I rented this movie last week and after watching Snipes' 7 Seconds movie, this one was definitely a significant improvement.
One of the things that bothered me was there were numerous areas where I could not understand what was being said and I even hit the remote to go back again and again and still remained stumped. There was no English closed-captions/subtitles option on the DVD, so I was stuck with moving on. One comment from numerous Asians I know whom have come to live in the USA and have learned to speak our language is, "I try to watch African-American movies, but can't understand what they are saying." I had a few areas of trouble with understanding some English spoken in Van Damme's movie Second in Command and that DVD didn't offer English subtitles/closed captions option either.
The second main thing that bothered me was with the sound affects. If you close your eyes and listen to the gunfire and explosions ... they all sounded the same, like someone banging a bat against a piece of thick glass. I appreciated the sound in one scene near a swimming pool and could hear the pool's water, but then poof the sound of this just disappeared ... but was nicely replaced with the sound of a light breeze through the trees. At least in this movie the irritating same old clapping boom boom sound was absent for the background action scenes. But, do all car engines racing around in streets and different guns being fired and numerous explosions have the same sounds? This movie like 7 Seconds contains pretty much the same visual candies and the car chases really could get lessened and shortened. They reek of filler padding to add length to what would probably be a TV length show if cut out. We have come to expect action films to have loads of visual candy, but the combination of lackluster sound affects and padding took this movie down more notches than it deserved. The visuals were good, but my ears were insultingly assaulted. LOUD can go only so far before I'm mentally handicapped.
Once again, the script was very good and so was the acting. There was not as much of Snipes' bopping heads as other movies. Snipes has a tough guy image that perhaps he should shed and consider calmer/quieter scripts. This movie would have done better if it had less padding and a better sound crew (plus add subtitles!). I wasn't disappointed in watching this movie and would recommend it for at least a one time viewing. I wouldn't buy the DVD.
One of the things that bothered me was there were numerous areas where I could not understand what was being said and I even hit the remote to go back again and again and still remained stumped. There was no English closed-captions/subtitles option on the DVD, so I was stuck with moving on. One comment from numerous Asians I know whom have come to live in the USA and have learned to speak our language is, "I try to watch African-American movies, but can't understand what they are saying." I had a few areas of trouble with understanding some English spoken in Van Damme's movie Second in Command and that DVD didn't offer English subtitles/closed captions option either.
The second main thing that bothered me was with the sound affects. If you close your eyes and listen to the gunfire and explosions ... they all sounded the same, like someone banging a bat against a piece of thick glass. I appreciated the sound in one scene near a swimming pool and could hear the pool's water, but then poof the sound of this just disappeared ... but was nicely replaced with the sound of a light breeze through the trees. At least in this movie the irritating same old clapping boom boom sound was absent for the background action scenes. But, do all car engines racing around in streets and different guns being fired and numerous explosions have the same sounds? This movie like 7 Seconds contains pretty much the same visual candies and the car chases really could get lessened and shortened. They reek of filler padding to add length to what would probably be a TV length show if cut out. We have come to expect action films to have loads of visual candy, but the combination of lackluster sound affects and padding took this movie down more notches than it deserved. The visuals were good, but my ears were insultingly assaulted. LOUD can go only so far before I'm mentally handicapped.
Once again, the script was very good and so was the acting. There was not as much of Snipes' bopping heads as other movies. Snipes has a tough guy image that perhaps he should shed and consider calmer/quieter scripts. This movie would have done better if it had less padding and a better sound crew (plus add subtitles!). I wasn't disappointed in watching this movie and would recommend it for at least a one time viewing. I wouldn't buy the DVD.