Hijacked

Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released on: 7/31/2012
Director: Brandon Nutt
Cast: Randy Couture, Vinnie Jones, Craig Fairbrass, Dominic Purcell, Holt McCallany
Year: 2012
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The Movie:

A special government agent, Paul Ross (Randy Couture), is fresh off a nasty gunfight where a colleague got the business end of a gun, and now he's looking to patch things up with his best girl Olivia (Tiffany Dupont). Before he can get to that, he learns of a plot contrived from The Tribe, a very criminal organization that was involved with the shooting death of his fellow agent friend. The tip says that the private jet of a billionaire is going to be hijacked, so he goes to ride along on the plane to make sure all is safe. And as fate would have it, his gal pal Olivia is on the plane too! The odds…Once the hijackers finally start hijacking, its up to Ross (and his cauliflower ears) to take down the terrorists before they take down the plane and all those in it.

Yes, it sounds very familiar. Why shouldn't it? It's been done before and a Hell of a lot better. But still, cheesy action flicks tend to entertain, right? Well, that's the hope but sadly this one falls a bit short. Ross has a pretty good screen presence, despite his less-than-thespian grade acting skills, and when he keeps quiet he's fine. There's enough action in this one to make the running time go at a decent pace, but Die Hard this isn't, and Ross' adversary comes off a bit of a weenie.

So how is the action? Middle of the road, to be honest, and it's pretty much all CG enhanced or generated, which for many people is a no-no. And it's not the best CG ever made either. Every time they show the plane flying it looks painfully phony. And taking into account that the filmmakers were using a man famous for his fighting ability, the fight scenes are mediocre, never really going for the over-the-top angle that helps makes this caliber of movie so enjoyable.

Even so, the movie should hold one's interest without causing too much of a struggle. The brainless plot ends with a wide open sequel opportunity, so get ready for that. It could be ok, you never know.

Video/Audio/Extras:

This disc produces a nice picture with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It's average looking, insofar as Blu-ray goes, and certainly not of reference quality, but it's a solid presentation. The detail is satisfying, as are the black levels, and there's really nothing here to note that's out of the ordinary. No authoring issues were noted.

The audio mix is a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track and is pretty loud. The dialogue sometimes gets missed during the lulls in noise as it gets pretty quiet during those times. Great use of the surrounds though, and plenty of sub-woofer action.

As far as extras go, there aren't any. It's a BD/DVD combo pack if you want to consider that an extra.

The Final Word:

It's not a waste of time, it's nothing memorable, and it's just okay. Renting it might
save you from buyer's remorse.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!