Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

The Experiment Blu-ray Movie Review

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and in about 72 hours, no less.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 22, 2010

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.

Travis (Adrien Brody, Predators) has just lost his job at a nursing home not because of poor performance but because of statewide budget cuts. He's desperate for cash to tide him over until he lands back on his feet. He spots an advertisement asking for men to participate in a psychological experiment; for two weeks of their time the subjects will be rewarded with $14,000. It's an offer Travis can't resist, and apparently, one that plenty of other men can't ignore. Travis meets and befriends Barris (Forest Whitaker, Vantage Point), a religiously-devout individual interested in the money and completely unaware of the hell that's about to unfold before him and reshape his life. Travis, Barris, and others are selected from a much larger pool of candidates to participate in an experiment that will see the men divided into two groups, prison guards and prisoners. They're to spend two weeks alone within a prison's walls while following the traditional prison structure and inmate-guard relationship. There's but a few ground rules, but if they're broken, the experiment will terminate with none of the men receiving their monetary rewards. What begins as the guards exercising their authority by ordering pushups and other relatively mundane and mostly harmless forms of punishment turns into an all-out war as the guards devolve into power-hungry beasts absent moral compasses who see in the inmates not merely fellow human beings but disrespectful and disdainful cretins who can't go unpunished for their petty or make-believe crimes.

At-a-glance, The Experiment appears to be a slick and well-acted movie that shockingly and disturbingly strives to examine man at a very base level through a dynamic that pits those in a supposed position of authority against those who have been stripped of their civil rights and denied the proper care and treatment they've come to expect of civilized society. The Experiment does well to capture all those things, but where the movie falls apart is in its lack of emotional resonance and, worse yet, absence of believability. It's not that the story is bad, the idea behind it bogus, or the execution faulty -- Scheuring's picture is well-made and he shows promise as a film director -- it's that the movie never seems to go anywhere with what it unearths. To use parlance that might be equitable with the film, it's like a scientific experiment where the results are observed and catalogued but never analyzed or otherwise put to good use. The picture fails to find a real purpose in its violence and study of the human condition beyond graphically demonstrating what everyone knows will happen before the film even begins. The Experiment also captures but a snapshot of fictionalized humanity, and one can't help but believe the results could be and, quite possibly, would be different were a second cross-section of humanity placed within the same dynamic. What plays out seems amped up for dramatic effect, and that the men devolve so quickly within the prison dynamic and the associated power structure seems dishonest at best.

Additionally, The Experiment is bound to upset viewers thanks to its depiction of a devoutly religious man becoming unhinged and forgetful of his faith so quickly. Forest Whitaker's character is the most likable at film's start and winds up its most disdainful by film's end. He's painted as a kind and gentle soul who's quick to defend and demonstrate his faith, but after only hours on the job as a guard, his faith not only fails him, it abandons him completely, replaced with the rush that's a result of his newly-realized position of power and newfound personal confidence, both exciting him to the point of sexual arousal. That his faith and entire outlook on life changes so rapidly is the picture's most unbelievable element. Over more time and under a real scenario, sure, his change could be believable, but it comes off here as not only phony, but as a subtle attack on what the picture seems to perceive as the weakness of religion to not only carry a man through tough times, but to get him through a mesely experiment that's not even real. On the flip side, Brody's character -- a pacifist without even an inkling towards a religious viewpoint -- is painted as the film's hero, but in the filmmakers' defense his character traits fall by the wayside, too, and again in all-too-rapid fashion. Ultimately, it's the sheer phoniness of it all that destroys the picture's deeper themes. What will man do for money? What will man do with underserved and sudden power over others? Will he humiliate those below him? Will he become someone else? Will he sacrifice his beliefs and push aside his integrity? Will he kill? These are all relevant and fascinating questions that the picture asks; it's just too bad that The Experiment is too much of a fake to answer them with any kind of informed honesty.

The Experiment Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.