The Rover [Blu-Ray]
Director: David Michôd
Cast: Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson
Release Date: Now Available on Blu-Ray & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 10/10
Disc Rating: 8.5/10
Plot Summary:
Ten years after a global economic collapse, a cold-blooded drifter traverses the scorched Australian outback on a mission to track down the men who stole his last remaining possession – his car. When he crosses paths with a badly wounded member of the gang, he takes the vulnerable, naïve young man along as his unwitting accomplice.
‘The Rover’ takes place in Australia, ten years after a horrible western economic collapse and follows one loner as he navigates the wastelands of the Australian roads in the attempt of getting back the only thing that matters to him; his car which three desperate thugs have stolen while he was getting a drink nearby. When the men refuse to relinquish his car and leave him unconscious in the dirt, he by happenstance comes into contact with the injured brother of one of the men. After getting suitable medical treatment for the man, the loner continues on his quest to get his car back and with the brother in tow as a captive they make their way in search of the men and his car.
David Michôd does an absolutely stellar job in the role of director (and co-writer) and it’s quite obvious that ‘The Rover’ is handled and guided with care in every single frame of its runtime. The perfect framing, coloring and every other aspect that compliments this spectacular film is boosted tenfold by phenomenal performances by both Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson. While both actors are unquestionably at their best here, Robert Pattinson steals the film with what just might be the best performance I’ve seen so far this year.
Anyone who can appreciate the beauty and originality in cinema will without question need to make ‘The Rover’ a priority. This truly marvelous, emotional and gorgeous film is easily one of the best films of the year and delivers in every way from start to finish. It’s not only a lot of fun; it’s heartwarming, heartbreaking, hilarious and intense from one moment to the next. This is one of those rare examples of filmmaking that perfectly showcases that movies may be in a repetitive funk in many ways with the large number of reboots, remakes and the like, but the art of unique, original and masterful filmmaking is surely nowhere near dead, ‘The Rover’ being a perfect example of that fact.
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘The Rover’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks marvelous, always smooth, and detailed and the films frequently colorful and downright beautiful moments couldn’t look any better than they do here. No notable faults were noticeable on my end; a top notch high definition video presentation.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack which sounds pretty fantastic itself. This lossless multichannel soundtrack perfectly captures and portrays the quieter and more emotional moments with an eerie calm, then will jump to gun shots ricocheting throughout all five channels a moment later, always handling the transition impressively. This is definitely a solid DTS-HD MA 5.1 track overall and should leave most folks quite satisfied.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘The Rover’ only includes one extra, but rest assured it’s a very worthwhile and notable extra. Included is a featurette titled ‘Something Elemental: Making The Rover’ which provides an in depth look at the making of the film that fans will certainly want to make sure and check out.
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.
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