Do or Die (2003)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	85:59
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	David Jackson
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Shawn Doyle Polly Shannon Nigel Bennett Guylaine St-Onge Alan Van Sprang Christopher Tai Kristin Fairlie Salvatore Migliore Lyrig Banh Eric Peterson Cherilee Taylor Anthony Lemke Bruce Deller
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	Frederic Talgorn

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Swedish Danish Finnish Norwegian Czech Hungarian Dutch Polish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Do or Die has quite an interesting premise - when I read a brief description of the plot, I felt compelled to review this to see what it was all about. It reminded me of an old Twilight Zone episode that I once saw. I cannot remember the episode's title, but it was about a bottled water company that was giving away water coolers on a free trial with a sales pitch that "this product is guaranteed to make you younger". The catch was that once you had drunk the water and decided to no longer participate in the trial after your promotional period had finished, you would rapidly start ageing at an uncontrollable rate. Naturally, this was something the salespeople did not point out to their customers until it was too late. Some similarities can be drawn between these two shows and I wonder if the scriptwriters based it on this old idea.

    Anyway, back to this movie. The best way to describe this film is to break it down into its simplest form where we have two groups, the "Infecteds" and the "Cleans". The world has suffered a terrible plague called Rapid Aging Disease (RAD) and it has ripped through the planet infecting more than half the population. The "Infecteds" must rely on a drug called Anzanol which they are required to take every day, or otherwise they run the risk of suffering from extremely rapid ageing.

    The "Cleans" don't need to take this particular drug, and they are not eager to see any more produced. The resulting "us and them" system that this creates is easy to see quite early and is exploited in the very first scene. In order to bring the viewers up to speed, the director has decided on using monologue to explain the necessary background rather than wasting film footage and therefore movie time. This works to good effect and provides you with the background you need to fully understand the movie's meaning.

    Anzanol is impregnated with a blue die which causes staining of the hands of those that take it, so it is quite easy to see who the "Infecteds" are. These people are exploited at every opportunity and do not even have the basic rights that most of us enjoy today. Some have gone to extraordinary lengths to appear like a "Clean" and have used the black market to purchase internal reservoirs for storing their Anzanol supply, replenishing it by injections directly into the canister through their skin. This is quite unnerving to the "Cleans" who treat such attempts as a violation of their law, and anyone found impersonating a Clean can be instantly killed, although it is usually more sporting to collect such people and have a gathering where they can be brutally killed by ripping the canister out of their body whilst they are still alive. The Cleans consider this not only more sporting, but also a way for them to all have an evening out and catch up with friends.

    Now you don't have to be a bright person to work out that the Infecteds are at a considerable disadvantage to the Cleans, and that they need to change the balance of power. They can only think of one way to do this - get up close and personal with Ethan Grant (Nigel Bennett), the founder of Grand Team Corporation, the maker of the drug Anzanol. Because of his immense power and control over this drug, you might as well say that he is Earth's dictator and is placed well above the law, altering supply of the drug whenever the Infecteds become a problem.

    Ruth Hennessey (Polly Shannon), a Clean, becomes pregnant by her Infected husband and as he lies dying, he tells Ruth a shocking story. One can bring the entire Grand Team Corporation and its founder, Ethan Grant, along with the Cleans, to their knees and return the world to a more balanced place. Armed with this knowledge, Ruth needs to find the cure for RAD, which is not easy for someone that was brainwashed her whole life and is quite naive when it comes to anyone that is infected. In her travels, she teams up with Iona (Guylaine St. Onge) who, interestingly enough, has a secret and is in some way connected to Ruth. As the police and sanitation squads close in and whilst her metabolism is screaming along at an accelerated rate, will she find a cure or is there even a cure to be found?

    Whilst overall I did enjoy this made-for-TV movie, it did have regular periods which moved along quite slowly. I also got the feeling that the actors were not imparting enough emotional feelings back to the viewer at times, which is where the odd yawn of mine crept in. Down the track I would not mind seeing this movie being remade and having a bit more money splashed at it, and whilst I felt the characters of Ethan Grant, Ruth and Iona were handled very effectively, the others needed some work to pull the whole thing off more convincingly. The foundation of something great is already here - we just need someone interested in taking it further down the road to success.

Video

    The transfer is presented in its original made-for-TV aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    This film was originally made for cable TV and the quality of transfer clearly shows this heritage by giving us a mediocre image. There is film grain present throughout the entire film with only minor sections remaining clean. Shadow detail is quite good considering, with quite good levels of detail. Unfortunately, these sections show up the grain issue as well, but not as poorly as anything with an off-white colour. There is some low level noise.

    The colour levels are quite realistic with good levels of saturation and balanced hues at the lower end of the scale. There is some softening of colour around the edges, especially on any object that is brighter than the background. There are, however, no instances with bright, bold colouring and luckily the instances where this is required are quite limited. The red dress at 67:39 is about as bold as it gets.

    There were no MPEG artefacts to be seen. Aliasing is also not evident. Film artefacts are not a problem with this direct-to-video production. There are a few tape flecks evident but these are minor.

    The subtitles available on this disc are English for the Hearing Impaired, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Czech, Hungarian, Dutch and Polish.

    This disc is dual layered, but I did not notice a layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only the one audio track on this DVD in the form of an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. It is good to see movies that were originally made for TV starting to come out now with 5.1 soundtracks.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times. Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer, and was completely spot on.

    The musical score by Frederic Talgorn was as uneventful as the movie at times with very little feeling or substance being added to the movie by the score. The volume levels did not drown out the dialogue at any point during the movie.

    Whilst this is a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, the music and special effects emanating from the rear channels are very subtle, sometimes to the point of not even being there. There are also hardly any directional effects or any precise sound placement which utilised the rears. Instead, you are limited to the front soundstage for this type of information.

    Again, whilst there is a direct channel for this type of information, very little sound makes it to the subwoofer. A perfect example is at 1:50 where an explosion is just plain good, but not great. The majority of the bass for this instance is handled by the front soundstage.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    I was unable to find any reference to other region releases for this movie. There was plenty of material for a movie of the same name by Andy Sidaris, but alas, this movie contained none of the buxom babes Andy is renowned for.

    As I mentioned earlier, this movie has the foundation of something great which needs more money, better actors and stronger direction than David Jackson has provided to pull it off. If you're stuck indoors on a rainy day with absolutely nothing to do then I would suggest that you rent it. As for purchasers - only a niche group of viewers will be interested in owning it.

    The video quality shows its made-for-TV heritage.

    The audio quality can be summed up by saying that it is a great Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. As a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, it is poor and limited in its scope.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall