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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.
BloodRayne (2005)

BloodRayne (2005)

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Released 18-Sep-2006

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 2005
Running Time 90:20
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Ads Then Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Uwe Boll
Studio
Distributor

Twentieth Century Fox
Starring Kristanna Loken
Michelle Rodriguez
Matthew Davis
Ben Kingsley
Michael Madsen
Billy Zane
Will Sanderson
Udo Kier
Meat Loaf
Michael Paré
Madalina Constantin
Daniela Nane
T.J. Storm
Case Alpha-Transparent
RPI ? Music Henning Lohner


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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

Plot Synopsis

    In eighteenth century Romania, Rayne (Kristanna Loken), a dhampir - a half-human, half-vampire creature - sets out to avenge her mother's rape by her father, Kagan (Ben Kingsley), King of all Vampires. Two vampire slayers from the Brimstone Society, Sebastian (Matthew Davis) and Vladimir (Michael Madsen), persuade Rayne to join them in their quest to destroy Kagan's rule.

    Bloodrayne is the latest film travesty by Director Dr Uwe Boll. Boll is universally acknowledged by film fans as the worst film-maker since Ed Wood. All of the good Doctor's recent productions, from House Of the Dead and Alone In The Dark to Bloodrayne are firmly entrenched in the bottom 100 films listed on IMDB, which gives you an indication of the man's directorial skills. Unlike Mr Ed Wood however, Boll has been given reasonable budgets to play with. What he does with them is another story.

    Though critics and film aficionados repeatedly compare Uwe Boll to the legendary Ed Wood, Boll's pictures consistently lack the one redeeming quality prevalent in all those Z-grade escapades. They're not even remotely amusing, not even in a 'so bad it's good' category. In scene after scene, Boll misses every possible opportunity to inject humour and camp into this painfully retarded story, which might otherwise have salvaged this toxic waste of a film. Instead, Bloodrayne is slow, dull, and idiotic from start to finish. A choice between watching this turkey or playing the video game version for two hours is an absolute no-brainer - trust me, you'll get a far more fulfilling experience participating in the latter.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Bloodrayne has been presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. For some unexplained reason the transfer is cropped from its original cinematic ratio of 2.35:1.

    The transfer is reasonably sharp, but does suffer from occasional aliasing during tracking shots. The film's photography is quite dark and as such presents strong black levels with reasonable shadow detail. However, due to the dark image minor grain is noticeable throughout. There were no low level noise problems apparent.

    Colours are natural without being striking, except for the use of lush reds in the more grotesque images.

    Film and video Artefacts were kept to a minimum.

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

Audio

    The film has a solitary Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track presented in English.

    Dialogue is painfully clear with only occasional ADR changes.

    The production's score by Henning Lohner is typical of the genre. Overbearing and intrusive to a fault, but considering the content of the film at least it's lively.

    Surround channel usage is surprisingly sparse for a modern day production. There are occasional directional sound effects during the film, but they fail to make full use of the rear channels. Ambient noise is present throughout.

    Bass and reverberation levels are consistent.

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

Extras

     None.

Censorship

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

R4 vs R1

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

    The Region 4 version has zero extras.

    The R1 unrated version contains:

    Note that the shorter theatrical version is also available for purchase on R1 DVD.

Summary

    Bloodrayne is so bad it deserves some type of recognition. However, director Uwe Boll misses every possible opportunity to inject any humour, excitement, competence or even camp into this painfully retarded production. Avoid at all costs.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Greg Morfoot (if interested here is my bio)
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV-535, using Component output
DisplayLG 42" High Definition Plasma with built in High Definition Tuner. Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 720p.
Audio DecoderSony HT-K215. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationSony HT-K215
Speakers fronts-paradigm titans, centre &rear Sony - radio parts subbie

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