Assault on Wall Street (Blu-ray) (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Audio Commentary-writer / director Uwe Boll Theatrical Trailer-Film trailer Trailer-Gyphon releases x 3
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	98:44
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Uwe Boll
Studio Distributor	Gryphon Entertainment	Starring	Dominic Purcell Erin Karpluk Edward Furlong John Heard Eric Roberts
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	Jessica de Rooij

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Audio Commentary dts 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     As the GFC got under way Wall Street firms, including that headed by Jeremy Stancroft (John Heard), look after themselves and their bonuses first and always by instructing their brokers to dump worthless paper on their investors. On the other side of town security van guard Jim (Dominic Purcell) is struggling. His wife Rosie (Erin Karpluk) has a tumour which requires expensive on-going medical treatments and medicines and they have reached the limit of their medical insurance. Jim has some money put away in investments but because of dodgy dealing by his brokerage firm he has lost the lot. He has also run up a huge credit card bill, the bank is about to foreclose and evict them from their home, his sleazy lawyer (Eric Roberts) wants money up front which Jim borrows from his friend Sean (Edward Furlong), and the Assistant D.A. dealing with broker fraud will not speak to him. Saddened by the bills and her love for Jim, Rosie commits suicide. Abandoned by the law and the authorities Jim decides to take justice into his own hands and kill those responsible for his plight especially Stancroft.

     Assault on Wall Street (original title Bailout: The Age of Greed) is written and helmed by controversial director Uwe Boll who has been likened to a present day Ed Wood for his quickie, self-financed and mostly low budget filmmaking, often based upon video games. Since 2001 he has, I think, directed 29 films, 12 of them during the period 2009-2014. His 2005 film Alone in the Dark has an approval rating of only 1% on the Rotten Tomatoes site and Boll has been nominated for Razzies three times and “won” for worst director in 2008 (although it must be noted that he is still behind Michael Bay and M.Night Shyamalan, who each have won two!) However, that said Assault on Wall Street has Boll’s highest approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes at 25% and is a well-made, decently acted film on a theme that would gain some sympathy from those who lost their savings in the GFC while rich and powerful companies received taxpayer funded bailouts and executives remained unprosecuted!

     There is certainly nothing subtle about the message in Assault on Wall Street; the brokers are greedy, manipulative, self-serving, more concerned with bonuses than any moral or legal obligation to their investors, the blue collar hard working men like Jim. They are the bad guys, the point made clearly (not for the first time) when a broker tells Jim, a man who has lost his job, house, savings and his wife, that he too has lost money and will not be able to take his holiday to the Bahamas this year. Yep, it is that subtle. To me there is something abhorrent in the idea that the answer to any crisis in America seems to be to resort to violence and a gun. Yet the film mostly works because a stoic Dominic Purcell sells his love for his wife, his pain, frustration and despair very well, and we cannot help to have sympathy for his plight and anger at the “fat cat” brokers and bankers, although his random killing of people, just because they work in brokerage firms, is harder to take. Does working in Wall Street make you automatically guilty and worthy of death? Boll in his commentary suggests that it does. The film also ends with a monologue and sentiment that might be straight from Death Wish (1974).

     I can see how a film about a vigilante shooting down Wall Street brokers and bankers would have appeal to those frustrated and abandoned by agencies and regulators supposed to protect the little people and it is to the credit of the very watchable Dominic Purcell that for much of Assault on Wall Street’s running time we cannot help having sympathy for Jim in his attempts to help his wife and obtain justice, or at the very least, compassion. But, in the end, it seems that the American dream does in fact involve a gun.

Video

     Assault on Wall Street is presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1, in 1080p using the MPEG-4 AVC code.

     This is a nice print. There is some softness in second unit shots of the New York skyline but otherwise it is crisp and detailed, with nice glossy colours. Blacks and shadow detail are very good, brightness and contrast consistent and skin tones only occasionally evince that yellowish digital tinge under lights.

     Other than some slight ghosting against broken surfaces, the print is artefact free.

     There are no subtitles.

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Audio

     The audio is English DTS-HD MA 5.1 plus a DTS 2.0 audio commentary.

     Dialogue is clear and easy to hear. For most of the time the surrounds are used only for music but when the action commenced in the last third of the film the surrounds and rears added gunshots, screams and shattering glass. The sub-woofer added some bass to shots, explosions, the crash of furniture and glass and the music.

    I did not notice any lip synchronisation issues.

     The original score by Jessica de Rooij was very good adding to the film’s moods. There were also four added tunes by Jacques de Rooij.

Audio Ratings Summary

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Start-up Trailers (5:08)

     Trailers for Among Friends, Savaged and Discopathe play on start-up. They cannot be selected from the menu.

Film Trailer (1:30)

Audio Commentary

     Writer / director Uwe Boll spends the first 30 minutes of his commentary speaking about the failure of the capitalist system as shown by the GFC when bankers and brokers were paid bonuses as businesses went bankrupt and in the USA and the EU bailouts and printing money kept the corrupt system alive. He is very passionate about the subject. Then he talks candidly, and rather crankily, about things like scripting, all the name actors who passed on the main role, casting the minor roles, financing, the film’s limited release while he has strong opinions about a range of issues including the rotten state of moviemaking, drugs, money, privilege, violence as a solution, society, terrorism, American foreign policy and the Arab spring. He is certainly lively and opinionated although there is very little here about actually making the film itself.

     The Region A US Blu-ray of Assault on Wall Street includes a 16 minute making of, mostly featuring Boll, but misses out on the audio commentary. I think we win.

     The caption “a film by Uwe Boll” is not always a recommendation but Assault on Wall Street is not too bad. With a premise that by killing brokers and bankers you can change a flawed system it is certainly misguided and lacking in subtlety but the film is very watchable due to a sympathetic and stoic Dominic Purcell and some decent action.

     The video is good, the audio acceptable and the DVD includes a commentary by controversial writer / director Uwe Boll and is certainly entertaining.

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