Media

Home Theater Movie Renter's Guide - December, 2011

"The Devil's Double" (Blu-ray) - Reviewed by Stephen Hornbrook

Synopsis

Latif Yahia (Dominic Cooper) is an Iraqi man forced to act as a body double for the son of Saddam Hussein, Uday Hussein (Cooper). Uday is a sadistic psychopath who kills anyone that even looks at him in the wrong way. On top of that, he is addicted to drugs and sex and patrols the streets looking for young school girls to rape and kill. Latif wishes he could stop this power hungry playboy, but he loves his family too much to risk their lives. Latif's anger toward Uday grows too strong and he fights back, however, Uday is too in love with how good of a body double Latif is to kill him.

Commentary

The Devil's Double is a pretty intense and frustrating movie. To see a completely insane man in such a role of power made me cringe in anger. Saddam's son Uday, according to Latif's account, was basically a power hungry nut who could never make daddy proud.  He loved to abuse women, and girls, many of whom wound up dead and thrown in a ditch.  Latif was forced into being Uday's body double due only to his looks.  If he had refused, his family would have been killed.

The film is very good and worth watching, however, I did feel that perhaps it might have been rushed just a tad.  I think it would have been nice to have gotten to know Latif and his family a bit before he was thrown into Uday's clutches.  The blu-ray is very well done and definitely worth checking out.

Technical

Picture quality is very good on this Lionsgate Blu-ray. Great color and contrast that really let some of the beautiful photography in this film shine.  Also excellent was the DTS-HD soundtrack which had a wonderful soundstage and loads of punch.

Audio Commentary with Lee Tamahori, "True Crime Family" feature, "Double Down with Dominic Cooper" discussing his roles in the movie, "The Real Devil's Double" profiling Latif Yahia.