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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.
Captivity (2007)

Captivity (2007)

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Released 18-Sep-2008
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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Crime	Featurette-Making Of-The Making of "Captivity" Alternate Ending-Alternate Ending Deleted Scenes-Deleted Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	81:16
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Roland Joffé
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Elisha Cuthbert Daniel Gillies Pruitt Taylor Vince Michael Harney Laz Alonso Maggie Damon Chrysta Olson Carl Paoli Trent Broin
Case	Amaray-Opaque	Starring
RPI	$29.95	Music	Marco Beltrami

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

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

Plot Synopsis

There’s really no excuse for Roland Joffé’s sad, unpleasant Captivity, an entry into the so-called film genre of “torture porn” whose claim to fame is that a series of ghastly and disturbing advertising ended up on billboards across America, slipping past the censors leading to an uproar from women’s rights groups, family friendly groups and others with common sense (read more about this perversity here). The film, initially nothing but a treacherous bore, had several scenes reshot after the controversy in order to heighten the level of violence and gore, and attempt to heighten the interest. It didn't work - Captivity was a critical and box office failure, destined to be completely forgotten about, which to my mind is rightful punishment.

Opening with a scene of inexplicable grotesque torture, an unknown is dispatched before we cut to the actual story - model Jennifer Tree (Elisha Cuthbert) is stalked by a sicko who quickly captures her and confines her to a cell where she is psychologically tortured. Various ludicrous scenarios play out (for example, Jennifer is trapped inside a box which slowly fills with sand) and then the reprehensible reshot scenes kick in (find Jennifer forced to witness the death-by-acid murder of a previous victim with the threat of being disfigured and killed herself, then forced to drink the liquified bodyparts of another previous victim, and finally forced to witness the murder of her dog instead of die herself - this sound like fun viewing to you?) Inamongst all of this nausea, Jennifer befriends another captive, Gary (Daniel Gillies) who she falls in love with due to the miracle of terrible filmmaking.A series of obvious and yet unbelievable twists play out as the film culminates in its final nonsensical act before leaving the DVD player forever.

Aside from the unwatchable reshot scenes - all of which differ severely in execution and tone from the rest of the film - Captivity is excruciatingly boring, shot like a poor first year student film without style, pace or rhythm. The film looks terrible and amateurish, with unbelievable acting from the entire cast, and despite clocking in at barely 80 minutes feels like an eternity to sit through. I'm not against horror films that include heavy content - find amazingly graphic French horror masterpiece À l'intérieur one of my favourite films of the year (also destined never to appear in Australia due to the extreme content) but Captivity is shallow and tasteless in a way that makes similarly disappointing "torture porn" entries Saw and Hostel look like Oscar winners. Consider this review a warning: there's so many things you can do in 80 minutes to enjoy this short life of yours, or things you can do to help others. Your time is precious - do not waste it on Captivity.

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Transfer Quality

Video

The video is presented in its original 2.42:1 aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

This is a very bright and lucid video transfer that boasts very bright and stunning colours, but falters in dark scenes - a major problem since so much of Captivity takes place in the dark. It's not that there's an abundance of low level noise - it's that many dark scenes have no detail at all. Add to this problems with grain and ugly aliasing in various places (even the early titles at 0:33 suffer) and you end up with an ugly transfer that suggests the majority of the film was shot in digital when it really demanded film.

Fortunately the film lacks even minor artefacts and has no interlacing, and features strong detail whenever there is enough light onscreen to see anything.

There are English subtitles, which were accurate in the scenes I sampled.

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

Audio

The audio is presented in English Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 (Stereo).

Both tracks are workman-like, and both are nearly identical. There's some kick from the bass in some of the nastier scenes involving a sledgehammer, and when firearms are onscreen, but otherwise there's little action in that department; likewise the surround doesn't get much of a workout even in scenes where our kidnapper moves around Jennifer like the xenomorph from Alien. This is not unexpected given the quality of the DVD, however I'm surprised that a 5.1 track is even offered here, where other regions were offered DTS and EX tracks.

The soundtrack itself has various issues, including exchanges between Jennifer and Gary that we can barely hear due to awful mixing, and lots of unnatural sound effects that detract from any immersion whatsoever this film might have offered. Music by Marco Beltrami is completely forgettable and adds no tension or interest to scenes.

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

Extras

Animated Menus with Sound

The menus here feature stills from the film with suitable music.

The Making of "Captivity" (11:25)

Prefaced with a series of inept soundbytes from principle cast and crew, this standard making-of featurette has the director discussing his processes and the non-existant psychological depth of the film alongside a chop suey of incoherent additions from the other people involved that lacks flow and reason. The sad part is the suggestion that the director had a real vision for this film as well as some solid ideas that somehow got buried; there's no information here of real interest, and the footage goes between 2.42:1 footage that isn't 16x9 enhanced and awful 1.33:1 digital footage that repels with ugliness.

Alternate Ending (1:39)

Attempting to redefine the film as some kind of hyper-feminist piece I Spit On Your Grave style, we find Jennifer several months later dishing out punishment to film-stereotype murderers and rapists in an epilogue that ties the previously incoherent opening scene and scrapbook bookends into something meaningful but unconvincing, uninteresting and repellant. In surprisingly strong 2.42:1 footage that ins't 16x9 enhanced, but has a lot of detail, even in dark scenes.

Deleted Scenes (17:57)

Eighteen minutes of deleted scenes round out the special features on the disc, including a bizarre scene playing on the protagonist's previously unmentioned fear of vultures, some alternate takes of the awful "romance" that the film attempts to sell us on, and two alternate endings, one of which differs only slightly from the other one on the disc. There's also a little more plot involving the police attempting to find Jennifer, as well as information on the kidnapper's other murders, which all feel borrowed from another (not necessarily better) film. The cutscenes have no explanation for their removal, instead only prefaced by uninformative title cards, and the quality of the alternate endings is horrible: very pixellated picture quality with poor sound mixing, complete with poorly edited stock effects.

R4 vs R1

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

   In addition to being available in both uncut and R-rated format, the R1 is the winner here for the following local omissions:
         On The Set Of Captivity featurette (14:27)
       Theatrical Trailer (2:17)
        Other promotional trailers
        English DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete
        English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX

    If you have to own this film, the R1 is the way to go.

Summary

Captivity is an unpleasant horror film that isn't scary and fails to balance its ghastly scenes of torture with its lengthy, unbelievable and boring plot.

The video and audio transfers both have problems and do not enhance the viewing in any way.

There is no abundance of extras but what is here may please fans of the film.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Sony Playstation 3 (HDMI 1.3) with Upscaling, using Component output
Display	Benq PE7700. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device has a maximum native resolution of 720p.
Audio Decoder	Logitech 5500 THX. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL).
Amplification	Logitech 5500 THX
Speakers	Logitech 5500 THX

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