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Released by: Cinedigm
Released on: March 1st, 2106.
Director: Timothy Westwood Jr.
Cast: Tom Sizemore, Mickey Rourke, Johnny Messner, Jon Foo
Year: 2014
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The Movie:
Directed by Timothy Westwood Jr., Weaponized takes place in an America reeling from a brazen terrorist attack on the Pentagon itself. Since this assault, the government has upped their game in the war on terror, taking their efforts to increasingly extreme measures. Part of this effort is comprised of a bio-mechanical nano-technology weapons program overseen by Professor Clarence Peterson (Mickey Rourke). The intent behind this program is that Peterson's efforts will allow specific solders to essentially swap consciousness with their target and in turn gain control over them, if only for a short period of time.
A military contractor named Kyle Norris (Tom Sizemore) oversees Peterson and his work, both men seeming to believe that their efforts will indeed make America a safer place, but as is so often the case in situations like this, the program has been compromised. A soldier named Jack Simon (director Woodward) slaughters a lobby for of people, likely someone's intended targets, but has no memory of the events he was responsible for. Enter tough guy Detective Walker (Johnny Messner) who is tasked with investigating the killing. In doing so, he soon uncovers details about the top secret program, and once he does, he finds himself and his family in danger from those who are pulling the strings behind the scenes.
If you can buy Mickey Rourke as a brilliant scientist you'll probably be reasonably entertained by this, but go in with your expectations in check. The picture does abide by certain genre clichés (“You're not gonna die today, soldier!â€) more than once and some of the scenarios are a little on the ridiculous side. Case in point? Rourke's character arranging to meet with Messner's character. They set it up at a park near a baseball diamond and Rourke, looking bizarre in his unusually colorful suit, dark glasses and with a band aid over his nose, sits there with a tiny little Pomeranian dog on his lap. Why would someone bring a trophy dog to a clandestine meeting in which the participants are to discuss some very important and potentially life threatening government secrets? Why would this same man where a suit that makes him stick out like a sore thumb? Really, isn't the guy with the funny dog and the wacky suit going to, intentionally or not, make his presence known to each and every potential passerby in the area? There are little logic gaps aplenty like that in the picture.
The acting is okay, if uneven. Messner is actually pretty solid here and does a fine job as the detective in question. Rourke, if you hadn't gathered by now, is goofy but his eccentricities are nothing if not amusing. Sizemore phones it in but at least rises above some of his other recent roles and gives this one a bit of enthusiasm. When he grunts out lines like 'There's no murder in way' he kind of at least seems to mean it. Supporting work from John Foo, Michael Paré and pretty Taylor Cole as Messner's wife is also fine.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Weaponized arrives on Blu-ray in an anamorphic 2.35.1 widescreen presentation with AVC encoding in 1080p high definition on a 25GB disc. The locations look nice and offer occasionally impressive use of color and texture to ogle in the background, but occasionally the colors look intentionally unsaturated. Skin tones are good, if leaning towards the hot side of things periodically, while black levels remain dark and pretty strong. There aren't any compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues of note, but there are instances of very mild ringing throughout. There is a pretty impressive level of detail in close ups and sporadic medium and long distance shots. All in all, the movie looks very good here in high definition.
The English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix on this release is solid. The lower end is nice and strong and the plentiful explosions and gun shots all hit pretty hard from every corner of the front of the soundstage. Dialogue is well balanced and mixed in nicely ensuring that you won't have any trouble understanding the performers while the score has some nice liveliness to it. Not much to complain about here, really, it all sounds quite good. Optional subtitles are provided in English.
Extras are slim, limited to two minutes of deleted scenes, a trailer, menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Weaponized is an entertaining, if fairly disposable, B-grade action/conspiracy thriller picture. It's more than a bit predictable but the action set pieces are well staged and Messner is good in the lead. Not essential viewing, but a fun time killer if you're in the right frame of mind for it. Cinedigm's Blu-ray debut, if light on extras, looks and sounds very good.
No screen caps this time around, here's a trailer instead!
