5.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
A young drug dealer watches as his high-rolling life is dismantled in the wake of his cousin's murder, which sees his best friend arrested for the crime.
Starring: Chace Crawford, Grim Reaper Q., Curtis Jackson, Jeremy Allen White, Philip EttingerThriller | 100% |
Drama | 24% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
I could probably begin and end this review by stating confidently that Twelve is, bar none, the worst film director Joel Schumacher has made in his increasingly less-than-illustrious career. That’s saying something, right? I mean, this is the guy that gave us 1997’s campy, homoerotic Batman & Robin, in which the dark knight wore a rubber suit festooned with perky nipples. So, if you’re just dropping in to find out if Twelve is worth your time, I’ll save you a few minutes and tell you up front—it’s not, it’s definitely not. I wish I could leave it at that—really, this is one film that doesn’t warrant any critical discussion—but I’m obligated to least explain my wholesale dismissal of Twelve as an unwatchable, pretentiously faux-profound piece of cinematic trash. Don’t feel obligated to read on unless you’re genuinely curious about what a mess the film is.
"White" Mike
Twelve was shot using the Red One digital camera and makes the transition to Blu-ray easily, with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's richly colored and more than adequately crisp. The image is lightly stylized, with pushed contrast levels that sometimes cause blacks to overwhelm shadow detail, although this does appear to be intentional. With a few low-lit exceptions, clarity is generally refined, cleanly rendering New York's city streets and revealing detail, like the individual hairs of White Mike's three-day-old stubble, the texture of Lionel's black leather jacket, and the plush fur of Jessica's teddy bears. Skin tones veer a bit toward yellowish at times, but this is only because the picture frequently carries a warm color cast. Aside from a few brief instances of mild aliasing—most noticeable in a series of fine lines on Lionel's jacket—I didn't spot any encode issues or compression-related problems. Noisiness is kept to a minimum, there are no macroblocking troubles, and no post-processing concerns, like over-the-top edge enhancement or DNR.
The film also sports a respectable DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track that offers exactly what you'd expect from a film like this—clear dialogue reproduction, a moderate amount of immersive ambience, and music that sounds dynamic and full. While New York City's soundscape isn't brought to life as powerfully as it could have been, you'll still hear some atmospheric street noise and party clamor taking up residence in the surround channels, along with the occasional cross-channel movement, like a basketball getting kicked through the rear speakers or gunshots loudly punching holes through the space behind your head. Vocals are clean, intelligible, and perfectly balanced, with no crackles, muffling, or drop-outs, and the music has a strong presence, sometimes activating the LFE channel for low-end potency.
The sole extras on the disc are "sneak" peaks at Mirrors 2, Predators, Vampires Suck, The A-Team, and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
I thought I had my "Worst of 2010" list in order, but late contender Twelve forced me to re-shuffle my rankings three days before the new year. Thanks Twelve. Maybe Joel Schumacher's film will appeal to the same set who hang on every word from Gossip Girls, but I can't imagine many others enjoying this tale of rich kid woe. Avoid at all costs.
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