For all of you action movie fans out there, here I take a look at two new releases from Lionsgate Home Entertainment that you just might be interested in: ‘Son Of A Gun’ starring Ewan McGregor and ‘Vice’ starring Thomas Jane and Bruce Willis; both now available to own (separately) on Blu-Ray and DVD. Hit the jump to check out my review of the Blu-Ray releases for both of these films.
Director: Julius Avery
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Brendan Kerkvliet, Brenton Thwaites
Release Date: Now Available on Blu-Ray & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 8/10
Disc Rating: 8/10
Plot Summary:
After breaking out of prison, Brendan Lynch (McGregor), Australia’s most notorious criminal, enlists 19-year-old JR (Thwaites) to accompany him and his crew on a gold heist that promises to deliver millions. However, as things start to go wrong, a deadly game of cat and mouse ensues.
When a young man named JR (Thwaites) is incarcerated in an Australian prison for his first time, he begins to build a loose but friendly relationship with a man named Brendan (McGregor) known throughout Australia as one of its most notorious criminals. After helping JR escape a bad situation in prison, Brendan enlists his help in breaking him and his associates out of prison upon his release, in addition to an incredibly lucrative heist. But as alliances turn and things begin to go wrong, it begins to become a question of who can be trusted and who can’t.
‘Son Of A Gun’ was directed and co-written by Julius Avery who makes his feature length directorial debut, delivering a fun, action packed Aussie action/thriller with a talented and more than capable cast including the likes of Ewan McGregor, Brenton Thwaites, Matt Nable and a number more, all of whom deliver solid performances in each of their respective roles. ‘Son Of A Gun’ is an action-packed good time from start to end that never wastes too time in one place, moving along with an impressive speed throughout a chain of events that will leave you glued to the screen from start to finish. ‘Son Of A Gun’ is a great time and well worth checking out, it definitely comes highly recommended.
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Son Of A Gun’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty solid, the colors look rich, and the numerous fast moving /action oriented sequences are consistently detailed and never suffer from any noticeable faults, looking great and holding up impressively at every point. As a whole this is a very capable high definition video presentation that should not disappoint.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This lossless soundtrack sounds pretty great as well, taking full advantage of all five available channels repeatedly. It surrounds the viewer with gunshots, helicopter noises and numerous other sound elements (mostly as a result of the action occurring on screen) that really showcases what this soundtrack is capable of, and it holds up admirably in every regard; never suffering any issues or causing dialogue to become inaudible or distorted when occurring during louder moments either.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Son Of A Gun’ includes a couple of solid bonus goodies. Included on the release is an Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Julius Avery, in addition to ‘Partners In Crime: The Making of Son of A Gun’ which runs approximately 13 minutes in length and features some behind the scenes footage along with interviews/comments with writer/director Julius Avery and more.
*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.
Film Rating: 8/10
Disc Rating: 8/10
‘Son Of A Gun’ is Now Available to own on Blu-ray & DVD from A24 & Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
Purchase your copy of the Blu-Ray on Amazon at a discounted price (while also supporting out site) by clicking here!
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Director: Brian A Miller
Cast: Thomas Jane, Bruce Willis, Ambyr Childers
Release Date: Now Available on Blu-Ray & DVD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 8/10
Plot Summary:
Julian Michaels (Willis) has designed the ultimate resort: VICE, where anything goes, and the customers can play out their wildest fantasies with artificial inhabitants who look, think and feel like humans. When an artificial (Childers) becomes self-aware and escapes, she finds herself caught in the crossfire between Julian’s mercenaries and a cop (Jane) who is hell-bent on shutting down VICE, and stopping the violence once and for all.
In the future, a place exists where you can live out your wildest fantasies with artificial inhabitants that look, feel and have emotions like any normal person, unaware even to themselves of their artificial nature, a place called ‘Vice’. But when things go wrong within Vice and an artificial (Childers) becomes self aware, subsequently escaping into the real world, the creator (Willis) must send in a team of his own personal security to reacquire her before anyone else becomes aware of what has occurred. But one cop (Jane) who wants desperately to shut down Vice for himself may just have the opportunity he’s been waiting for due to this chain of events.
Director Brian A. Miller (The Prince) does a decent job of bringing this futuristic world to life and while ‘Vice’ delivers in that regard and has some fairly entertaining action sequences (although many of them feel a bit too similar to each other), it unfortunately doesn’t have a whole lot more than that going for it. The story is intentionally dark and while it’s a fairly interesting concept, it’s played off with such dullness and lack of enthusiasm that it doesn’t ever come through as much more than a B Action movie. While it includes a few well known and talented actors such as Bruce Willis, Thomas Jane and Amber Childers, all of them (other than maybe Childers to a degree) seem to have no interest in what they’re doing and it comes through in the performances, again negatively affecting the overall experience. ‘Vice’ may be worth a watch if you catch it playing on TV, but it’s not a movie I would recommend or go out of my way to check out.
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Vice’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.40:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation here looks absolutely fantastic, representing this futuristic world with beautiful clarity and rich detail. The futuristic scenery along with every other element down to the edges of the frame look fantastic at every point and no faults whether small or large could be found within on my end. This is a top notch high definition video presentation and also probably the most impressive aspect of the release.
AUDIO:
The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This lossless multichannel soundtrack holds up quite well itself, utilizing the surround channels regularly during both the action scenes and the tamer moments, surrounding the viewer with everything from gunshots, debris, to simple natural or machine-oriented noises, while never causing any of the dialogue occurring simultaneously to become negatively affected in any way. Overall, this is fairly active and very solid 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Vice’ includes a pretty decent collection of bonus goodies. Included on the release is an Audio Commentary track with Director Brian A. Miller and Actors Ambyr Childers and Bryan Greenberg. Also included is a ‘Behind the Scenes of Vice’ Featurette that runs just shy of 13 minutes in length and includes interviews with the cast and crew along with behind the scenes footage from the film. We are also treated to the movies Trailer and Interviews with Cast and Crew which features (separately selectable) interviews with: Brian A. Miller (Director), Thomas Jane, Ambyr Childers, Bryan Greenberg, Johnathon Schaech and writers Andre Fabrizio and Jeremy Passmore.
