Vice Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Vice Blu-ray Movie Review

'Wilson', it ain't.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 5, 2019

There are a number of clues that Vice is not your father’s biographical motion picture. The first hint that things may be taking a raucous turn or two is the fact that the film was the brainchild of Adam McKay, a former sketch writer for Saturday Night Live who famously partnered with Will Ferrell for such online outings as Funny or Die and a series of unashamedly lowbrow comedies like Anchorman 1 & 2, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers. For those who don’t pay attention to “little deatils” like credits, there’s another eye opener in a little text prelude before the film starts where that always questionable “based on a true story” epigraph is given a 21st century update, replete with an f-bomb just for good measure. But then the film does start, and it becomes instantly obvious that McKay is definitely in “meta” mode, ping ponging fairly madly between various timelines while also offering a kind of cheeky narrative device tied to one particular character whose “connection” to Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) is not immediately apparent. By the time the film offers a "feel good" wrap up, replete with a closing credits crawl, at around the 50 minute mark (which is, for those of you who pay attention to "little details" like running times, less than half way through the film), most viewers will hopefully be hip to McKay's deconstructionist sensibilities.

Historians of presidential elections may recall that an unexpected revelation about a previously unreported DUI conviction of George W. Bush almost scuttled his campaign in the late stages of his race against Al Gore, but kind of interestingly, Vice posits a different DUI incident, a 1963 arrest of Cheney, as having provided a catharsis of sorts, or at least some pretty forceful “suggestions” from wife Lynne (Amy Adams), who told her husband to get his act together in a big hurry if he wanted to continue being married to her. Some of Cheney’s youthful indiscretions are at least mentioned here in passing, in order perhaps to at least slightly humanize a figure in the American political landscape whose very secretiveness (something referred to in that f- bomb laden prelude text) and tendency to speak in a near monotone (something addressed in the ubiquitous narration) may have led to perceptions of him being virtually robotic at times.

That very perception of Cheney, combined with the longstanding joke that he didn’t have a human heart due to his long standing battles with coronary disease (something that plays somewhat cheekily into the proceedings here as well), may well have made Cheney a staple of stand up comedy routines (as McKay himself addresses in one of the supplements). But Cheney’s unemotional mien seems to serve him well in one of the first vignettes in the film, his by the numbers response to the 9/11 attacks. As with several other moments in time relayed throughout the film, Vice returns to this epochal day as just one example of the kind of monolithic force Cheney had become in American politics, by that point in his career at least.

Now with a writer-director of McKay’s background, it’s not hard to understand why some would immediately assume that Vice comes replete with that infamous so-called “liberal bias”, and in fact McKay himself makes fun of this perception in a knock down drag out fight that is featured as a coda of sorts, with a supposed look at a focus group which has just screened the film and which devolves into name calling and worse. But I’d point to just one subplot in this film that at least momentarily puts the lie to the assertion that Vice offers only “liberal bias”, and that’s the film’s depiction of Cheney’s reaction to his daughter Mary (Alison Pill) coming out as a lesbian. Cheney comes off as the nurturing father type, letting his daughter know he loves her no matter what, while Lynne, admittedly concerned over how her daughter’s “lifestyle” will be inherently difficult, comes off as much more concerned about outside perceptions of the situation.

That said, McKay really doesn’t shy away from fairly snarky assessments of several characters who populated either or both the Nixon and (two) Bush White Houses, and there’s a final monologue of sorts given by Cheney directly to the camera (breaking the veritable fourth wall), where Cheney pretty much just lets loose and confesses he cares not one whit about anyone’s opprobrium. My “Wilson, it ain’t” deck above is a joking reference to another 20th Century Fox feature about a vaunted political figure in the American landscape. That 1944 film was a textbook example of how to present things in a dry, uninspired manner, ticking off the "greatest hits" of an iconic life in a completely rote, dare I say boring as all get out, manner. Vice may strike some as too glib by half, but it at least has some stylistic ingenuity as well as a sense of humor about itself, and no matter how you respond to it, my hunch is you probably won't think of it as boring.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf was considerably less enthused about Vice. You can read his thoughts here.

Vice Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Vice is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. This was shot on film and finished at a 4K DI, but it's important to recognize that several formats, including 8mm, 16mm and 35mm, were utilized, leading to what I have to assume is an intentionally heterogeneous look. Even some of what I'm presuming is the 35mm footage appears to have been tweaked in post, with a pretty gritty grainfield and somewhat blanched palette. The fact that McKay specifically exploits "old school" 8mm early in the film, replete with sprocket holes within the frame, seems to suggest he's subliminally aiming for a kind of nostalgic quality with the look of this piece, and this transfer supports the wide variances in clarity, detail levels and grain structure fairly effortlessly. I've tried to give some indication of the variety on display in some of the screenshots accompanying this review. There are some pretty "chunky" moments along the way, where grain looks yellowish and can even pixellate slightly. Some selected sequences of the film have a somewhat blue tint, leading to a somewhat unnatural cast to flesh tones.

Vice Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Vice has an interesting soundtrack which is well represented with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 offering on this track. Somewhat akin to the roller coaster visuals, the sound design often careens between sometimes deliberately off kilter sound effects and Nicholas Britell's interesting score, which I jokingly say sounds like Aaron Copland just coming on to mushrooms. There are a glut of almost hallucinogenic (speaking of mushrooms) moments where dialogue wafts in and out, and other Howard Hawksian moments with several people talking simultaneously, all of which is rendered with excellent fidelity and appealing spaciousness. "Quieter" scenes that feature more traditional techniques are presented with excellent clarity.

Vice Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 17:05)


• Gaming the System: The Making of Vice (1080p; 35:42) benefits from some above average interviews, as well as some fun behind the scenes footage.


• The Music of Power (1080p; 5:07) has a little production information as a prelude before offering a jettisoned musical sequence from the film (the sequence is also one of the Deleted Scenes, in a slightly different version).


• Gallery (1080p; 1:03) features either an Auto Advance or Manual Advance option. The timing is for the Auto Advance option.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:55)

Vice Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

McKay's The Big Short suggested he was attempting to move away, at least a bit, from some of the more juvenile humor that populated some of his earlier efforts. Some might argue that McKay has simply replaced "stupid" with "snark", to intermittently effective results. Vice probably tries too hard to reinvent and/or modernize the "traditional" biopic, but I personally kind of appreciated its ambition, even as I recognized it wasn't hitting the bullseye all of the time. Technical merits are top notch, and with caveats noted, Vice comes Recommended.