5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Two estranged sisters are forced to rob a bank in order to save their brother. But this is no ordinary bank.
Starring: James Franco, Taryn Manning, Francesca Eastwood, Scott Haze, Q'orianka KilcherHorror | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH, Dutch
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
The Vault is another FilmRise offering that, kind of like the recently reviewed Dark River, seems to be about one thing, but then kind of darts off unexpectedly into something else entirely. In the case of The Vault it’s decidedly more overt than in the case of Dark River , with what appears to be a pretty trite heist film with a hostage aspect tipping over into a frankly equally trite horror aspect when all sorts of things start going bump in the night at a basement vault in a bank that’s being robbed. The Vault also relies on a rather large heaping of intentional misdirection, to the point that even the film’s attempt at “Moishe the Explainer” moments may not actually end up explaining much, if anything. The film begins with what seems like a phone call from someone to the police informing them of a bank robbery that's in process. Before any more plot developments are doled out, I'm giving any spoiler-phobes a warning that the rest of this review will deal in some aspects that detail some of the misdirection that's at hand, so those who want to avoid such revelations are encouraged to skip down to the technical portions of the review, below.
The Vault is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual and FilmRise with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb doesn't provide much technical data, but enterprising Googlers can find a number of interesting interviews with cinematographer Andrew Shulkind, though kind of hilariously the information is at least a little variant in some of them. It sounds like Canon cameras were used for at least part of the shoot, though it also sounds like Shulkind and his team may have tweaked the sensors in order to achieve some of the low light effects that are especially prevalent in the basement sequences. With an understanding that the film is intentionally shrouded in darkness at least part of the time, detail levels are surprisingly high in the basement scenes. The "upstairs" element is understandably more consistent in terms of being able to provide fine detail simply because the lighting conditions are more "normal" seeming. Some scenes have a slightly sickly yellow color, and there are just slight dustings of noise in some of the dark material.
The Vault continues FilmRise's "learning curve" as it moves into pressed Blu-rays, with another of their releases featuring only lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes. The claustrophobic confines of much of this film perhaps make the lossy mix a bit more palatable, since aside from a few passing effects like a huge conflagration that takes out some hostages late in the film (and then another conflagration that erupts after that), the sound design here doesn't really even attempt to do anything overly showy. Despite the glut of indoor material, there's decent attention paid to discrete channelization of ambient environmental effects, and dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, FilmRise should consider upping the ante and providing lossless audio on its Blu-ray releases.
There's a sweet little suburb of Portland called Multnomah Village that has a performance venue called The Vault where my wife in fact has run a comedy show for years, and because I'm often slow on the uptake it wasn't until relatively recently I noticed that there is a huge metal vault door (always open, and usually in the dark, which is my excuse, and I'm sticking to it) leading into the bar area, vestiges of the building's former "life" as a bank. I mention my "slow on the uptake" proclivities since maybe I've missed some extremely salient information that was imparted sometime during The Vault that helps to elide what I find to be just patently illogical elements to the plot. Unfortunately even for those who aren't slow on the uptake, my hunch is The Vault will not succeed as either a heist film or a horror film. Video quality is fine, but this is another FilmRise release with only lossy audio.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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