A heart-pounding thriller with mind-numbing dialog and logic.
There are other problems, as well. It's exciting watching Eddie elude the entire Chicago police force and FBI in a Michigan Avenue chase and drawbridge acrobatics, but about as believable as his being able to thrash the bad guys in chase/fight sequences at Chicago's famed Field Museum and Museum of Science and Industry. Mostly, though, logic fails if you consider how quickly this on-foot fugitive is able to go from place to place, and how, like James Bond, he's not only able to locate a top-secret parallel research facility that factors prominently in this thriller, but that he's also able to enter undetected and infiltrate the ranks of ID-badge-wearing scientists and workers. Some of the scientific landscape even recalls the laboratory of Dr. No.
Is it exciting? Yes. Maybe it's a Pavlovian reaction, but when you see people being chased almost constantly throughout a film, your heart rate increases and the blood starts pumping faster. You'll have that reaction watching "Chain Reaction." Reeves received a Razzie nomination for Worst Actor, but I'm not sure that's fair. The dialog doesn't offer any of the actors much of a chance to create characters of any depth. All of the actors are caught up in a chain reaction of action scenes, with barely enough time to pat their back pockets to make sure they've still got their SAG cards.
Video:
Curiously, the specs on the back of the box and all the press materials list the aspect ratio at 2.35:1, but the picture is stretched to fill out the entire 16x9 screen of a widescreen television. No bars top or bottom. I can't begin to speculate on what's going on, but there's no distortion of images around the edges. Without comparing it to the standard disc (which I don't have) I can't really tell whether there's any detail lost. As for quality, the 1080p HD picture (transferred using MPEG-2 technology at 19MBPS onto a 25GB single-layer disc) looks pretty good. As always, the greatest detail appears in close-ups, with Morgan Freeman's face looking as good on-camera as I've seen it. There are a lot of soft-focus backgrounds and quite a bit of variation in color saturation from scene to scene, but overall the picture is very good.
Audio:
Bam! Pow! KaBLEWY! Boy, the explosions sound great on this English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio. If you've got your speakers set up right and you get good sound dynamics in your TV room, "Chain Reaction" effectively spreads the sound across the room. The movement of sound from one side of the room to the other is especially well-done. Additional options are a French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby 2.0 Surround, with subtitles in English (CC), Spanish, Cantonese, and Korean.
Extras:
Not counting the theatrical trailer, the only bonus feature is a pop-up trivia track. I have to admit that I almost prefer the trivia tracks to commentaries, though. This one has a nice blend of location-related facts and behind-the-scenes trivia. Since the film was shot entirely on location in Chicago and Wisconsin, there's plenty to say. I mean, "pop up."
Bottom Line:
"Chain Reaction" is a heart-pounding thriller with mind-numbing dialog and logic. Given all that the two fugitives go through together, there's precious little chemistry between Reeves and Weisz, and Freeman seems wasted in a role that calls for a wooden performance. But you have to give Davis credit. He knows how to milk those action and chase scenes for all they're worth. Because of that, and despite all the flaws, "Chain Reaction" is still entertaining.
Is it exciting? Yes. Maybe it's a Pavlovian reaction, but when you see people being chased almost constantly throughout a film, your heart rate increases and the blood starts pumping faster. You'll have that reaction watching "Chain Reaction." Reeves received a Razzie nomination for Worst Actor, but I'm not sure that's fair. The dialog doesn't offer any of the actors much of a chance to create characters of any depth. All of the actors are caught up in a chain reaction of action scenes, with barely enough time to pat their back pockets to make sure they've still got their SAG cards.
Video:
Curiously, the specs on the back of the box and all the press materials list the aspect ratio at 2.35:1, but the picture is stretched to fill out the entire 16x9 screen of a widescreen television. No bars top or bottom. I can't begin to speculate on what's going on, but there's no distortion of images around the edges. Without comparing it to the standard disc (which I don't have) I can't really tell whether there's any detail lost. As for quality, the 1080p HD picture (transferred using MPEG-2 technology at 19MBPS onto a 25GB single-layer disc) looks pretty good. As always, the greatest detail appears in close-ups, with Morgan Freeman's face looking as good on-camera as I've seen it. There are a lot of soft-focus backgrounds and quite a bit of variation in color saturation from scene to scene, but overall the picture is very good.
Audio:
Bam! Pow! KaBLEWY! Boy, the explosions sound great on this English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio. If you've got your speakers set up right and you get good sound dynamics in your TV room, "Chain Reaction" effectively spreads the sound across the room. The movement of sound from one side of the room to the other is especially well-done. Additional options are a French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby 2.0 Surround, with subtitles in English (CC), Spanish, Cantonese, and Korean.
Extras:
Not counting the theatrical trailer, the only bonus feature is a pop-up trivia track. I have to admit that I almost prefer the trivia tracks to commentaries, though. This one has a nice blend of location-related facts and behind-the-scenes trivia. Since the film was shot entirely on location in Chicago and Wisconsin, there's plenty to say. I mean, "pop up."
Bottom Line:
"Chain Reaction" is a heart-pounding thriller with mind-numbing dialog and logic. Given all that the two fugitives go through together, there's precious little chemistry between Reeves and Weisz, and Freeman seems wasted in a role that calls for a wooden performance. But you have to give Davis credit. He knows how to milk those action and chase scenes for all they're worth. Because of that, and despite all the flaws, "Chain Reaction" is still entertaining.
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[release]20569[/release]