Weaponized Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		1.5

Weaponized Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 5, 2016

Weaponized takes one page from The Manchurian Candidate and another page from Freaky Friday (and, no, that’s not a typo). The results are about as haphazard as that mashup might indicate, though not even the “medley” of some fairly disparate ideas is enough to adequately describe the cacophony of this film, one which is so ham fisted that several salient plot points don’t make much sense even after they’re explained. The film begins on July 4, 2017, when former soldier (and perhaps Black Ops member— nothing is ever very clear in this film) Kyle Norris (Tom Sizemore) is on the phone with his son when that young man perishes in a terrorist attack on the Pentagon. Some months later, a soldier named Jack Simon (Timothy Woodward, Jr. who also directed) takes out a roomful of people with an automatic rifle, despite the fact that Simon insists he knows nothing of the crime and didn’t do it. When a troubled cop (is there any other kind in a film like this?) named Walker (Johnny Messner) starts investigating, he becomes convinced there’s some kind of nefarious conspiracy going on, especially after he’s contacted by a mysterious scientist named Peterson (Mickey Rourke, sporting a band-aid across his nose which some cynics may claim points to another round of cosmetic surgery).

The almost ludicrous inability to string together plot points repeatedly hobbles Weaponized. To cite only two examples (of many): despite text cards indicating the passage of several months (almost a year in fact) since the Pentagon attack, there’s copious “news coverage” of the national day of mourning the attack engenders, and after Simon takes out a slew of folks, it’s mentioned only in passing that one of his victims was a Senator. These might not be “major” issues, but when the film exhibits the same ineptitude when it comes to the real “Moishe the explainer” moments, it’s obvious that this is one film that’s shooting blanks.

Weaponized Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Weaponized is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. For what is in essence a direct to video release, Weaponized offers a rather nice looking image, albeit one whose CGI elements look a little hokey at times (the opening "news shot" of the Pentagon going up in flames is almost comically inept). Aside from those moments, the rest of this presentation offers excellent detail levels, especially in close-ups (see screenshot 4). As tends to be the case with sci-fi tinged thrillers, there's the typical color grading going on, with blue tones once again often in evidence. No signs of compression problems or image instability were noticed in preparation for this review.

Weaponized Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

While Weaponized's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 has a chance to strut its stuff in bookending sequences that offer elements like battle, the bulk of the film plays more like a procedural, with Walker following clues to find out what exactly is going on. As such, the central section of the film tends to offer sporadic surround activity in terms of things like sound effects that help to create the "near future" ambience of the story. Dialogue (such as it is) is rendered cleanly and clearly, with no problems whatsoever.

Weaponized Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 2:34)


• Trailer (1080p; 2:14)

Weaponized Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Messner is an appealing presence here, but he's surrounded by so much other idiocy that it's largely for naught. Technical merits are generally strong for those considering a purchase.