Blu-ray Review: Enemies Closer (2013)

Now Available to Own
   

In his third collaboration with director/cinematographer Peter Hyams (following Timecop and Sudden Death), Jean-Claude Van Damme chews fruit, kicks ass and overacts as an over-the-top psychopathic military trained French Canadian drug smuggling vegan who hates guns and will interrupt a smackdown at a moment’s notice to talk about a beloved goose named Edith Piaf or the pollution properties of cow flatulence.

No, I am not making this up.

The credit for these odd little gems and many more are attributed in the credits to screenwriters Eric Bromberg and James Bromberg and while the dialogue – like the film – needs to be seen and heard to be believed, Enemies Closer is still a VanDamme entertaining B-movie version of Cliffhanger crossed with The River Wild.

Moreover, it’s especially enjoyable if you’re the type of person who feels that Nicolas Cage is too understated in his performances and onscreen, the sole purpose of scenery is to be chewed thoroughly in the wackiest of ways by the lead actor.

For that is precisely what happens in the most off-kilter performance we’ve ever seen from Jean-Claude Van Damme who practically channels a character blend of Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet and Gary Oldman in The Professional.

Embodying him in the otherworldly entity that is the Muscles from Brussels (with what is unfortunately one of the most unfortunate hair cuts and colors we’ve ever seen on the otherwise handsome Belgian actor), Van Damme goes all in on this strange adventure you find yourself unable to stop watching no matter how crazy it gets.

And while it sounds like I’m just 100% trashing the film, honestly and rather unbelievably Enemies transcends its dozens of oddities, somehow ricocheting and rebuffing any criticism as a movie so cheesy that it becomes an addictively appetizing snack that’s hard to resist.

At least managing to build an intriguing layer of plot onto the one that simply involves villain Van Damme and his henchmen scouring the Canadian border of water and wild for their missing drug cargo that went down in the plane crash that opens the film, the screenwriters give former Navy Seal turned forest ranger Tom Everett Scott a second challenge in thwarting their plan.

Visited on the same exact night by a man with a personal military related vendetta, although Scott’s antennae about the sudden appearance of Orlando Jones’s stranger goes up, it isn’t until they’re in the midst of their own fight to the death that Scott realizes he’s facing war on two fronts.

Knowing that if they have any hope of surviving the night they have to put aside their own conflict and work together, the two men grudgingly form a temporary truce to stop Van Damme after he and his men slaughter all of the immigration and customs agents in their way, leaving Scott and Jones left to hold them at bay until the next shift arrives within the next few hours.

A tense nail-biter with expertly choreographed fight scenes that help elevate it from some of the film’s laughably odd speechmaking and a bizarre court jester style performance by Van Damme who acts like he’s a veritable cartoon villain come to life at times – complete with obligatory maniacal laughter at the end – Enemies Closer is also augmented by its briskly paced 84 minute running time.

While the natural lighting of the woods-based setting makes for a lot of darkness in the frame, I was surprised by how much tweaking I needed to do with the Blu-ray’s color settings on my otherwise stellar 240hz television to begin to make out the various levels of night, dark, shadow and light.

Boasting an ultraviolet digital HD copy and a behind-the-scenes making of featurette, the work, which was edited by the filmmaker’s son John Hyams (who has taken over helming the Universal Soldier franchise) is an always entertaining, fast-moving, if admittedly absurd piece of cinematic Van Dammage that reminds you once again what a great team JCVD makes with his Timecop director.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

Blu-ray Review: Race to Witch Mountain (2009)

Now Available to Own

Photo Slideshow

Check Out the Original Titles

Bookmark this on Delicious

Print Page




Before the film's version of the literal race to Witch Mountain began, I was fully engaged in the movie... for twenty minutes that is which can attributed to the charm of Dwayne Johnson. Formerly known as "The Rock," Johnson has proven that he has the ability to keep you watching as the only single entertaining aspect of the butchered Get Shorty sequel Be Cool and in some of his scene-stealing moments opposite Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell in Get Smart.

Additionally to his credit, he finally scored a hit with kids and parents alike in the familiarly plotted yet admirably refreshing Disney film The Game Plan which nicely switched up the tradition of the dividing line of gender in bonding rituals with the cute premise of a football player who discovers he has a young daughter.

And normally, signing on for another film with his Game Plan director Andy Fickman would've been a smart move since clearly the two work well together. Sure enough this is proven right from the start as we encounter Johnson's Jack Bruno-- a down-on-his-luck Las Vegas cab driver-- in Witch Mountain's terrific opening sequence which finds him shutttling science fiction/fantasy fans dressed as Storm Troopers and UFO believers to "a nut job convention." Yet unfortunately after endearing him to audiences, Fickman and the post-production crew bury Johnson in CGI sensory overload.

