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Blu-ray Review War Pigs Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Matt Hough

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Matt Hough
War Pigs Blu-ray Review

Action movies made on a limited budget are sometimes difficult to pull off convincingly and add World War II period paraphernalia into the mix and things become even more impossible. Ryan Little’s War Pigs does what it can with its limited resources, but it’s the barebones script that yields most of the unsatisfying results of this wartime action drama. With a cast of famous if fading leading men of yore and some promising younger cast members who do what they can with their undeveloped characters, the film actually turns out better than it had any right to expect.



Studio: Cinedigm

Distributed By: N/A

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA

Subtitles: English SDH

Rating: R

Run Time: 1 Hr. 28 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray, DVD

keep case in a slipcover

Disc Type: BD25 (single layer)

Region: A

Release Date: 12/01/2015

MSRP: $19.97




The Production Rating: 2.5/5

After heading a failed mission in Belgium in the last year of World War II which resulted in his losing his entire squad including his best friend Sergeant McGreevy (Chuck Liddell), Lieutenant Jack Wosick (Luke Goss) is surprised when he’s selected by Major A.J. Redding (Mickey Rourke) to head a secret surveillance mission behind enemy lines in France to see if reports are true that the Nazis have at the ready a super weapon, the V3, a high pressurized cannon which can fire missiles hundreds of miles with shocking accuracy. For his squad, he’s joined by French Foreign Legion Captain Hans Picault (Dolph Lundgren) to train a half dozen insubordinate soldiers who label themselves “War Pigs,” men ready to get down and dirty but are completely oblivious to the chain of command. Training these disrespectful soldiers proves to be a challenge, and once behind the lines, the squad is shocked to find the area heavily patrolled by Germans and the V3 to be everything intelligence had said it was.

 

The script by Adam Emerson and Luke Schuetzle fails in a couple of basic ways: the lengthy training sequence where the men gradually warm to their two commanders doesn’t really develop the camaraderie necessary for the mission to be carried out successfully and the six “War Pigs” (who might as well as been called the “Dirty Half Dozen”) aren’t given a great deal of time to establish individual identities (we don’t really even learn all of their names). We get to know a bit about their jerky leader August Chambers (Noah Segan) because he’s always got something negative to say about both of his commanders, and three other members of the team get a scrap or two of screen time to establish their more winning personalities: Steven Luke’s Preacher (he’s actually the screenwriter Luke Schuetzle), Jake Stormoen’s Frenchy, and Ryan Kelley’s York, a fresh-faced youngster who gets beaten to a pulp once part of the team gets captured. While Ryan Little’s direction is rather standard and drags things out a little when events should be popping along at a faster clip, the opening firefight with its moving denouement is deftly staged and later melees have decent action for fans of the genre. But the period flavor never takes hold here; we’re never convinced that these guys with their colorful bandanas wrapped around their necks and their ever-present cigarettes are really a part of World War II.

 

Luke Goss is unquestionably the standout actor in the ensemble playing the tortured but dedicated commander trying his best for his men and never letting his temper get the better of him when dealing with these disrespectful soldiers. Dolph Lundgren doesn’t sound much like a German (he’s defected from the German army and joined the foreign legion because he didn’t agree with Hitler’s Nazi agenda), but his solid presence proves to be an asset to the production even with a less-than-convincing accent. Mickey Rourke’s couple of scenes as a slovenly major (who can’t be bothered to comb his hair or wear a uniform that’s anywhere near regulation) don’t ring true for an officer even in the late stages of the war, nor does Noah Segan play anything more than a one-note stereotype as the insolent August. Maclain Nelson does good work as a sadistic Nazi torturing his two American prisoners in the latter stages of the movie.



Video Rating: 4.5/5  3D Rating: NA

Framed at 1.78:1 for home video, the 1080p transfer (AVC codec) looks sharp but only reasonably detailed throughout. Color, however, is quite striking with solid hues and realistic skin tones. Contrast has been consistently applied throughout leading to a solid viewing experience. The movie has been divided into 8 chapters.



Audio Rating: 5/5

Even on a small budget, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is wonderfully enveloping with frequent pans across and through the soundstage and the bursts of fire seemingly in the room with the viewer. Alex Kharlamov’s background score gets a nice spread through the fronts and rears, and the atmospheric effects get proper placement throughout the presentation. Dialogue has been well recorded and has been placed in the center channel.



Special Features Rating: 0.5/5

DVD Copy: disc enclosed in the case.



Overall Rating: 2.5/5

War Pigs is certainly no great shakes as an action-oriented war movie of the mid-20th century period, but it does feature some good performances and an admirably solid production done on a shoestring that could have been far worse than it turned out to be. The Blu-ray while lacking anything in terms of bonus behind-the-scenes material certainly offers the film itself in sterling sound and picture quality.


Reviewed By: Matt Hough


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