Colombiana (Blu-ray) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Featurette-Making Of Trailer-x 2 but not for this film
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	107:53
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Olivier Megaton
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Zoe Saldana Jordi Mollà Lennie James Amandla Stenberg Michael Vartan Cliff Curtis Beto Benites
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Nathaniel Méchaly

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD High Resolution Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     In Colombia, young Cataleya (Amandla Stenberg) escapes the massacre of her family ordered by drug cartel boss Don Luis (Beto Benites) and carried out by Marco (Jordi Molla). She flees to her uncle Emilio (Cliff Curtis), a crime boss in Chicago, and announces that she wants to be trained as an assassin so that she can take revenge on Don Luis. Eleven years later, Cataleya (now played by Zoe Saldana) is a professional doing hits for Emilio; but on her own initiative she is killing associates of Don Luis and leaving her calling card – a Cattleya orchid, found only in South America – to get his attention.

     Cataleya’s activities have not gone unnoticed by the FBI Task Force headed by Agent Ross (Lennie James), but as he follows Cataleya’s trail he comes to a dead end as information he needs is embargoed by the CIA. This is because Don Luis has done a deal with the CIA: in exchange for information about the drug cartels he and his men have been relocated to Miami. Now, with Marco and the FBI both after Cataleya, anyone she cares for is in danger; however, even more in danger is Don Luis as Cataleya closes in on his “safe” house for a final, explosive confrontation.

     Colombiana was directed by Frenchman Oliver Megaton (Transporter 3 (2008)) but was co-written and co-produced by Luc Besson, who does have a thing for young female assassins. His film La femme Nikita (1990) comes to mind but a closer correlation is to Leon: The Professional (1994) with Mathilda a few years on and grown up! It is true that the plotting of Colombiana has holes so wide you could fly a 747 through them and that the film says nothing much that is new, but it certainly says it with style, energy and colour. Some of the sets are memorable, such as the indoor swimming pool with sharks, and most action sequences move at a cracking pace and are explosive in more ways than one. Some critics have also complained that Zoe Saldana is too slightly built to take on the bad guys, but who cares: she looks great, moves well and has extremely expressive, soulful eyes that can sell you almost anything. For in the end the film is more about noise and style than realism, and there it delivers in spades.

     Colombiana is a stylish, energetic action thriller, with impressive and explosive set pieces and a delicious Zoe Saldana in the lead role. It is slick entertainment and well worth a watch.

Video

     Colombiana is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, the original theatrical ratio, in 1080p.

     This print is everything one should expect from a modern film. It is razor sharp, with great crisp detail. The film has been extensively colour graded, especially noticeable in the yellows of the opening section, but this is never overdone. The explosions look suitably bright and glarey. Blacks and shadow detail are exceptional. I saw no artefacts, or blemishes, of any kind.

     There are subtitles for the hearing impaired. They come in different colours depending on who is speaking or what effects are happening and from the portion I sampled seem to be pretty accurate to the spoken word.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     The English DTS HD MA 5.1 is seriously impressive. Mostly the dialogue is clear, but sometimes the Spanish accents were a bit difficult to make out – here the subtitles were useful. The surrounds were aggressively and constantly used for effects, such as gunshots and explosions, plus the music and panning was also used effectively to give a loud, and very enveloping, feel. The subwoofer is also regularly in action for ambient effects, explosions and music. However, at no time did the sound stage feel unbalanced or overused.

     The original orchestral score by Nathaniel Mechaly was suitably strident and was augmented by classical music including samples from Schubert and Puccini as well as more modern music such as a song by Johnny Cash. Overall, the score was a good support for the visuals.

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

     The descriptive audio for the vision impaired, in Dolby Digital 2.0, was read by a mellow male voice and gave a reasonable amount of information in the portion I sampled.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

     On start-up we get theatrical trailers for Warrior (2:26) and The Double (2:22).

Making of Colombiana (25:12)

     This includes film footage, behind the scenes footage and interviews with cast Zoe Saldana, Michael Vartan and Amandla Stenberg, as well as crew Oliver Megaton (director), Michel Julienne (stunt coordinator), Christophe Roblin (stuntman) and Romain Lacourbas (director of photography). While not particularly deep or insightful, this is still reasonably entertaining, especially the split screen sections showing the film and behind the scenes footage at once or storyboards and finished footage.

     The Region A locked Blu-ray is labelled the “unrated” cut of the film and it runs for 111.35 minutes. Our Region B release runs 107:53 and is probably the theatrical cut. The Region A has additional language and subtitle options, includes the same “making of” but adds another 4 behind the scenes featurettes:

• Cataleya’s Journey (9:33)
• Assassins (11:54)
• Training a Killer (6:03)
• Take the Ride (7:46)

     The Region B French Blu-ray has the same cut of the film as our release, but adds as extras the “making of” plus audio commentaries, 4 featurettes and some story boards. I do not know what language the commentaries are, given the French crew, but can say that the disc does not have English subtitles.

     As far as I can tell, the Region B UK release is the same cut of the film as ours. I can find no record of extras at present.

     The additional footage and extra features give the Region A release the edge unless the French release is English friendly.

     Colombiana, co-written and co-produced by Luc Besson, is a stylish, energetic action thriller, with impressive and explosive set pieces and a delicious Zoe Saldana in the lead role.

     The video and audio are wonderful, just what you should expect from a recent action film. The extra is interesting, but our release misses out on the longer cut of the film available in the US, and most of their extra features.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall