Media

Home Theater Movie Renter's Guide - June, 2010

"Edge of Darkness" (Blu-ray) - Reviewed by Stephen Hornbrook

Synopsis

The movie begins with a nighttime shot of a river, an odd looking building at the top of a hill along the shore, and 3 bodies floating to the surface. The scene cuts to Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) picking up his daughter, Emma (Bojana Novakovic), at the station. She vomits while getting into the car then later at home, as Thomas cooks dinner, Emma has a nosebleed and vomits again. She says she needs to see a doctor and tell him something. As they are rushing to leave the house and head to the hospital, a masked gunman jumps out and yells "Craven!" then fires a couple shotgun blasts at Emma before driving away. Emma gets blasted through the door and soon dies in Thomas' arms.

Thomas being a police detective seemed the obvious target. Everyone assumes the gunman missed and hit his daughter by accident. (although if this were true, wouldn't the gun man just the half second to adjust his trajectory and shoot Thomas as well? I guess these are not very good detectives.) Thomas does some sluething and finds Emma's boyfriend who has gone crazy with paranoia. He suspects Northmoor, the company Emma worked for, has been producing illegal nuclear weapons. So too did the 3 dead activists whom Northmoor killed. They also poisoned Emma to keep her quiet. On a quest for vengeance, Thomas goes on a killing spree, taking out quite a few Northmoor employees.

 

Commentary

I was actually excited to see this movie. The theatrical trailer made the movie look exciting and fast paced. However the flow just wasn't there for me. Mel does a decent job here, but he certainly wasn't at the top of the game. The story lacked some twists and turns to keep you guessing. I was never on the edge of my dark seat. It was good enough to rent, but that's about it.

Technical

Both the video and audio are excellent on this disc. There are some terrific gun shots that you just feel, they were actually quite scary. Video is sharp and detailed with natural color.

Extras

Included are some short featurettes and deleted scenes. Nothing of real substance.

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