Death Warrant (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	88:55
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Deran Sarafian
Studio Distributor	MGM	Starring	Jean-Claude Van Damme Robert Guillaume Cynthia Gibb George Dickerson Art LaFleur Patrick Kilpatrick Joshua John Miller Hank Stone Conrad Dunn Jack Bannon Abdul Salaam El Razzac Armin Shimerman
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$19.95	Music	Gary Chang

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.93:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired French Italian Spanish Dutch Swedish Norwegian Danish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

   Death Warrant is an honest B grade action vehicle starring Jean Claude Van Damme. Released in 1990, the film was moderately successful and paved the way for more mainstream success with the likes of Timecop, Universal Soldier, Sudden Death, Double Impact and Hard Target. It is this period in Van Damme's career, 1990-1995, that I have no shame in admitting to being a fan of. Yes the `Muscles From Brussels' has a limited acting range, and the scripts for some of these films were workmanlike at best, but for this reviewer these action films knew their limitations and played to their strengths. I have come to appreciate these types of films more and more these days as they lack the pretentiousness and self-referential stylings so commonplace in the action genre today. Instead, they delivered what they promised, 90 minutes of solid, bone-crunching fun.

    Van Damme plays Louis Burke, a Canadian Police Officer who goes undercover as an inmate in Harrison Penitentiary. Several inmates have been brutally killed under suspicious circumstances and the evidence points to a conspiracy involving high level prison officials. Burke must solve the murders before he becomes the next victim.

    Director Deran Sarafian (Terminal Velocity) delivers a well made action thriller that avoids tedium by including several rousing fight scenes and a decent storyline. Sure the film piles up the `Prison Film' clichés, but for the most part these inclusions are welcome. We all know the clichés I'm referring too. The reformed long serving con with the heart of gold, the brutal head guard who loathes the hero, and the corrupt Warden who will stop at nothing to hide his dirty secret. All these clichés enriched the atmosphere of this low budget exploitation no-brainer and ultimately gave the story a sense of fun not always found in some of its big budget brethren.

Video

    The best thing that can be said about Death Warrant's transfer is that it is slightly better than VHS.

    The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1:85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The problems begin with the transfer's sharpness levels. The image is soft from the opening frame to the end credits. There is a slight edge enhancement problem present throughout, but thankfully no aliasing nasties. Shadow detail levels are poor with background images barely detectable at times. There is consistent grain throughout the film with slight low level noise interference during any dark image.

    Colours are natural if slightly washed out.

    There are occasional film artefacts during the transfer, but that is the least of the disc's problems.

    The only reason this transfer is acceptable is because of the low purchase price, and the fact that my memory of the transfer on the old VHS version recalls it as twice as bad.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The film has been given five 2.0 Dolby Digital surround tracks. The tracks are in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.

    Dialogue is audible at all times with no audio sync issues to complain of.

    The film's music by Mark Isham is fairly nondescript, but ultimately does its job and supports the on-screen events without becoming intrusive.

    Surround channel usage was minimal at best. The only consistent sound occupying the rear channels was the film's score. Directional sound effects were absent, with the majority of sound occupying the front speakers.

    The subwoofer lacked consistent bass, causing the overall track to sound weak. Reverberation levels were definitely wanting for an action film.

Theatrical Trailer

    All versions of the DVD available worldwide appear essentially the same.

    Death Warrant is a decent action time waster, and one of the better early Van Damme efforts. There are several decent action scenes, and the plot is reasonable. The disc has a poor transfer with acceptable audio. There are no extras. Overall for a budget title it just scrapes through.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall