By Philip Dunkley
Starring: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Charles S. Dutton, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton
Directed by: David Koepp
After last week’s first attempt at a fully fledged Blu Ray review, it seems that it draws a little more interest than just releasing short reviews. It also seems that the competition is appreciated, but I really need more entries this time, come on guys, it’s for free.
Let’s take a look at this week’s movie, Secret Window, based on master of horror Stephen King’s story called “Secret Window, Secret Gardenâ€.
The story is based around a successful writer, Mort Rainey, who seems to be going through a bit of writers block after he discovers his wife has been having an affair. He has moved to the country, and is holed up in a little log cabin in the woods on a beautiful lake. Here he spends his time with his dog and Cleaning lady, but is pretty much isolated from the real world. He spends most of his time sleeping, moving between his bed and couch, and get’s very little writing done.
One day a guy shows up on his doorstep, claiming that Mort stole his story, called Secret Garden, a few years ago, and if he does not fix this, he is going to kill him.
Now here is where things go particularly awry in the movie. If someone threatens to kill me over something I have not done, I would panic and freak out and wreak all sorts of havoc, but Mort seems to go about things in a way to calm fashion. He then enlists the help of a PI, who he’s used before, to try and get to the bottom of what’s going on, but things get out of hand very quickly.
I can’t really reveal anymore o the plot here, as it would give way too much away, but let’s just say that there is a small twist in the plot, which explains the whole movie.
It’s a dark movie, and Depp gives a very intense performance, as always, but it could have been done a little better, and instilled a little more fear into the viewer. Just a note here, it seems that Johnny Depp has picked up a few character traits from Capt Jack Sparrow, and this is evident more than once in the movie.
Video
The video in this movie is average, and sometimes you can tell the difference between the DVD version and the Blu-Ray version, but this time I could not. It has grainy sections in dark places. It is presented in 1080p Widescreen. It’s not worse than the DVD, but not noticeably better either.
Sound
The movie is presented in both PCM uncompressed Surround, and also in standard Dolby Digital 5.1, and once again sits on the average fence, having moments of sheer brilliance, quickly moving to narrow fields of audio and wrong speaker output, so again, good, but not great.
Extras
Not a whole bunch here, just a few deleted scenes, behind the scenes looks, some animated story boards and Directors commentary. Let’s not forget the previews, and you get a pretty normal set of extras.
Conclusion
It’s by no stretch of the imagination the best movie you’ll ever see, but it is entertaining nonetheless. If I had not figured it out so early in the movie, it might have been a little more thrilling, and it’s not that much better than the DVD version, so here I’m going to have to say, if you don’t own it, and like the best, go for the BD version. If you have already seen it or own it, it’s not worth the extra dosh over the DVD version.
Competition time!!!
Name the current best selling Blu-Ray player on the market? This is easy, but I will at least make you think as it could be a trick question. Send all answers to philip@lazygamer.co.za . The winner will receive a copy of Secret Window on Blu Ray. Entries close on Thursday 29th May 2008, and draw will take place on 30th May 2008.
We would like to thank Ster-Kinekor for sponsoring the prize.
Last Updated: May 23, 2008
