Mindhunters (2004) |
BUY IT |
General | Extras | ||
Category | Thriller |
Trailer-xXx 2: The Next Level Menu Animation & Audio Dolby Digital Trailer Audio Commentary-Renny Harlin (Director) Featurette-Profiling Mindhunters Featurette-Stunt Sequence Featurette-A Director's Walk Through Crimetown Trailer-The Longest Yard, Layer Cake, The Marksman |
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Rating | ? | ||
Year Of Production | 2004 | ||
Running Time | 101:37 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | Dual Layered | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Language Select Then Ads Then Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4,5 | Directed By | Renny Harlin |
Studio
Distributor |
Columbia Tristar F/D Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Eion Bailey Clifton Collins, Jr. Will Kemp Val Kilmer Jonny Lee Miller Kathryn Morris Christian Slater LL Cool J Patricia Velasquez Cassandra Bell Daniël Boissevain Antonie Kamerling Jasmine Sendar |
Case | ? | ||
RPI | ? | Music | Tuomas Kantelinen |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired Hindi English Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
Renny Harlin’s latest directorial effort comes in the form of Mindhunters, a somewhat flawed but reasonably enjoyable modern take on And Then There Were None. The setting is on a remote island off the east coast of the
FBI instructor Jake Harris (Val Kilmer) leads the recruits in their aim to be profilers. He often runs realistic simulations that put the recruits under extreme pressure. The students are expected to notice vital clues that help them track down and apprehend serious criminals. On the remote island, a simulated murder will occur which the recruits are expected to work as a team on and solve. The profilers who handle it well go onto FBI postings. Those who flunk get cut from the FBI.
Without wanting to spoil much of what happens, the exercise gets interrupted by a much more sinister and deadly agenda than FBI graduation. The trainee profilers include Christian Slater, Eion Bailey, Jonny Lee Miller, Kathryn Morris, Patricia Velasquez, Cassandra Bell and LL Cool J.
While definitely not a classic by any means, it is an enjoyable, albeit predictable movie. Considering it was supposed to be an edge of the seat thriller, I often laughed out loud at how preposterous some of the behaviour was by these so-called intelligent people.
Don’t expect too much and you will have a fun night with some mindless entertainment!
The disc is PAL formatted and is presented at an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The disc is 16x9 enhanced.
The transfer is pretty good.
For the most part the picture is pretty sharp, even when the image is quite dark. Most of the film is set at night so thankfully shadow details look pretty good. The darker the shot however, the grainier the image. It's not too much of an issue though.
Very few of the shots in the film are in natural light and when they are the picture is pretty washed out. At different stages, filters are used with good effect. The lighting and colour really add to the mood of the film. Skin tones look natural. Black levels seem right.
In wider shots (especially outdoors) edge enhancement can be a little problematic. Not a deal breaker though.
There were no other problems with MPEG or film artefacts.
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The audio track was English Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 448Kb/s.
Overall the sound is pretty decent.
Dialogue came through clearly and without any distortion.
The music score came through well and added quite a lot to my viewing enjoyment.
Surround effects were used well for discrete effects that subtly added atmospheric elements. However, the track disappoints where you want to be blown away by the effects. Helicopters, explosions and gunfire sounded OK, but didn't have the punch that I've grown to expect in audio tracks. In these instances the subwoofer didn't get the range it should have.
There were no sync issues.
There is also an English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) track on the disc.
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Overall |
Typical promotional fare; The Longest Yard, Layer Cake, The Marksmen and xXx: The Next Level trailers
Harlin's commentary is a little dry, but can be interesting from a technical viewpoint.
Don't watch this before you watch the film. It essentially reveals who the bad guy is within the first 60 seconds. Pretty standard promotional fare.
Short doco on a fight sequence. LL Cool J is way more buff than his stand-in stuntman!
Shows the set of the training island, which is laid out like a typical American town. Except it's in the Polish countryside.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
It seems the R1 and R4 versions are the same. Buy on price.
The video is pretty good for a movie which did nothing at the box office.
The audio is decent, but its lack of range is a little disappointing.
The special features are decent enough.
Overall, not a bad disc. Some big releases get less features than this did.
Video | |
Audio | |
Extras | |
Plot | |
Overall |
Review Equipment | |
DVD | Marantz DV4300, using Component output |
Display | Sony VPL HS10 projector on 100 inch 16x9 screen + Palsonic 76WSHD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Sony STR-DE685. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. |
Amplification | Pioneer |
Speakers | DB Dynamics VEGA series floor standers + centre, DB bipole rears, 10" 100W DB Dynamics sub |