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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Everly (2014)

Everly (2014)

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Released 6-May-2015

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Trailer-x 2 for other Roadshow releases
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 2014
Running Time 88:35
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Joe Lynch
Studio
Distributor

Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Salma Hayek
Hiroyuki Watanabe
Akie Kotabe
Togo Igawa
Gabriella Wright



Case ?
RPI ? Music Bear McCreary


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     Four years ago Everly (Salma Hayek) had been abducted and forced into becoming a sex slave and prostitute for yakuza boss Taiko (Hiroyuki Watanabe). In a high-rise apartment she entertains guests but now Taiko has discovered that Everly has become an informer for the police and puts a price on her head. Everly is trapped inside the apartment with a dying man (Akie Kotabe) and uses a range of weapons and her cunning to fend off goons, gunmen and assassins as varied as fellow prostitute Anna (Gabriella Wright) and The Sadist (Togo Igawa) while trying to stay alive long enough to save her mother and daughter.

     Everly occurs over one afternoon and uses one location throughout the film, the apartment and corridors where Everly fights off her assailants. The location and time frame of the film is thus very compact and condensed; in contrast the script draws on a wide array of other action films. In this, his second feature, director Joe Lynch also provided the story and with screenwriter Yale Hannon (his only script) has cobbled together a film that references a myriad of other, better, action films including Kill Bill (2003), Die Hard (1988) and Smokin’ Aces (2006) for its inspiration. Not that there is anything wrong with that and Everly wastes no time on reflection or character building before launching into the blood and killing during the opening credits.

     The DVD cover states that Everly is “Die Hard on steroids”; it is clearly pitched as a full on action film which is loud, chaotic and high impact involving gallons of spraying, spirting or pooling blood with grenades, smoke bombs, pistols, shotguns, a range of automatic weapons, knives, vials of acid, a dog and a samurai sword all in play. As well as the blood and gore, Everly is a film that also includes a strand of broad humour which is often quite that amusing; none of this is in any way realistic which makes the film’s change of tone two thirds of the way through into sadism rather jarring.

     Salma Hayek is seldom off screen and part of the appeal of Everly is that the character taking out the assassins is not only a female, but a female who is not a deadly assassin; she is an “everyman” woman who only wants to protect her daughter and mother and is not sure how to use the guns she needs to survive. Hayek looks good in a white shift yet she is not playing anyone we have not seen her do before; Everly feels like a larger version of her character in Desperado (1995) and the attempts to round out her character by introducing a sub-plot involving Everly’s mother (Laura Cepeda) and an impossibly cute child feels very tacked on and takes attention away from the mayhem.

     Everly may not be anything very new, rechannelling any number of other action films, but if you like your action loud and bloody with a touch of humour it is worth a look.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     Everly is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, close to the 2.35:1 original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     Occurring in one interior location, the print is sharp and detailed. The colours are fine, with sprays of deep red blood, skin tones are good and brightness and contrast are consistent, except for deliberate changes during scenes shown on monitors.

     I did not notice any marks or artefacts during the film although the end titles did shimmer.

    English descriptive captions for the hearing impaired are available while smallish yellow subtitles came on automatically to translate sections of Japanese and Spanish dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track at 448 Kbps plus there is an English Dolby Digital 2.0 audio descriptive track for the vision impaired at 224 Kbps utilising a male voice.

     Everly is an action film and has an appropriate loud, aggressive and enveloping audio track. The dialogue was clear and easy to hear while the rears and surrounds were fully utilised for deep sounding gunshots, explosions, smashing glass, crashing furniture and bodies and the music. The sub-woofer added appropriate bass to the explosions, thumps, gunfire and the music.

    The score by Bear McCreary (who has a wide range of TV to his credit including Battlestar Galactica, Da Vinci’s Demons, Black Sails and The Walking Dead) has an Eastern flavour and was effective.

     Lip synchronisation fine.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Trailers (4:46)

     Trailers for American Sniper and Let’s Kill Ward’s Wife play on start-up. They cannot be selected from the menu.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     The US Region A Blu-ray release of Everly includes as extras two audio commentaries (the first featuring the director, co-producer and editor, the second the director and cinematographer) and a music video. I cannot find any details or reviews of the Region 1 DVD so cannot say if it also includes these extras. If it does a clear win for Region 1. There is not presently a Region 2 UK release of the film.

Summary

     Everly is not a film to think too much about, unless you want to pick out the wide range of influences. The pacing and tone of the film is also uneven yet with some decent action and an attractive female star there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

     The video and audio are good and without issues. Trailers for other films are the only extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ray Nyland (the bio is the thing)
Monday, May 11, 2015
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S580, using HDMI output
DisplayLG 55inch HD LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderNAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated.
AmplificationNAD T737
SpeakersStudio Acoustics 5.1

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