5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 3.9 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.8 |
Revolves around Frank, an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path.
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Timothy Dalton, Steven BerkoffAction | 100% |
Thriller | 55% |
Romance | 40% |
Mystery | 7% |
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
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
BD-Live
movieIQ
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
You are the least down-to-earth person I've ever met.
What makes a movie "good?" Is it the story it tells or the people who play in it? Occasionally the answer may be other than the former -- a great
actor
might elevate a mediocre script -- but generally a movie is only worth the story it chooses to tell, and the cast, then, tends only to enhance it; think
of something like Glory as a movie built around a wonderful story made all the better by a
flawless group of performances both primary and secondary. Now consider what is often referred to as "star power;" can "stars" alone make a movie
-- independent of the
quality of their performances -- or are they little more than marketing ploys to get people into theater seats? That's a little more of a broad
question; great movies often attract great stars or discover new ones, but there does seem to be a breaking point where "stars" begin to stagnate,
their performances become a little stilted, and would-be mediocre movies still in the pre-production stages graviate towards them in hopes of driving
business, banking on faces and
names rather than quality of script. The Tourist seems like a perfect storm of almost all of the above negatives; it's a movie built around
name stars
brought in to solidify a snooze-worthy script, but if their performances are any indication, both Angelina Jolie -- fresh off a rousing success in Salt -- and the ever-dependable Johnny Depp (the Pirates of the Caribbean films) have reached a plateau. They neither
turn in praiseworthy performances nor in any way make The Tourist a better movie than its script has to offer. It's rare to see a movie with
two big name stars and from a major studio flatline as quickly as this, but The Tourist is more or less dead on arrival, a boring, pointless
picture that even two of the past decade's biggest name brands cannot save.
Touring.
True to Sony's standards, The Tourist looks fantastic on Blu-ray. The 1080p transfer offers a fine filmic image reinforced by a subtle layer of natural film grain. Fine detail is exceptional; the various Italian locations offer breathtaking beauty in the intricacy of both ornate building façades and ordinary street-level pavement. Additionally, facial textures are superb, and clothing details are hard to beat. The color palette favors something of a warm tint that accentuates reds, oranges, and yellows; flesh tones carry these same attributes. Nighttime shots reveal excellent shadow details and true, inky blacks. The image features a fair amount of depth, and clarity and sharpness are both exceptional. Additionally, the print is meticulously clean and the image is free of any troublesome banding, blockiness, or excessive edge halos. A few shots do go slightly soft, but such seem inherent to the source rather than a result of a misstep in the transfer-to-Blu-ray process. All in all, this is a top-tier transfer that's typical of Sony's usual high-quality output.
Right on the heels of its excellent video quality is The Tourist's fine lossless audio presentation. The film is built around a somewhat laid back sound design that generally leaves hard-hitting Action movie-style fare behind in favor of a more reserved, airy feel. Indeed, the film's music is light and flows naturally from the front speakers with excellent clarity from the top down. Background ambience is limited but effective; whether random radio chatter as heard in the spy van following Elise as the film opens or various city-specific nuances, the track does well to integrate subtle effects to enhance the film's mood. The surround channels aren't actively engaged, but they do spit out the occasional discrete effect and sometimes chime in to help carry heavier sound effects, like an idling jet engine or, later in the film, a few gunshots and an explosion. Dialogue is the track's primary element, and Sony's DTS presentation handles it without flaw. Much like the movie it accompanies, this lossless soundtrack is fairly plain and not at all noteworthy, but it still handles every element with ease.
The Tourist features an audio commentary track, several featurettes, an alternate opening animated sequence, and an outtake reel.
Unfortunately, "star power" wasn't enough to save The Tourist from its own lethargy. Neither Angelina Jolie nor Johnny Depp manages to find the spark they usually ignite, but given how slow to develop the movie may be and given that even as it does develop there's very little of note going on, one can hardly lay all the blame at their feet. The Tourist looks good and manages a halfway surprising twist at the end, but it's miserably paced (that tends to happen when the plot has nowhere to go) and decidedly bland with nothing even resembling excitement and certainly not enough drama or suspense to cover up the lack of action. It really does come down to quality of script; even the best actors, generally, can't save a dull story, and movies like The Tourist prove critical in understanding the differences between "strong performers" and "stars." They're not always mutually exclusive, but in The Tourist, both stars fizzle into the void that is a black hole of a script. Fortunately, Sony's Blu-ray release of The Tourist does offer sparkling video, fine audio, and a nice array of extras. Worth a rental for those who just have to see it.
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