Story The film has an excellent cast of Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Willem Dafoe, Denzel Washington and Christopher Plummer. Clive Owen stars as a 'moral' bank robber who robs a bank but does little in terms of stealing the cash. A well connected Jodie Foster is hired to protect the interests of Christopher Plummer (Bank's founder) who is hiding something in the bank. But while heavy on talent, the story is light on depth. In watching it last night and found it quite boring....Geez...this bank heist goes on forever and then the tidy little wrap up at the end is done in a matter of 10 minutes. It was easily 45 minutes too long and simply plods too much. It just seemed to go on and on and on and on. Jody Foster, for her limited screen time, was fun to watch. Her sophisticated look is capped with her bright red Birkin bag (for those who don't know, it is the bag of all bags to own and almost impossible to acquire from Hermes but has been the 'it' bag for well over 20 years. It's price is astounding and it is simply leather). However, it looks like she's put on some weight in the caboose
. Somehow she has some dirt on Denzel and tries to use it to control him. But the highly educated Foster is no match for the street smart Washington (a tired old plot line). Denzel was Denzel (same character type in every movie) and his fedora was annoyed me, too. Who wears a fedora? There wasn't enough made of Christopher Plummer's past to make the whole story of more interest nor do we ever find out how Clive Owen knew of this dark secret that somehow escaped investigators of the past...It seemed like a lot of shallow stories wrapped up in one big film. Light on the intelligence and heavy on the boredom.
Picture 4/5: This DVD is filmed primarily in a dark bank and indoors with some outdoor footage. The overall feel is shadowy and it shows in the DVD. Contrast is deep throughout as are black levels. Colors are more muted in presentation fitting for the dimly lit scenes. EE is minimal and images can be sharp. However, there is a fair amount of softness to various scenes and color saturation is limited. All and all an adequate picture but little in terms of excellence.
Sound 3/5: Recorded level allowed for viewing at -5 from reference. Dialog for the most part was very good and well integrated. Most every line was easily intelligible. Surround activity was minimal to non-existent. Most of the film was dialog driven and so there were little in terms of effects. The soundtrack primarily delivered from the front 3 channels. Bass was also very light. I wondered if any LFE was used at all? Sure in some blasts there was some bass that kicked in but nothing that would stress the smallest of subs. Moreover, there was some inconsistency in the overall sound level at times. For instance, police cars arriving at the scene were overly loud and harsh sounding relative to the more quiet soundtrack. It didn't match the soundtrack's level at all. Dynamics were limited as well. Really nothing to get excited in this soundtrack. It certainly could have been improved..particularly with ambient sounds and such. I would rate it as barely passable.
My set up hads been recalibrated for HD DVD (and tweaked for DVD). So, look for some new reviews to start rolling out as my system is now back up to snuff.
. Somehow she has some dirt on Denzel and tries to use it to control him. But the highly educated Foster is no match for the street smart Washington (a tired old plot line). Denzel was Denzel (same character type in every movie) and his fedora was annoyed me, too. Who wears a fedora? There wasn't enough made of Christopher Plummer's past to make the whole story of more interest nor do we ever find out how Clive Owen knew of this dark secret that somehow escaped investigators of the past...It seemed like a lot of shallow stories wrapped up in one big film. Light on the intelligence and heavy on the boredom.Picture 4/5: This DVD is filmed primarily in a dark bank and indoors with some outdoor footage. The overall feel is shadowy and it shows in the DVD. Contrast is deep throughout as are black levels. Colors are more muted in presentation fitting for the dimly lit scenes. EE is minimal and images can be sharp. However, there is a fair amount of softness to various scenes and color saturation is limited. All and all an adequate picture but little in terms of excellence.
Sound 3/5: Recorded level allowed for viewing at -5 from reference. Dialog for the most part was very good and well integrated. Most every line was easily intelligible. Surround activity was minimal to non-existent. Most of the film was dialog driven and so there were little in terms of effects. The soundtrack primarily delivered from the front 3 channels. Bass was also very light. I wondered if any LFE was used at all? Sure in some blasts there was some bass that kicked in but nothing that would stress the smallest of subs. Moreover, there was some inconsistency in the overall sound level at times. For instance, police cars arriving at the scene were overly loud and harsh sounding relative to the more quiet soundtrack. It didn't match the soundtrack's level at all. Dynamics were limited as well. Really nothing to get excited in this soundtrack. It certainly could have been improved..particularly with ambient sounds and such. I would rate it as barely passable.
My set up hads been recalibrated for HD DVD (and tweaked for DVD). So, look for some new reviews to start rolling out as my system is now back up to snuff.
Think of it as an "investment." 
