Mirrors – Blu-ray Disc Review
January 27, 2009 – 2:53 PM - Posted by: Brendan SurplessTags: Alexandre Aja, Amy Smart, Digital Copy, FOX, Keifer Sutherland, Paula Patton
has an average rating of 6.2 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
include Bonus View & Digital Copy
– 
& 
– 2008
– 110 minutes & 111 minutes (UNRATED)
– FOX
– 
Overall Verdict – Good for a Rent
Buy it for $27.99 @ Amazon.com
— Review by: Brendan Surpless —
The Film is directed by Alexandre Aja (known for 2006′s “The Hills Have Eyes“). Ben Carlson (Keifer Sutherland) is struggling quite a bit through life right now. Having just recently been taken off the NYPD force after killing a man, Ben’s wife now doesn’t want to exactly be with him. In an attempt to patch his life back together, Ben takes a night job as a guard at a local department store. Soon though he starts hearing screams and people start dying. Ben learns, after receiving a package in the mail, that the mirrors in the store are controlling people, Ben included. Now Ben must figure out exactly what’s going on with these mirrors if he wants to save not only his family but also himself. What results is a film that has a few genuine scares and isn’t that bad a way to spend a night.
At first glance “Mirrors” intrigued me not only because of the Sutherland but also of the concept. Having never seen the film that was the basis for this, I had prior background going in. While most modern horror films don’t make me even nudge a bit when it comes to the scares, I’ll easily admit that I did jump one or two times throughout the film. It’s not that the scares are actually nightmare inducing but rather that each scare works with the film’s music building the viewer up to the point where they become comfortable with the events of the film. Then suddenly BAM out of nowhere we suddenly get a scare. While this might sound good on paper at initial glance, what brings “Mirrors” from possibly being a film that is actually great is a few ridiculous scenes.
We all understand that the ‘mirrors’ are the evil forces in the film, that much is easily clear. But some of the scenes and ideas that came up with surrounding the images and spirits are just downright ludicrous. Take for example when Ben is trying to desperately prove to his wife that the mirrors are indeed evil. He goes outside in the middle of the day in a beautiful New York suburb and starts firing his gun at a mirror. Okay now tell me NO ONE would call the police and report this? Come on folks movie making is suppose to be not too realistic in some aspects but this is just dumb. This is just plain lazy filmmaking, which is a shame because it’s obvious that director Alexandre Aja has a keen visual eye (evident by the film’s transfer). It’s just more a shame that he relied on this all too common cheap tactics instead of making a truly effective horror film.
In the end, “Mirrors” isn’t the most entertaining film and the movie does have its share of issues; however, in this day and age of cheap horror thrills, I will admit that “Mirrors” isn’t the worst way to spend 2 hours of your time. Worth a Rental for movie night just don’t expect anything ground breaking.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Blu-ray Disc). Using Arriflex Cameras and Lenses, “Mirrors” has a very dark and gritty feel to it’s transfer. Note this isn’t a negative at all as I felt this grittiness really helped to bring out the style of the film. Both director Aja and his photographer Maxime Alexandre have a very interesting sense of shooting each and every scene resulting in the film having a very sharp look to it. Leaning more toward a color palette that consists of darker colors, blacks are fairly solid throughout. There are a few sequences (like some of the flashbacks) that have a very shaky and washed out look to them. We can assume that this was done to show the age of the footage. Besides in these shots, there isn’t much film grain present despite the ‘tough’ look the print has (plus the film was shot entirely in digital). All in all this is a great transfer earning a “4 Star Rating“.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio Surround. Dialogue is fine in most points but does tend to make the viewer play with the volume button a bit. LFE is deep and booming in particular whenever a gun is fired or varying musical cues from the film’s score by Javier Navarrete. There is a good sense of panning between the rears as the film’s sound effects bounce from speaker to speaker. The screams of the spirits trapped in the mirrors create a solid 360 degree sound field immersing the viewer right into the action. Having just watched this movie before viewing “Max Payne“, I was all set to give this audio track a 4.5 Star Rating. Since watching the amazement that “Payne” was, I’m going to lower my rating a bit. Still the audio here is great earning a “4 Star Rating“.
Bonus Materials are presented in High Definition and Standard Definition video with Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound.
- Bonus View: This is broken down into two sections with the first being a Picture-in-Picture option and the second being a Storyboard-to-Scene Comparison.
- Reflections: The Making of Mirrors Shockumentary: This is a 50 minute making of that delves deep into how this remake came about and what director Aja hoped to achieve by making this film.
- Anna Esseker Hospital Footage: This runs about 6 minutes and shows us more footage into Anna’s childhood.
- Behind the Mirror: In about 18 minutes we get to hear from a few people on the thoughts of mirrors in the world. Topics include religion and mythology.
- Animated Storyboard Sequence (HD): This is a 1 minute animated of the jaw-ripping scene.
- Deleted Scenes/Alternate Ending: Now these deleted scenes were actually pretty good as we got to see more of Ben’s prior work at the Mayflower.
- D-Box: Yep for those rich folks out there
- Digital Copy: Fox has given us a Digital Copy of the film, which is playable on iTunes and Windows Media Player.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.
