Way of War (2008)

Movie: 2.5/5
Video: 4.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: .5/5
Overall: 3/5

"A Decent Straight-to-Video Movie with a Cop Out Ending."

I never understood what happened to Cuba Gooding Jr's career. Who did he piss off that he's now in the straight-to-video bin with Jean Claude Van-Damme, Steven Seagal, Dolph Lundgren, and Chuck Norris? With being in some nominated and highly praised films like "Jerry Maguire", "As Good as it Gets", and "Radio"; what happened? I would see trailers here and there for his straight-to-video stuff and never got around to seeing any of them, until now...

"Way of War" is a 2008 action film with Cuba playing David, a war veteran on the run after the government kills his fiancee after David kills Osama Bin Laden. With the orders being given out by two officials high up in the White House, they are tracking David's location and are set on a collision course where someone dies.

I give the film a 2.5/5, what ruins my enjoyment of it is the cop out ending that this film has. Without spoiling it, when they all collide and it breaks loose, I expected so much more from it. Even though he has second billing in the credits, J.K. Simmons is in the movie for about five minutes and he does a good job. Clarence Williams III does a good job and is in for the last half of the film when David brings the fight to his character's shop. And for Cuba Gooding Jr, I thought he did good for what it's worth.

Video: 4.5/5

Presented in 2.35:1 and shot on film with only two instances of print damage that I caught with a few scenes with dirt popping up, I thought the transfer was pretty solid. Also, something else I caught, there's a shot of the Washington Monument where you see two seperate cars drive by, where this footage looked like hell. I don't know if this was something done later in post to be some sort of filler. The grain levels are very strong and detailed on this presentation, which is kinda surprising that this wasn't shot in High Definition since it would have been a lot cheaper. I give First Look's (Millennium Media) presentation a 4.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

Despite being listed as "5.1 Surround Sound" on the back cover, we have a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track for the film, as well as a 2.0 Dolby Digital track for the film. The audio track is pretty solid. However, you can clearly hear where the sound editors stuck in these cheesy gun shot stock audio. So, it sticks out whenever there's shootout scenes in the Middle East. I give the audio a 5/5.

Extras: .5/5

Trailers for "Way of War", "Stileto", "Sukiyaki Western Django", "Contract Killers", and "Smoke Jumpers". As mentioned on the Blu-ray for "Immortal", these are horrible quality and are possibly sourced from a VHS tape. Quality is shockingly bad. I give the extras .5/5.

Overall: 3/5

For my first ever outing of a Cuba Gooding Jr straight-to-video film, I wasn't really disappointed with it. I figured Cuba would probably pull a Steven Seagal and just act in the movie for about five minutes and have someone else dub over him like in all of his movies. And First Look Pictures, now a part of Millennium Media, gives a better presentation on this film unlike "Immortal". Considering you can get this for $5 brand new, I'd say it's worth it for the price. 3/5.

Immortal (2004)

Movie: 3/5
Video: 2.5/5
Audio: 5/5
Extras: 2.5/5
Overall: 3.5/5

"I've Seen Better."

Movie: 3/5

In Immortal, Jill (Linda Hardy) is half human, half alien who is rescued by Elma (Charlotte Rampling; Babylon A.D, Cleanskin). Elma is a scientist who is interested in her for science. Nikopool (Thomas Kretschmann; Blade II, King Kong) is awaken from a cyrogenic sleep. At the same time this happens, there's a flying pyramid in the sky with the Egyptian Gods living in it. At the same time, Horus leaves in order to take human form and takes over Nikopool's body. At the same time, the head of New York is on high alert as he learns that Nikopool has escaped from his sleep and wants him dead.

Immortal leaves more to be desired. While the visuals look great; what disappoints me is the fact that most people are CGI whereas there's about five or six people in the film are real. It kept taking me out of the film. Also, the plot was confusing as to why the head of New York wanted Nikopool dead. I was confused on that. Sin City and Casshern did it much better in terms of films that are shot on green screens. I find it funny how they caked on make up on Charlotte Rampling and made her look about twenty to thirty years younger.

I think all of the real people who are in this film and not the CGI creations did a great job in this film. I can understand CGI'ing the Egyptian Gods, but, they should have had all of the people and aliens to be either real or CGI and not both. Thomas Kretschmann, Linda Hardy, and Charlotte Rampling did a fantastic job. Kretschmann's rants and struggles against Horus are amusing. And Linda Hardy is very nice to look at. I give this movie a 3/5.

Video: 2.5/5

Considering the live action footage was all shot on 35mm, is the video quality supposed to be this bad? I think that TF1 did all the mastering in either 720 or 576 and blew it up to 1080 for their HD Master. When the opening screen came on, there's this halo around the borders of the image. Most of the image is decent, but not that strong. Close up shots of faces are detailed, but, not that strong. Transfer wise, this left me for more, shame. 2.5/5.

Audio: 5/5

First Look Pictures (Millennium Media) gives us two audio presentations on the disc; English DTS-HD MA 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 2.0 tracks. Why on Earth do studios add multiple audio tracks along with the DTS-HD MA track? However, both sounded good. I give the audio a 5/5.

Extras: 2.5/5

We have a "Special Effects Featurette" that is almost eleven minutes long. Then a "Making Of" that is a half hour long. Some of the "Special Effects Featurette" stuff that is discussed is brought up again in the "Making Of" segment. The back cover states "Immortal Theatrical Trailers", well, there's one. That's singular, not plural. Then we have trailers for; "Sukiyaki Western Django", "War Inc.", "Blood Brothers", and "Cyborg Soldier". Video quality on all of these bonus features is horrible. Especially the trailer for "Sukiyaki Western Django", it looked as if it was sourced from a VHS tape. 2.5/5.

Overall: 3.5/5

I think this film needs a remaster. For a film that's shot on 35mm and is not even ten years old yet should not look this rough. I think it has some great performances despite the jumbled plot. I got this for free and I can recommend it since you can get it for $5. I wouldn't pay more for it than that. 3.5/5.