Cleanskin (2012)

Movie: 3.5/5
Video: 3.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 3/5
Overall: 4/5

The War On Terror ... in England.

I was quite surprised to see how fast Cleanskin got it's release here in the United States. The British Blu-ray by the UK branch of Warner Bros. made it's release in July 2012 and we got it two months later. This was one where I had honestly thought I would have to import if I wanted to see it. Luckily, this is not the case and after doing some online searching, I scored my copy for $9.75. Cleanskin is about the war on terror in England as it deals with a young man named Ash, played by Abhin Galeya, who becomes a terrorist after being recruited one day while leaving class at the university he was attending. Sean Bean plays Ewan who was guarding a man who had a certain amount of explosives in his possession and gets killed while transporting it. Said explosives ends up in the terrorists hands and Ewan is given orders by his boss, played by the great Charlotte Rampling, to eliminate the threat.

For what it is, I enjoyed it. There is one major flaw that puzzles me. Without trying to spoil it to an extant, Ash witnesses a death and his reaction to it honestly made it seem that he was not going to take the route that he takes in the film. I think Abhin Galeya gives a great performance in this film, especially with the range that he shows in this. Sean Bean does a great job playing the disgruntled hero of the film. I wish he had more screen time; however,  I will not disclose if he lives or dies, I think you should give this film a watch in order to find out. Despite the flaws, it's a good action film for a small independent British production. 3.5/5.

Video: 3.5/5
Ok, the movie is shot on 35mm film. At one scene in the first twenty minutes or so, there's some excessive print damage going on in a shot. Also, there seems to be something a little off in the video; and upon watching the bonus material, I realized what it was. In the making of, they said that the 35mm was then transferred over to HD tape. HD tape only has a limited range in what it can offer. Certainly not full 1080p, but you can get 1080i out of it. It sounds rather barbaric in a way that they didn't have this transferred over by a datacine to a digital file to edit it on, especially since this film was shot in 2011 and released in 2012. But, if you sit back a distance from it, it does look nice and clean, but up close, something looks off on it. It's not as bad as I make it out to be, but still. Video scores a 3.5/5.

Audio: 5/5
Entertainment One has given us two audio options for Cleanskin; 5.1 Dolby Digital and 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio. For what it is, the 5.1 DD track is average. Why they decided to put this audio track on the disc, I don't know why. It could have saved them a few hundred MBs in data. The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track sounds great. Fight scenes sound exceptional. Sean Bean as Ewan growling his lines in a pub scene sound like you are right there. Audio scores a 5/5.

Extras: 3/5
We only have two main extras included on the disc. We have a trailer and the Making of. If you have seen the British trailer, it's essentially that. But, the logos have been switched out on it as Warner Bros does not have U.S. rights to this film, it was changed to the name of the British production company's name in those few seconds of screen time. But, it is the British none the less. Then we have a 20 minute Making Of; and it's pretty informative on the whole production process. Sean Bean has a lot of input during this and it's great to hear his thoughts on the film. Several of the other actors involved give their take on the film. Other than that, there's a few trailers that play before we get to the menu; off the top of my head we have Iron Sky and Cosmopolis. Extras score a 3/5.

Overall: 4/5
Entertainment One has given us a quality release of the film. They also seem to be picking up some of the obscure Sean Bean stuff like The Lost Future and Age of Heroes. I do look forward to getting the Blu-rays of those titles, however, Lost Future is only out in like France on Blu-ray. So, I'll probably have to import that one. I can recommend Cleanskin if you can get it around $10 to $15; it is a good action flick despite some flaws. 4/5.