Essentially the movie is so busy racing to distract with effects that it doesn't bother investing a whole lot of time ensuring we're engaged in the race that soon follows when two adorably blonde teenage siblings (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) mysteriously appear in the backseat of Bruno's taxi.

After a series of out of this world events and escaping government agents who want to drag the teens in as living X-Files when it becomes apparent that they're not of this planet, Bruno protects the kids in his quest to deliver them safely to Witch Mountain.

Those familiar with the original Disney '70s classics will recall that-- despite growing in popularity as years have gone by--the first Mountain tales weren't overly compelling either but the major plus they offered viewers that this one doesn't was an emphasis on story over what largely feels like a film that was purely designed as a theme park ride substitute.

Furthermore it risks headaches with an overly chaotic score that sounds as though it would've worked best as a standalone composition for Disney Hall since when placed together with the action, it provides an intense enough distraction that I was reminded of that great, illogical line from Amadeus wherein Mozart's sheet music was criticized for having "too many notes." Simply put, the music is way too insistent and moreover sounds like an audio impression of an essay punctuated solely with exclamation points that exhaust us before we've even reached the halfway mark of the movie.

Yet despite the fact that Fickman's work will definitely appeal to fans of the originals for at least one viewing to spot all of the in-jokes, references, and cameos from original stars Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann, this update makes you realize that Race was not just part of the title but the tone for the piece.

Par for Disney, the Blu-ray does boast a crystal clear presentation of the movie and you won't find any complaints about the soundtrack or audio other than perhaps wanting to turn the volume lower. However, one surprise that was perhaps more magnified by the presentation on Blu-ray was in the production's over-usage of blue-screen technology.

To explain-- typically green screens have been the color of choice to use for any instances when computers or other footage will be inserted into the background and this is a practice which has actually been used to extremes in work like The Spirit(for the negative) and Sin City (for the positive). However, Fickman's decision to opt for the blue screen is curious since at times this color within the technology can create a visual blue halo effect onscreen, especially in the flesh tones and other outlines.

And when it came to Mountain, that's exactly what happened. For, without even realizing that he'd employed this technology, I began making notes while I screened the disc that referenced having trouble making out some of the darkly lit sequences. Likewise, I first wrote a full sentence complaint with a question mark regarding the blue halo effect and then began to make check marks every time this same hue showed up again wondering if it perhaps was a specific style choice or instead simply the result of the blue screen.

However, it began to appear more prominently as the group races towards the final act but again I kept thinking it could've been employed precisely to add a retro throwback feel that fit in with other devices used from the original movies including the famous replica of the Winnebago. Yet, eventually in one of the bonus features, the abundance of blue-screens was revealed and this visual decision wasn't included anywhere in the director's behind-the-scenes featurette wherein he took great pains to point out every single in-joke and intentional reference of the era.

Thus, Witch Mountain has sadly become the first Disney Blu-ray that hasn't managed to ace its visual presentation due to some clarity concerns which again ironically I would not have noticed quite so strongly in the fewer pixel DVD format... and it seems as though it was a problem that may have been in the theatrical print and apparent from the start.

Yet for those who did enjoy the film much more than I did, you'll be thrilled to learn that it's been released as one of the studio's ever-popular Combo Packs that contain not just the Blu-ray but an original DVD of the film (which indeed did hide the blue hue a bit more) as well as a digital DisneyFile copy for fans to download onto their Mac or PC formatted portable devices.*

Moreover, while Fickman's heart was undeniably in the right place and as a fellow Disney lover, I applaud all of the little touches like casting the actress who portrayed Natty Gann as reporter Natalie Gann etc., overall it's the audio and visual equivalent of a computer that ultimately crashes when the user tries to open every single program in an effort to keep us from getting bored for even one second.

And although with this much chaos, you may not be able to nod off due to the noise but inevitably your brain just shuts off quickly into the movie in a way that it doesn't in superior fare from the exact same studio. Nonetheless, I have to hand it to Dwayne Johnson since for at least a little bit, I was thoroughly enjoying the Vegas cab ride, until that silly race began.

* Note: And in further exciting news, the Combo Packs have become so beloved due to the budget pricing of receiving a movie in 3 formats (which would normally run a buyer more than $70) not to mention the ability to play your favorite film no matter where you are that the studio announced this week that the limited-edition sets will continue to be offered well into 2010.

Text ©2009, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com
Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited.