are razor sharp as well; military type uniforms seen in the opening moments in Bogota enjoy tactile definition that reaches high-definition zenith in close-up. Every shot is beyond clear, every detail is perfectly revealed; the picture could not be sharper, cleaner, and more stable at 1080p. Colors are rich and vivid; everything from hair, eyes, clothes, and location details pop with expressive color depth, all of them dialed into a very neutral temperature and natural contrast. Whites are beautiful, blacks are perfect, and the image suffers from no discernible source shortcomings, like noise, and no encode blemishes, like macroblocking. Blu-ray does not get any better than this.
Like the astonishing video presentation, this DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is a wonderful example of modern audio engineering. The presentation plays as big as the configuration allows, offering swarming sound effects that engage throughout the stage in precision harmony. Gunfire in the opening minutes is rich and impactful with hard-hitting depth and plenty of surround information for both point of origin and point of impact. Certainly, this description holds through the many examples of gunplay throughout the film. Chase scenes, too, spring to life with chaotic din and full surround activity to draw the listener into the moment. Musical definition is superior as well, playing with remarkable lifelike orchestral clarity. Width is wonderful, too, and surround engagement is very well balanced in support of music. The subwoofer chimes in to add critical depth to music, as well as action, and proves to be the final finishing touch on every bit of high yield sonic activity. Lesser sonic elements, like crowd din and other ambient effects, are perfectly balanced within the larger whole. Finally, dialogue is clear and balanced as it plays from a stable front-center location.
This Blu-ray release of The 355 contains five featurettes and deleted scenes. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy
code
are included with purchase. This release ships with an embossed slipcover.
Worse films than The 355 have been released in the last year, but few, if any, prove so inconsequentially dull and rote. Despite a solid cast, the film lives only to regurgitate content done countless times before, and often better, with no discernible reason to exist. It brings nothing new to the genre and offers zero reason for audiences to buy a ticket, never mind care or become involved in the trite story advanced by generic motive and populated with forgettable characters. Universal's Blu-ray does deliver reference video and audio. A few extras are included. Skip it.
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