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Fire With Fire
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Lions Gate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (23rd February 2013). |
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The Film
 It’s a little sad – and it was slightly shocking – to see that Bruce Willis has now joined the ranks of venerable actors who are producing films that go straight to video. Now, certainly not everything he’s making has gone that route. In fact, he’s currently stinking up multiplexes worldwide with the worse-than-you-can-believe (or so I’ve been told) “A Good Day to Die Hard” (2013). But I don’t blame that on Bruce, though. Sure, he signed on to make it, but I would also imagine that signing included an obscene amount of money. And let’s face it, the guy looks like he’s having fun in everything he makes these days, so why not don the McClane guise again and go wild? I digress, and I really shouldn’t, since despite his mug clearly plastered on the front “Fire With Fire” (2012) is not a Bruce Willis film. No, this is entirely Josh Duhamel’s (I need to be known as someone other than Fergie’s boyfriend) vehicle. It’s too bad this chose to forego a theatrical release because, believe it or not, it’s actually a good revenge flick. If you’re someone who generally expects 8 or 9 out of every 10 DTV movies will blow, then this is the one most can agree doesn’t. Jeremy Coleman (Josh Duhamel) is a firefighter in Long Beach, CA who has just gotten off his night shift. He stops by the local mini-mart to grab some snacks, but almost as soon as he does the new thug on the block, avid white supremacist David Hagan (Vincent D’Onofrio) enters with his muscle men to strong arm the shop’s owner into giving up his lease. The guy, of course, refuses. And David’s men, of course, shooting the ever-loving sh*t out of him and his young son. But when they try to blast Jeremy, he makes a run for it and manages to get to the police. There he meets Mike Cella (Bruce Willis), an old-school officer who has a history with Hagan, and he wants him bad. So, they put Jeremy in Witness Protection until he can testify against a now-incarcerated Hagan at trial. That is, until Hagan’s men are able to ascertain Jeremy’s whereabouts and they try to kill him. Now that his cover has been blown, time to relocate again and start yet another all-new identity. Except this time, Jeremy isn’t having it. He decides Hagan won’t ruin his life, or the life of his new girlfriend, Talia (Rosario Dawson), so he goes after him. Despite his lack of combat skills, ambush skills… hell, most of the skills one would need to execute such a mission. Jeremy goes full throttle at Hagan and his men, waging a one-man crusade to get his life back and to end all of theirs. As I said earlier, this is really Duhamel’s film to make or break, and he surprised me with an intentionally awkward performance as a regular guy who refuses to allow a degenerate scumbag to ruin his life. Now, what I mean by “awkward” is that Jeremy is no killer, not by a long shot. So, when he’s put in a corner and basically forced to, his reactions to the events feel genuine. When he gets the drop on one of Hagan’s men later in the film, he does it so sloppily that there are about a dozen opportunities for the thug to turn the tables. Once he does, Jeremy’s triumph is sheer luck. It also makes him queasy. While trying to determine Hagan’s location, he tortures a guy by pounding off his fingers with a paint scraper. After he lops off the first digit, he runs off to puke! In fact, throughout the entire inquisition he’s visibly shaky and uneasy with the whole thing. But he knows he HAS to do it if he ever wants a normal life again. It’s that sense of uncertainty, the slightly clumsy way he has of dealing with the situation he’s thrust into, that help this revenge film stand out from others. Willis, despite a prominent photoshopped head on the film’s cover, doesn’t do much but stand around in an office and bark about taking down Hagan. He does get his one “tough guy” scene; it’s not much, just a quick beatdown on a faceless goon. I’d assume a lion’s share of the budget went to Bruce, unless he did this as a favor, because I can’t think of a good reason to have had him here other than to add some weight to the film. Not that it needs it, because Vincent D’Onofrio is chilling as the sadistic, Aryan brother who is waging a war against the Crips (or it was the Bloods; does it matter? No.). He’s a shitty boss, often beating his own men to a pulp for any perceived insubordination or failed attempts at capturing Jeremy. He isn’t rash or impulsive, preferring a subtle, Southern gentleman type of approach to his business dealings. In some ways, he’s the Private Pyle who never committed suicide, though I’d be hesitant to fully admit Pyle would have the wherewithal to put together an operation such as this. A revenge film can sometimes only be as strong as its main villain, and even though Duhamel does good work as the protagonist, D’Onofrio’s portrayal of Hagan is what you’re going to remember. We get a few more familiar faces to fill out the ranks, but the two most people are going to notice are Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. (no relation, if you didn’t already know). These two guys show up as members of the local Crips gang in Long Beach, where Jeremy goes later in the film to ask for assistance in getting the firepower he needs to blast Hagan’s ass away. Again, I’m not sure why they couldn’t have just cast anyone in these roles and not paid for name actors. At least Rampage gets a nice scene where he beats the crap out of Duhamel so bad he pukes in the streets. 50 Cent steps out from a dark room, mumbles some sh*t for about 4 minutes, and then we never see him again. Add in the fact that he isn’t even a decent actor and it makes one wonder just what the hell he’s doing here.
