Blu-ray Movie Reviews

While on a romantic retreat in Sweden, master assassin and gunsmith Jack (George Clooney) barely escapes with this life but his lover isn't so fortunate. Emotionally scarred from the experience, he retreats to the Italian countryside and accepts one last assignment from his handler to construct a deadly weapon for a mysterious contact. The slow-paced country lifestyle starts to grow on him as he becomes friends with a local priest and falls in love with a beautiful woman, but can he escape his past and forge a better future?

My wife and I are both George Clooney fans and I was really looking forward to watching this. While it isn't a bad film, per se, its measured pacing tried my patience and I couldn't form an emotional connection to the main characters, especially Clooney.

Video Highlights

• VC-1/1080p encode on a BD-50 disc
• Intentionally bland color palette
• Excellent find object detail
• Deep blacks

Audio Highlights

• DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack
• Very low noise floor
• Dialog-intensive track
• Lots of atmosphere

The video presentation is nearly perfect, especially the exterior shots in the Italian countryside, but the audio track is very subdued and other than the occasional gunshot it won't test the prowess of your system.

Bonus Materials

• Deleted Scenes (5 minutes)
• Journey to Redemption: The Making of The American
• Feature Commentary with director Anton Corbijn
• Digital Copy
• BD-Live enabled with pocket BLU app

Despite the beautiful cinematography I couldn't get into this one. Maybe I was too tired at the time, but its slow pace nearly put me to sleep. The video presentation is quite good and is worth a rental, but I doubt many would want to watch this more than once.

Release Date: December 28, 2010
Studio: Universal

Movie: 6/10
Picture: 9/10
Sound: 8/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-93 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Integra DTC-80.2 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Belkin PVA-PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics