Blu-ray Review: The Devil's Own

THE MOVIE: 3 1/2 stars out of 5

The Devil’s Own stars Harrison Ford as Tom O’Meara, a New York City cop who unknowingly, takes in an IRA leader, Frankie McGuire (Brad Pitt) and gun runner into his home. Frankie McGuire has come to the US to purchase weapons to take back to Northern Ireland. Tom and his family are not aware of Frankie’s real identity and they become friends. However, Frankie’s attempt to purchase weapons does not go as planned and his identity is revealed to Tom who attempts to track Frankie down and bring him to justice before Frankie is killed by British Intelligence and the FBI.

I must say that I found the first half of the film to be rather tedious. Fortunately, the action picks up a bit at the end but not enough for me to rate this one as a must buy. Accordingly, The Devil’s Own is recommended as a rental only.

THE VIDEO: 4 1/3 stars out of 5

The Devil’s Own is encoded with AVC and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2:40:1. For a catalogue title of some vintage, the image quality here was better than what I had expected it to be. The image had good clarity and acceptable black levels. Black levels were fairly deep but not as deep as the best looking transfers which robbed the film of the three dimensionality that is characteristic of the best looking transfers.The lack of deep blacks made the image appear a tad on the flat side but with some depth of field. Colors were natural looking with the exception of flesh tones which were skewed to the red and looked rather unnatural. Detail was good as well so that things such as the pores on the actors faces, clothing and background textures were visible but without the very fine detail rendition that is the hallmark of the very best transfers. I found the shadow detail to be a tad below average with some noise in the darker areas of the film. Overall, the noise was not so obtrusive to negatively impact my overall enjoyment of the film.

THE AUDIO: 4 1/3 stars out of 5

Encoded with Dolby True HD, the audio presentation here is fairly good but falls a good bit short of the best sounding audio encodes. Dialogue is clear and distinct and easy to follow. The overall sound of the film is smooth and open but lacks the richness and fullness that grace the very best audio presentations. Dynamics are quite good with solid albeit not earth shattering bass. The surrounds are used fairly effectively to give a good immersive effect but not quite up to the level of the better audio encodes. The sound mix comes up a tad short of placing you in the acoustic environment with the actors, placing you only part of the way there. I guess I am a bit spoiled by such spectacular audio presentations such as found on I Robot which is truly spectacular in every way and which places you completely in the center of the action. This is simply not the case here. The sound of gun shots and bombs on The Devil’s Own have the appropriate heft and realism that one would expect in a modern film but do not overwhelm you the way the best sounding films do. On the whole, I enjoyed the audio here but it is simply not up to the level of the best action thrillers.

IN CONCLUSION

The Devil’s Own is by no means one of the better action thrillers out there but well worth a rental. It boasts good audio and video which I am sure will please fans of the film. However, the film itself is not such that I would rate it as a must buy. Therefore, I would have to rate this one as a rental only.

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