Video
I wouldn’t exactly call the film’s 2.40:1 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded image a mixed bag, but there are a few deficiencies that prevent it from being top notch. Black levels are good – almost too good, because when we lose the daylight we also lose much of the detail in the image. Shadows almost consume the picture entirely without additional light, which can make some of what’s happening very hard to see. Colors look slightly warm, possibly oversaturated a bit. There are many crisp, defined shots throughout, with faces showcasing individual beads of sweat amongst smears of grime and blood. The camera gets right into the action by pulling off some bullet tracking shots that look pretty damn cool. If you’re making a typical genre picture, might as well stock it with some memorable shots that will maintain the audience’s attention. Depth is average, nothing to crow about. All in all, there’s more good than bad on display here.
Audio
The soundtrack explodes with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound track mixed at 48kHz/24-bit that may surprise some viewers with its aggression. From the outset, the bass levels are robust and enveloping, producing a near-constant low end that really rumbles when called upon. The film’s score is mainly electronic, and the hypnotic tunes kept my ears tuned in while keeping the frenzied pace moving along. Gunshots sound tight and controlled bursting from every speaker with such strong clarity that you’ll swear there’s a drive-by occurring outside your home in some scenes. Dialogue is well balanced in the mix; never low or lost out to the films other sound cues. Subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
For a DTV film, this disc is stacked with a lot of supplemental material. Unfortunately, most of it is crap. We have two audio commentaries, a featurette, a series of interviews, the film's theatrical trailer and bonus trailers. The first audio commentary with director David Barrett and cinematographer Christopher Probst is the more technical of the two included tracks. This is the track for film nerds; the people who want to learn the minutia of shooting a picture. For you, this will be a good listen. It can be a bit dry, but the technical details gleaned here are of much more interest than track #2 will be. I guarantee that. The second audio commentary is with actors Vincent D’Onofrio (whose character is only in about half the film), Eric Winter (who has about 7 minutes of screen time), and James Lesure (who might have even less). Based on that information, can you guess how boring this track is? I thought it was missing entirely when I turned it on because there are longgggggg stretches where no one says a thing. It’s almost comical. I even skipped ahead a few chapters hoping to catch a nugget here or there. It’s a barren wasteland. Avoid this one. “Behind the Scenes Interviews” (1080p) featurette runs for 9 minutes and 20 seconds. Typical stuff – cast & crew discuss the film while we get shown some b-roll footage of them making the movie. Standard boilerplate. Extended interviews with cast & crew (1080p) contains A LOT of footage featuring actors trying to make this film sound unique. Amusingly, at the start of every single one of these the actor in question repeats the premise like a parrot. We get face time with the following: - Director David Barrett runs for 21 minutes and 43 seconds. - Josh Duhamel runs for 22 minutes and 18 seconds. - Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson runs for 20 minutes and 25 seconds. - Eric Winter runs for 5 minutes and 53 seconds. - James Lesure runs for 5 minutes and 15 seconds. - Vinnie Jones runs for 5 minutes and 2 seconds. - Quinton “Rampage” Jackson- Nnamdi Asomugha runs for 11 minutes and 38 seconds. - Producer Randall Emmett runs for 14 minutes and 17 seconds. I just want to point out that 50 Cent talks for almost quadruple the time he’s actually in the film. And, yes, he sounds like his brain is straining to make the film sound important. The film’s theatrical trailer (1080p) runs for 2 minutes and 31 seconds. Bonus trailers (1080p) are included for the following: - “Safe” runs for 2 minutes and 2 seconds. - “Freelancers” runs for 2 minutes and 19 seconds. - “Haywire” runs for 1 minute and 24 seconds. - “EPIX promo” runs for 1 minute and 13 seconds. Finally, we have the usual bookmarks feature, which I might consider using once for someone’s explosive, fiery death at the end.
Packaging
A single disc in an Blu-ray eco-case. Bruce Willis looks photshopped to hell in every poster and video cover he’s been on for the last 5 years or so, but Duhamel’s face is so airbrushed here you can’t even tell it’s him. Who makes these decisions?
Overall
It doesn’t reinvent the wheel in any way, but some good performances and a halfway decent story at the very least make this one worth a viewing if you don’t have anything substantially better to do.
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