Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Ultimate Fighting Champions Featurette-The Descender Rig Music Video-X Gon Give It to Ya - DMX Listing-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	97:03 (Case: 93)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (49:04)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Jet Li DMX Anthony Anderson Kelly Hu Tom Arnold Mark Dacascos Gabrielle Union Michael Jace Drag-On Paige Hurd
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Damon Blackman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Hebrew Arabic	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, a very amusing discussion between two cast members

    From the masterminds that brought you Romeo Must Die and Exit Wounds comes director Andrzej Bartkowiak’s latest cinematic masterpiece...

    When diamond thief Tony Fait (DMX) knocks off a vault full of diamonds, including some specific black stones, he finds himself attracting the attention of a mysterious Asian operative with some very fancy martial arts skills, named Su (Jet Li), and a sadistic killer named Ling (Mark Dacascos) and his cartel of classy murderers – all of whom are bent on getting hold of these black stones. But after the stones are stolen by a local crime lord, Chambers, and his daughter is kidnapped by Ling, Fait must team up with Su and gather his posse to get the stones back and save his daughter’s life.

    Cradle 2 The Grave is exactly what you would expect – a silly Hollywood action movie where lots of stuff gets blown up, some gratuitous flesh is bandied about, people say “F***” a lot, and there is a kicking Hip-Hop/Rap soundtrack to the whole thing (I mean, with DMX of It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot fame involved, would the producers be putting a pussy alternative track on his movie? – I don’t think so).

    In all honesty, come with low expectations and you will have a ball. Sure, it’s hard to see past the overly schmaltzy sentiment sometimes, but Tom Arnold rekindles his role from True Lies here, only this new character is named Archie, with some genuinely humorous results. Indeed, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this movie was intentionally tongue-in-cheek a lot of the time, quite blatantly making fun of itself, and I’m all for that kind of self-deprecation in Hollywood. There should be more of it.

    Certainly, this isn’t quite The Long Kiss Goodnight, nor is it the ultra-violent The Replacement Killers. It lacks the truly sadistic and ultimately sociopathic humour of the former (plus the acting talent), and the sheer cold-blooded psychopathology of the latter. But it does have a particular kind of cool, and during that middle sequence where Li is in a cage fight with twenty seasoned professional fighters and one nasty midget and DMX is tearing across the city in an all-terrain vehicle smashing apart anything in his way (you’ve seen it in the trailers so I’m not spoiling anything), all done to a ruff-riding track by DMX ... well it’s hard not to enjoy.

    The verdict? – Silly, over-the-top, emotionally shallow, slightly sugar-coated, paper-thin plot, totally unbelievable, and yet surprisingly fun to watch. Oh, and don’t forget to sit through the end credits for the discussion between Archie and Tommy (Anthony Anderson) to see what I mean about tongue-in-cheek.

Video

    Presented in 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, this is the original aspect ratio. And my does it look fine.

    The quality of the picture is exceptional. I had to go sifting back through it with a fine toothed comb to start pulling out faults. What did I find? Well, pretty much nothing.

    The picture is persistently clear and sharp. My only whinge is really a production fault – during the scene in the subway at the start, the rear projection is a little blurry and, well, obviously fake. But hey, this is a Hollywood action film and I have already suspended my disbelief at the entrance.

    Colours are fabulous – rich, vibrant, strong and out there. Part of the high gloss Hollywood production thing, and it has transferred very well onto DVD.

    Shadow detail is great, and considering the final action sequence takes place at night this is pretty important. There is no overt graininess that I spotted, and the only noticeable grain was on the lousy rear-projection in the subway.

    MPEG artefacts are nowhere to be seen, and any other film-to-video transfer artefacts are also not evident. The print was pristine clear.

    There are three sets of subtitles, all white with a black border and easy to read. The English ones generally convey the story and dialogue.

    The dual-layer pause occurs at 49:04. It is during a pause in a conversation, and while detectable, it is not distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The only soundtrack available is an English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround track. Again with the wow factor. This rocks.

    The dialogue was clear throughout, when it wasn’t being drowned out by things being blown up and the like of course. I noticed no audio sync problems.

    You want surround sound? Check out the introductory scene in the subway. Directional cues and all kinds of ambient noises. And the scene at the fight club is amazing, with people flying all over the place and shouts and cheers and jeers from all around. A good one to show off your system.

    The soundtrack here, mostly made up of Hip-Hop and Rap tunes, is thumping, with great dynamics and range. The soundtrack heavily utilises the subwoofer.

    Indeed, there is subwoofer use galore in this film. Again, the introductory subway scene almost hurts with the amount of low frequency bass, and when those guys are getting smacked around in the fight club each sickening thud and snapping bone comes with its own low frequency jolt to the system. And the final fight sequence ... well, you’ll just have to see for yourself.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. The main menu has a 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo soundtrack and snippets from the film playing in various windows.

Ultimate Fighting Champions (8:22)

    Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo, this is a look at the making of that fight club scene and all the big name professional fighters that were involved.

The Descender Rig (3:03)

    Presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo, this is a look at the stunt performed by Li in the opening sequence where he freefalls from balcony to balcony on the outside of an apartment building.

Music Video - DMX “X Gon’ Give To Ya” (3:45)

    Presented in 1.85:1, non-16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo. This is a fairly catchy tune, but from what I can tell it’s also been censored here.

Cast & Crew

    A single solitary lonely still with the basics on it. Sigh.

Theatrical Trailer (2:03)

    Presented in 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, 2.0 Dolby Surround.

DVD-ROM Features

    This has a link to the official Warner Bros. site for this movie where you can access other details.

    The R1 release of this disc also comes in a Full Screen edition. As yet the R1 release has not been released, and so full details on special features and sound are not available.

    Cradle 2 The Grave is a seriously silly film, but it has some fun action, a good soundtrack, and is quite entertaining.

    The video is excellent.

    The sound is fantastic.

    The extras were light but this is a B-grade Hollywood action movie – what did you expect? An audio commentary dissecting the inner meaning of every scene?

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall