6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Walking home with her 12-year-old daughter after midnight on the Fourth of July, Teena crosses paths with some local losers to be brutally gang raped with her daughter Bethie watching. Bethie is able to identify the rapists, but when the rapists hire a hot shot attorney who attacks Teena's character, Dromoor, a local police officer who was first on the scene when police were called, starts to take matters into his own hands.
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Anna Hutchison, Deborah Kara Unger, Don Johnson, Joshua MikelThriller | 100% |
Action | 61% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
It might be tempting to say that Vengeance: A Love Story made rather strange bedfellows out of Nicolas Cage and Joyce Carol Oates, but considering the fact that the source novella by Oates upon which this film is based in actually rather provocatively titled Rape: A Love Story, perhaps that specific terminology is also on the iffy side. That said, Vengeance: A Love Story offers a somewhat sordid tale of a single mother named Teena Maguire (Anna Hutchinson) who, along with her young daugher Bethie (Talitha Bateman), is assaulted by a gang of toughs one evening, something that leaves Teena near death and Bethie severely traumatized. This film in a way might make for an interesting double feature with the long ago and now little remembered Hammer outing Never Take Candy from a Stranger, in that both films feature a plot based at least in part on sexual predation where the resulting court case depends on the testimony of a child, in this case Bethie. The first two thirds or so of Vengeance: A Love Story chart the course of both the attack and the resulting trial, both of which involve Niagara Falls policeman John Dromoor (Nicolas Cage, sporting some really unfortunate dark black hair dye). The last third or so of the film tips over into pure revenge film territory, as Dromoor springs into action, disgusted at how a slimy attorney named Jay Kirkpatrick (Don Johnson), perhaps in cahoots with a crooked judge, is able to navigate the legal system and cast doubt on Bethie (and Teena). Dromoor decides to take things into his own hands, leading to a series of deaths of the perpetrators.
Vengeance: A Love Story is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Visual and FilmRise with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The closing credits feature a "captured by Alexa" logo, and I'm assuming that things were finished at a 2K DI. This is a perfectly competent looking presentation aside from some passing issues of banding, but the dour content and ostensible "realism" mean that there's not a lot of "wow" to the visuals. Outdoor material pops best, at least in the daytime sequence, while a couple of nighttime moments, including a big showdown at Niagara Falls, can look just slightly murky without much in the way of fine detail. The palette looks natural throughout, and there are absolutely no signs of any damage or age related wear and tear.
This is yet another Blu-ray release from MVD Visual and FilmRise which offers only lossy audio options, with Dolby Digital tracks in either 5.1 or 2.0 available. As I've repeatedly mentioned in other reviews of discs with only lossy audio, while there may be nothing inherently "wrong" with what's offered, I am still of the firm and unwavering belief that this far into this format discs should have at least one lossless audio option available. That said, the surround track on this disc does offer some nicely placed ambient environmental sounds, especially in a couple of sequences that take place next to Niagara Falls. All dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. A rather nice and at times surprisingly evocative score by Frederik Wiedmann wafts through the surround channels as well, but my hunch is it would have sounded even better given a lossless rendering.
Vengeance: A Love Story has some interesting elements, but it may ultimately be too smarmy for its own good, discarding some of Oates' perceived literary reputation in favor of more exploitative and even manipulative elements. Cage kind of coasts through the film almost zombie-like, but Hutchison and Bateman are quite good as the victimized mother and daughter. The "bad guys" are often cartoonish, which may remove some of the hoped for "realism" the film seems to be aiming for. Technical merits are okay in the video department, but this is another disc with only lossy audio, for those who are considering a purchase.
(Still not reliable for this title)
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