| Cinema Release | Blu-Ray Release | Distributor | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| None | 19/11/2008 | Sony Pictures | Ric Roman Waugh |
| Video Codec | Sound Format | OFLC Rating | Star(s) |
| AVC MPEG-4 | Dolby TrueHD 5.1 | MA15+ | Stephen Dorff |
THE MOVIE
Over the years there have been countless prison based movies. The Shawshank Redemption is probably one of the greatest movies of all time while The Green Mile, Brute Force, Natural Born Killers and Sleepers just to name a few. None though has come to deliver the brutality and realism as capture in this movie, Felon. It’s a scary prospect, but one which everyone should have a look at.
A loving family man with a promising future, Wade Porter (Stephen Dorff) suddenly loses everything when he accidentally kills the burglar who broke into his home. Convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Wade is sentenced to spend the next three years inside a maximum security facility where the rules of society no longer apply. Forced to share a cell with a notorious mass murderer (Val Kilmer) and subjected to brutal beatings orchestrated by the sadistic head prison guard (Harold Perrineau), Wade soon realizes he’s in for thefight of his life and must become the toughest “Felon” of them all if he’s to survive the block.
This movie does really move along at a very brisk pace. In the opening 20 minutes you will be introduced to the family, see the actions that Wade Porter is arrested for, the plea bargain that results in a 3 year prison sentence, and then see his dramatic bus ride to the prison. From there in in the remainder of the 105 minute movie shows Wade’s struggles to stay alive.
What really hits home about this movie is its realism. I’m not talking about the harshness of prison life (something which I couldn’t attest to in any event), but rather how a loving family man can, in a few moments of concern for his family see his whole life turned upside down. It would take some convincing to show me a better movie from Stephen Dorff and Val Kilmer is equally brilliant as are the numerous other actors playing the inmates – many of them who have been real inmates and gang members themselves..
Felon is a very violent, but ultimate realistic, look at prison life. Acting is impressive although the ‘rough’ documentary feel of filming is a little too much at times with the video quality suffering as a result. Still, don’t let that put you off bypassing this great release.
VIDEO
Visually it’s apparent that Sony Pictures may have struggled a little with this movie, perhaps due to the use of a single layer 25GB Blu-Ray disc rather then dual layer but also due to the directorial decisions to make this deliberrately look ‘rough’. Using the AVC MPEG-4 codec, and encoded at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 it’s clear that the filmmakers have gone for a gritty, documentary styled image with handheld shakey cam used throughout.
As previously mentioned the image quality of Felon on Blu-Ray is inconsistent – due to the source material. There is a lot of (deliberate) grain evident thoughout the picture and I’m not talking normal levels. This is excessive to the point of distraction at times. The image also contains some edge enhancement and black crush with finer details missing on darker objects and in darker locations.
Don’t get me wrong the Blu-Ray disc is certain to be vastly superior to the DVD release of Felon, but don’t expect a pristine, ‘Hollywood-ized’ flashy demo disc.
AUDIO
Despite coming to Blu-Ray directly rather then via the cinemas the filmmakers haven’t skimped on the audio. Felon comes to Blu-Ray with a lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track and it’s fantastic. The movie doesn’t have any big special effect ‘Hollywood’ type moments, but it does have some hard hitting fights, and some gunfire.
Being set in a prison – for the majority – the movie is very much dialogue driven and with a number of different gangs from different parts of the world there are some heavy accents, and some pretty fast talking. LFE channels are used sparingly, but the surround channels get a workout, particularly in some of the heavier fighting sequences. If there is one complaint it’s that Val Kilmer can be a little hard to understand at times, primarily to the deep gruffness of his voice. Not a technical fault but one which may cause some issues with some people.
Other languages on this disc include German and Spanish Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks as well as Czech and Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks encoded at 448kbps which is a little lower then we expected, but understandable given the number of languages on this disc.
Subtitles are provided in English and English SDH, and their accuracy seems pretty good despite the fast paced nature of the dialogue on screen at times as well as German, Spanish, Czech, Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Icelandic, Indonesian, Korean Norwegian, Portugese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Swedish and Turkish.
EXTRAS
Unfortunately there isn’t a lot in the way of extras on this disc, but that may not be surprising given the direct to Blu-Ray nature of the movie. I was a little annoyed at the Sony Pictures promotional advertisment prior to the main menu. Anwyay onto the extra(s)…
The Shark Tank: An Inside Look At Felon (13:01/HD): A great, but all too short, documentary about the making of this movie and ensuring it accurately portrays the prison system.
Trailers (12:33/HD): Trailers for Blu-Ray Disc is High Definition (ok, so not a trailer, but promo clip for the format), Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, Hancock, Zombie Strippers (only in Standard Definition, and we believe not coming to Blu-Ray in Australia in the short term), Redbelt, and Standard Operating Procedure.
OVERALL
Usually direct to DVD/Blu-Ray movies are forgettable, but Felon is one of those gems that deserves attention. If you don’t want to take the plunge and buy it outright we strongly recommend you give it a rent at the very least. Excellent.
Review By: Dave Warner
| THE MOVIE | |
| THE VIDEO | |
| THE AUDIO | |
| THE EXTRAS | |
| OVERALL |