6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
Selected to participate in a two-week research project, a group of men agree to play inmates and guards in a simulation of life within a state prison. But as the 24 volunteers slip deeper into their roles, power corrupts, fears escalate and the experiment spins horribly out of control.
Starring: Adrien Brody, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Grace, Forest Whitaker, Fisher StevensThriller | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
BD-Live
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
I cant help but think that this says something about us.
It doesn't get much more metaphysically base than a study of the human condition. Put a bunch of otherwise normal guys in a box, call a few of them
prison guards and dub the rest inmates, lay down a few ground rules, and see what happens. That's the basic premise for The Experiment, a
picture written for the screen and directed by Paul Scheuring, the man behind the hit FOX television series "Prison Break." It would stand to reason, then, that even if "Prison Break" was a
solid but at times unstable series, Scheuring would bring to The Experiment -- another venture centered around the dynamics of prison life --
a pedigree that would suggest a strength tailor-made for transitioning Mario Giordano's novel from page to screen. Unfortunately, such is not the case.
Despite an interesting premise and
a relatively strong cast, Scheuring's picture lacks much resonance, feels completely phony, and was ultimately relegated to straight-to-video purgatory
where it debuts as a
featureless Blu-ray disc from Sony Pictures.
Don't forget to flush.
The Experiment features a glossy and bland but nevertheless high quality 1080p Blu-ray transfer. Sony's image is infinitely clear, clean, and highly detailed. Grain is practically invisible at normal viewing distances but the image doesn't suggest noise reduction. Detail remains extraordinarily high throughout, with the transfer capturing every single facial feature, clothing stitch, and structural texture in the film with pinpoint accuracy. It's not a stretch to call several shots "breathtaking." This is even through the rather bland imagery that's a result of the cold, sterile, and inhospitable prison interiors where bright colors are few and far between and the screen is continuously dominated by shades of gray and blue. The picture's bookend exterior scenes do feature a far more vibrant color palette with green foliage in particular appearing very well-rendered. Flesh tones appear spot-on accurate and black levels impress throughout. The Experiment's Blu-ray transfer does feature slight background banding and minor blocking. It's not the most visually stimulating image on the market by its very nature, but Sony's latest transfer does appear very strong and accurate in its depiction of Paul Scheuring's director-intended visual scheme.
The Experiment arrives on Blu-ray with the obligatory DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack that's, yes, of a typically Sony high quality. Even as the opening logos come on screen one after another, both the potent and haunting low end and sheer sense of space the track engenders impresses a great deal. Not even more than a few seconds in and already the track is solidifying itself as a high quality listen. Fortunately, the track never stumbles. While it's perhaps a bit too loud at calibrated reference volume as things get underway, the track quickly finds a more appropriate balance and tones things down in the first act that serves as an introduction to the characters and the experiment in which they're about to participate. Here, the track captures some nicely-realized nuances, including both light and heavy environmental atmospherics heard during a war protest scene and the tinny sound of an off-to-the-side old radio or phonograph playing a decades-old tune inside Travis' nursing home. Once the action switches to the prison, the track continues to churn out a spacious and powerful feel. Bass is heavy at several junctures -- enough to literally shake the ribcage -- while music enjoys precise spacing and power across the front with a noticeable back channel support element. The track features all kinds of distinct surround sound activity, whether slamming doors, screams, or echoing voices that naturally carry through the listening area beyond the confines of the center channel. All told, The Experiment features a high quality lossless soundtrack that puts many others to shame; it's too bad the movie it accompanies isn't its equal.
The Experiment features only BD-Live functionality; an advertisement for "Sony 3D World;" and 1080p trailers for 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, Game of Death, Harry Brown, The Secret in Their Eyes, "The Pillars of the Earth."
The Experiment starts out promisingly enough. It boasts a director with a solid foundation in the Prison genre, a few quality actors, a strong premise, and an engaging opening act. Unfortunately, it's all downhill and, worse yet, dishonest from there. Though Director Paul Scheuring shows some technical proficiency -- The Experiment is a well-made movie and at times engaging at a basic visual and aural level -- his picture never finds what should be a far greater moral, metaphysical, spiritual, and personal resonance. The story plays out with such a brazen disregard for anything but its own agenda -- which seems built around needless violence meant to show the decline of man under pressurized environments situated around a contrived power structure -- that one can't help but leave the picture angry not for the work of the actors, the look of the movie, or anything like that, but for the sheer dishonesty of the whole thing. Maybe The Experiment is grounded in some actual scientific data that suggests man will devolve to this level after only a few hours, but then again, aren't prisons and their guards the world over generally free of this level of devolution and nastiness? If the picture's point is otherwise, it utterly failed to make it. Sony's featureless Blu-ray release of The Experiment does contain rather strong video and audio presentations. Prison movie fans might want to give this one a rental; otherwise, the recommendation here is to leave it be.
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Experiment Killing Room
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