Blu-ray Movie Reviews

One hundred million dollars worth of confiscated heroin has just been jacked from police custody. Once the career bust of Detective Mike Lowery and Marcus Burnett, the missing drugs now threaten to shutdown the narcotics division of the Miami Police Department. When the drug investigation turns deadly, the murderers kidnap the only witness, a beautiful police informant and close friend of the boys, which makes things get personal!

Michael Bay’s freshman film effort makes the leap to Blu-ray. The film has gotten its fare share of criticism but I always found it pretty fun. The MTV cut style and over stylized presentation had a lot of sizzle on its initial release although I don’t think the film holds up quite as well today as it did in the mid nineties. I was hoping we would see the sequel get released alongside this one as I always felt it was a far better and more entertaining film. Hopefully the wait won’t be too long.

Everything this film has going against it has more to do with its age than the quality of the Blu-ray encode. The film always had a slightly washed out appearance and the over use of filters always gave it a dark appearance. Fine detail is a bit disappointing and the film has a rather soft focus to it. Colors are also a tad muted by today’s standards. It still looks considerably better than the previous DVD releases I’ve seen, but a bit short of the best this format has to offer. The DTS-HD Master Audio mix is quite good, but again shows its age. Dynamic range is decent and they really tried to open up the soundstage as much as possible, but the sound design is a bit dated and most of the sound effects come off a bit canned. The spatial design does add a lot to the surround soundstage and imaging is respectable. Deep bass extension isn’t bad, but sounds a bit loose from time to time.

Extras include a feature commentary with Bay and a documentary on the film’s production and popularity. You also get a mix of music videos and Sony’s interactive fact feature that allows you to get more info on the cast and crew during the film.

Will Smith started his career here and so did Michael Bay. The film is entertaining, but shows its age. Fans of the film will be happy with the Blu-ray release, but it falls short of the upper tier of A/V presentations.