6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
A hard but mediocre cop is assigned to escort a prostitute into custody from Las Vegas to Phoenix, so that she can testify in a mob trial. But a lot of people are literally betting that they won't make it into town alive.
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinneyCrime | 100% |
Drama | 92% |
Thriller | 41% |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
German: Dolby Digital Mono
Japanese: Dolby Digital Mono
English SDH, French, Spanish, Japanese, German SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
On a scale of ten I'd have to give her a two, and that's only because I've never seen a one
before.
Even the best actors appear in films that don't particularly live up to the quality of the whole of
their careers. Nicolas Cage has The Wicker Man,
Kevin Bacon Hollow Man, Al Pacino
88 Minutes,
Harrison Ford Firewall, Ben Kingsley
The Love Guru, and
the list goes on. For Clint Eastwood, the Actor/Director whose career has spanned decades and
styles, one of the lower points of his career came in 1977 with The Gauntlet, a passable
but ultimately underwhelming and, quite frankly, boring Action picture that plays as sometimes
repetitive, sometimes dull, and sometimes as both. Of course, when compared to his complete
body
of work -- including The Good, the Bad, and the
Ugly, Dirty Harry,
Heartbreak Ridge, Unforgiven, In the Line of Fire,
and Million Dollar Baby, -- a
mid-1970s Action retread is bound to fall into the depths of mediocrity. Clint still gives it a go,
and delivers a suitable performance, but the rest of the film leaves much to be desired.
Tab is for sissies!
The Gauntlet travels onto Blu-ray with a decent 1080p, 2.40:1-framed transfer. Detail is decent across the board. Sandy desert terrain and rock faces, clothing, and facial detail all stand out nicely, each showcasing a fair level of texture and realism. The image remains rather sharp throughout with only a few overly soft shots, with particularly nice looking color reproduction. The disc sees a strong assortment of colors, in backgrounds and clothing in particular, and each is rendered nicely. Grain is minimal, blacks are solid, and flesh tones remain rather steady, only sometimes looking a bit too rosy. All in all, this is a solid if not slightly unspectacular transfer from Warner Brothers.
The Gauntlet fizzles onto Blu-ray with a disappointingly lackluster Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The film begins with dialogue that plays at a rather low level at reference volume and remains so throughout the film. The track runs the gauntlet straight down the center channel throughout the vast majority of the film, with just a hint of sound effects and music spilling over to the front sides. There is virtually no atmosphere to be heard, and the back channels only rarely feature a minor sound effect. Gunshots ring out with more of a whimper than a bang. Other sound effects -- cars cruising about, helicopters zooming overhead, the pumping of shotguns, and other assorted sonic goodies -- play as rather weak and uninspired. It isn't until the final minutes of the film that the track opens up when a barrage of gunfire pours out primarily from the front three channels. It's still underwhelming, but it's enough to wake up anyone lulled to sleep by what is otherwise a lackadaisical soundtrack.
This Blu-ray release attempts to run the marketing gauntlet without extras. Will it succeed, or will it die a mean and riddled death in a volley of buyer rejections?
The Gauntlet is a wholly forgettable slice of 1970s Action. It's neither all that exciting nor all that interesting. The concept is fine and the acting sufficient, but the characters are fairly flat, the pacing is sluggish, and action sequences slow and dull. In the entirety of the Clint Eastwood canon, The Gauntlet ranks as fairly low on the scale, and in the history of Action cinema, it's a completely forgettable experience. Speaking of forgettable, Warner's Blu-ray release of The Gauntlet is terribly uninspiring. Featuring decent video, a lackluster soundtrack, and no supplements (and not even a main menu), this disc is strictly for hardcore Eastwood and The Gauntlet fans only.
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