Impulse Gamer Home


Dead Calm Blu-ray Review - www.impulsegamer.com -

Feature 7.5
Video 7.0
Audio 7.0
Special Features 1.0
Total 7.0

Distributor: Warner
Running Time: 96 mins
Reviewer: Joshua Blackman
Classification
: M15+

7.0


Dead Calm

Nicole Kidman gets a bad rap. Despite the current backlash against her, she’s still a fine actress, and back in 1989 she found herself in her first big role in Dead Calm. Based on a 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Williams, Dead Calm is an efficient and claustrophobic thriller that begins strongly but ultimately descends into slasher movie clichés.

Husband and wife, John (Sam Neill) and Rae (Kidman) are taking some time out for R&R on their yacht. Drifting through the sheet ice seas they stumble across the athletic Hughie (Billy Zane), who claims his shipmates died of botulism. John doesn’t quite believe his story, and leaves his wife and the sleeping Hughie to investigate Hughie's abandoned vessel, the Orpheus. It quickly becomes obvious that their deaths – all attractive young women – may not have been accidental. A tense cat and mouse game between Kidman and Zane ensues as John struggles to keep the sinking Orpheus afloat.

Kidman's Rae is apparently not the brightest fish in the sea, and takes some time to appreciate that Hughie does not want the best for his newly adopted hosts. Perhaps this is understandable since Hughie doesn't seem to know what he wants either: while he is clearly a psychopath, one wonders why he just doesn’t kill Rae immediately. This, and other logical flaws (Rae captures him, and then just ties him up on the floor?), mar the second half, which increasingly resembles the final confrontation of any number of slasher movies, complete with the killer's almost supernatural ability to return from the dead.

These contrivances detract from, but don't ruin, an otherwise taut thriller that benefits hugely from the small cast and the isolated location, beautifully captured by cinematographer Dean Semler. The performances from the three leads are fine, the energy between Zane and Kidman nicely contrasting the understated relationship between husband and wife. And it's this subtleness, sparse dialogue and Phillips Noyce's deliberate direction that gives the film its desperate, frightening tone. At least, that is, until Billy Zane turns into Michael Myers.

The Blu-ray itself is mediocre, with no special features bar a very low quality full-screen reproduction of the theatrical trailer, and a transfer that lacks clarity and definition. Still, it's a perfectly adequate reproduction of the film, just don't expect featurettes on the level of the recent edition of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek.






 
 



   Games
   PlayStation 4
   XBox One
   PlayStation 3
   XBox 360
   PC
   PS Vita
   Wii U
   Wii
   3DS
   DS
   PSP
   Apple
   Casual
   Android
   Classics

  Movies
   Movies & IMAX
   Blu-ray
   Action
   Anime
   Comedy
   Crime & Thrillers
   Documentaries
   Drama
   Family
   Horror
   Kids
   Lifestyle
   Music
   Romance
   Sci-fi
   Sport

   IT
   PC
   Apple
   Hardware

   Information & Fun
   News
   Interviews
   Articles

   Tara's G-Spot
   Loren's Level
   Comics
   Books
   Mind & Body
   Music
   Competitions
   Community
 








 
 




Impulse Gamer is your source for the
latest Reviews and News on Video Games,
Entertainment, Pop Culture, Hardware &
More!

 


© 2001 - 2021 Impulse Gamer
 

 

About Us | Contact Us