Unthinkable – Blu-ray Disc Review
June 23, 2010 – 9:10 PM - Posted by: Brendan SurplessTags: BD-Live, Brandon Routh, Carrie-Anne Moss, Gil Bellows, Joshua Harto, Lora Kojovic, Martin Donovan, Michael Sheen, Samuel L. Jackson, Sony, Stephen Root, Vincent Laresca
has an average rating of 7.3 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
include BD-Live & a commentary
– 
– 2010
– 97 minutes
– Sony
– Region A & Region B
Overall Verdict – A Recommended Thriller
Buy it for $20.49 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by: Brendan Surpless —
— Screenshots by Loys Johnson of Blu-News.com —
The Movie Itself was directed by Gregor Jordan. With no real solution, in comes “H” (Samuel L. Jackson) a man known for his interrogation tactics. Immediately it becomes very clear that “H” isn’t your run-of-the-mill interrogator, something that brings up the question of torture in and of itself. Using any available tactics, all of which are approved by “the higher power”, will “H” successful get Usef to reveal the goods? Or will the end come much sooner than we thought? What results is an all-around solid action thriller.
Upon receiving in “Unthinkable“, I had extremely low expectations for it. Why you may ask? Well first off I hadn’t heard of the film, which is never a good sign (I tend to pay attention to trailers, movie news quite a bit). Secondly reading the back of the case, it sounded as if the filmmakers watched an episode of “24” and decided to extend it into a 2 hour film. With this much stacked up against it, imagine my shock as I found “Unthinkable” to be an all-around good movie. I feel the strength of the film lies not only in the acting, which is quite solid, but more in the plot within. Yes I did mention that the plot does sound familiar, but instead of having the restraint of a TV episode behind it, “Unthinkable” is allowed to go no-holds barred. This results is a more convincing and serious tone. Take the torture scenes. Some may not like the intensity shown but I felt that showed the road that must be traveled to get the information needed. Am I saying that torture is okay? God no, but we all know it exists. The absolute horror should be not be withheld for any audience.
In closing, “Unthinkable” surprised me quite a bit. After watching the trailer I kind of expected a low-rent episode of “24“, just more violent with the torture. The end result was different as the themes held within all but involve the viewer by getting them to think of each side of the story. With solid acting on the part of Jackson and Moss, this one comes recommended for those looking for a solid thriller for the night.
Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The film’s color palette, while somewhat muted at times due to the low-lit locales, features a solid use of colors. Blacks, in particular, are bold throughout only rarely being an issue. The film’s use of darker moments all come off quite fine. There a few sequences where detail is lost a bit during the completely dark scenes. Speaking of detail, the detail held within is quite impressive. Most notable on the facial features/fleshtones. Finite details of the characters’ faces, like that of stubble on the beard of Younger, all look excellent. This is especially notable considering that this isn’t a big Hollywood picture but rather a smaller budgeted film. It all but proves that if you have a capable DP on hand, even the smaller budgeted films can have fine detail. The film’s print is also in great shape with no instance of damage or any real noise to speak of. While this doesn’t compare ‘demo’ wise to the bigger titles, “Unthinkable” still holds its own. All in all this earns a “4 Star Rating” for overall video quality.
Audio Quality on this release is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio. “Unthinkable” arrives with the provided DTS-HD track, which for the most part is solid for the material at hand. With this being a rather front heavy mix, dialogue is reproduced well for the most part but there are a few moments where you may need to raise the volume a bit. LFE is present with the occasional ‘oomph’ here and there. Dynamics, surprisingly, are fairly absent. With the exception of a bit of background dialogue, there aren’t really many discrete effects to speak of. I suppose this isn’t all too surprising as a majority of the film does take place in one general locale with no real ambience. Also the film’s budget was rather low as well. While this won’t be a disc you’ll really remember for audio presence after finishing it, what is presented suits the film well. All in all this earns a similar “4 Star Rating” for overall audio quality.
Bonus materials are presented in Standard Definition with English Stereo.
- BD-Live is included on this release along with movieIQ+sync, which connects viewers to real-time information on the cast, music, trivia and more while watching the movie.
- Audio Commentary with Director Jordan Gregor: Most commentary tracks don’t really do much for me but Gregor has put together a fine track that is well worth listening to. Speaking on topics like torture, the impact of Obama’s election and other topics, Gregor runs an all-around solid track that fans should definitely listen to.
Overall, the bonus materials are disappointing. Despite a solid commentary track from Gregor, there are no other features to be found.
Blu-ray Disc packaging:
Screenshots:
NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .JPG file format and compressed. Our friend Loys Johnson of Blu-news.com did these because we couldn’t do screenshots for this at the moment. Thanks to him and bare with us as we’ll be bringing you more screenshots in uncompress PNG at a later time.
