Thirteenth Floor, The (Blu-ray)
APPROX. 100 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 1999 - MPA RATING: R
" I've seen better murder mysteries and better virtual reality movies. The Thirteenth Floor is only average.
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Could stars have helped a film like this? Maybe. They might have found a way to squeeze a little more tension and personality out of some scenes. But unless they squeezed the narrative so it squirted out in a rush instead of oozing the way it does, it wouldn't have been much of an improvement.
Video:
"The Thirteenth Floor" comes to Blu-ray on a BD-50 disc via AVC/MPEG-4 transfer, but it's not a very crisp-looking title. I've seen films that were twice as old that look better. It's a soft-looking picture, and not just in the L.A. sequences, with so many imperfections in the film itself that you have to wonder what they used for a master. Black levels are a little light, which means so is the contrast, and that's almost unforgivable for a film that purports at some point to dabble in noir. The color palette runs toward the sepia in the L.A. sequences and slightly bluish or metallic in the other "reality." Skin tones are fine, but that's the only real positive I can throw out there, because it all looks so soft and flat. "The Thirteenth Floor" is presented in 2.40:1 aspect ratio.
Audio:
The audio is a little better, but not anything remotely like what we're used to getting in Blu-ray. The featured track is a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 in either English, French, or Portuguese, with an alternate track in Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 and subtitles in English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Extras:
Thankfully (I know, it's mean to say so) there aren't a lot of extras. Apart from being BD-Live enabled, if you're into Internet dabbling of a promotional nature, all that remains is a brief music video ("Erase/Rewind" by The Cardigans) and a full-length commentary track featuring Rusnak and his production designer, Kirk M. Petruccelli. In it, all of my suspicions were confirmed: Rusnak seems to have focused all his energy not on the narrative or on scenic construction, but on the look of the film. That's the bulk of their commentary, and readers who live for behind-the-scenes anecdotes and stories about the actors won't find much entertainment value here.
Bottom Line:
I've seen better murder mysteries and better virtual reality movies. "The Thirteenth Floor" is only average.
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