Blu-ray Review Welcome to the Jungle (2013) Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Kevin EK]

Welcome to the Jungle (2013) Blu-ray Review

Welcome to the Jungle gets lost on Blu-ray, pointlessly wasting 90 minutes of any viewer’s time, assuming anyone can make it that long without turning it off. The Blu-ray offers great picture and sound, but the actual movie on the disc is one that readers are recommended to avoid.

Studio: Universal

Distributed By: N/A

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA, Spanish 5.1 DTS, French 5.1 DTS, Other

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French, Dutch, Other

Rating: Not Rated

Run Time: 1 Hr. 35 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray, Digital Copy, UltraViolet

Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer)

Region: ABC

Release Date: 03/25/2014

MSRP: $26.98

The Production Rating: 1/5

There are times when the role of a reviewer is to protect the reader from an unpleasant experience. Welcome to the Jungle offers one of those times. Simply put, it’s an unfunny exercise, throwing the audience onto a remote tropical island along with an uninteresting bunch of corporate ad company folk and a survival training “expert” (Jean-Claude Van Damme). The movie starts out with some painfully unfunny moments in the corporate office with boss Dennis Haysbert (who seems to have only been around for a couple of days of this shoot) and progresses to a low-rent version of Survivor meets Lost meets Lord of the Flies. Along the way, the viewer is subjected to a series of repellant moments of bathroom humor and character humiliation. One must assume the filmmakers thought they were making an homage to the uncomfortable style of Ricky Gervais and The Office. Unfortunately, they forgot to bring the funny. Even the one potentially funny gag of the movie – Van Damme being attacked out of nowhere by a tiger (a joke lifted from Samuel L. Jackson’s hysterical cameo in Deep Blue Sea), is immediately repeated three times until it’s just as painful to watch as the rest of the movie. While I doubt readers have been eagerly awaiting this film, I feel it is my responsibility to warn people not to spend their home entertainment coin in this direction. Be afraid. Be very afraid.Welcome to the Jungle will be released on Blu-ray on March 25^th.

Video Rating: 4/5 3D Rating: NA

Welcome to the Jungle is presented in a 1080p AVC 2.40:1 transfer (@ an average 36 mbps) that does a good job of presenting the tropical island locale, particularly during the daylight scenes. The night scenes are intentionally murky. One supposes you could turn the sound off and just enjoy the scenery when it’s there.

Audio Rating: 4/5

Welcome to the Jungle is presented in an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in English (@ an average 3.5 mbps). The good part is that the dialogue is clear and intelligible when most of the cast is speaking. The drawback is that the dialogue is clear and intelligible, confirming that the writing really is as bad as the viewer may suspect after about 60 seconds has gone by. The dialogue from Van Damme is a bit hard to understand at times, but that’s not a fault with the mix. Even fans of Van Damme concede that dialogue has never been his strong suit. The Blu-ray also contains DTS 5.1 mixes in Spanish, French, Italian, and Thai

Special Features Rating: 1/5

The Blu-ray presentation of Welcome to the Jungle comes with a single deleted scene, and, impossibly, an hour long assembly of BTS footage from the shoot.Behind the Scenes (59:13, 1080p) – I cannot believe that this movie merited nearly an hour’s worth of on-set footage and interviews. This assembly is nearly as tedious as the movie itself, and that’s saying something. It’s frankly disheartening that a movie like this gets an hour’s worth of on-set footage included on the disc while more worthwhile pictures struggle to get perhaps three to five minutes worth of interviews for the fans. Deleted Scene (1:25, 1080p) – Here’s another scene of the cast trudging through the jungle. Digital Copy – Instructions are included in the packaging for downloading a digital copy of the movie to your laptop or portable device. Subtitles are available for the film and the special features, in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Thai, Korean, Cantonese, Mandarin, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, and of course, Icelandic. A full chapter menu is available for the film.I note that the main menu for this movie is designed to look a little bit like a computer interface and can be a little confusing at first. Beware of hitting the “Home” option, as this will just run you through all the opening screens and previews again. Below that option, you’ll see icons for “Play”, “Chapters”, “ Extras”, etc. This assumes, of course, that you’ve disregarded my warnings here and decided to see the carnage for yourself.

Overall Rating: 1/5

Welcome to the Jungle is ironically well-titled, considering the unpleasant experience it may deliver to unsuspecting viewers. The Blu-ray is well-appointed in technical terms, but all the bells and whistles can’t put lipstick on a movie this bad. Fans of Jean-Claude Van Damme are cautioned that this is far from the height of his career as an action star. Movie fans in general are strongly warned to think three times before even renting this one.

Reviewed By: Kevin EK

Support HTF when you buy this title:

 

[schan1269]

Pre-ordered.Need a coaster.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Kevin, tell us how you REALLY feel!

 

[Mike Frezon]

 

[Kevin EK]

I think I may have provided more entertainment in taking down this movie than the movie itself did.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I think I may have provided more entertainment in taking down this movie than the movie itself did.

I'll never know, because I won't ever see the movie.

But you sure did entertain me earlier today when I read your review, Kevin.