Cold Comes the Night (Blu-ray Review)
Cold Comes the Night is a fairly straightforward thriller that is basically a showcase for Bryan Cranston’s Russian criminal character. The film may lack much to really set it apart, but for what it is, the film is fine with moving at a quick pace to tell a fairly pulpy crime story, which happens to be decently acted and shot. This film is no Fargo when it comes to plots surrounding “money being the root of all evil” but it gets the job done well enough and is over before you know it. The Blu-ray is now available, so read on to learn more about my thoughts on this film and the quality of the disc it is on.
Film: 
The film stars Alice Eve as Chloe, a single mother working and living in a shady motel. She has plenty of issues in her life, including her relationship with a corrupt cop, Billy (Logan Marshall-Green), who takes advantage of her on occasion. Enter Topo (Bryan Cranston), a nearly blind bag man, who has stopped at the hotel while en route to delivering cash to a mob boss. An unfortunate series of events forces Topo to hold Chloe and her daughter hostage, forcing Chloe in particular to assist him in making sure he has the money to deliver. With a lot of money on the line and double crosses as a possible problem, lots of mayhem is bound to ensue in this small town.
As mentioned, the story is pretty straightforward and fitting of a 40s noir. There are twists and turns in this film, but nothing all that challenging. The entertainment comes from watching Chloe try to figure her way out of this nightmarish scenario, while also considering how she can perhaps escape the life she is currently living, with her daughter. With that being the case, I was happy to finally appreciate Alice Eve for what she has to offer as an actress. While I have not seen every film featuring Eve, I have seen plenty to have an opinion of her and it has not been of the highest nature. Cold Comes the Night may not have generated a lot of buzz, but it does show proof that Eve has talent beyond just her good looks.
Really though, it is the Bryan Cranston show when it comes to this film. While he is a supporting character, his actions are what push a lot of this story forward and it is fun to see him sink into this sort of role. It is not exactly Heisenberg levels of greatness and Russian accents are always somewhat humorous when American accents attempt them, but the film has a way of keeping a serious tone, while also having a little fun with the grim nature of Topo’s character. I can’t say the same for Logan Marshall-Green, who I find to always be overacting, and not in a fun, Ben Foster-sort of way. He did not harm the film too much though, as it all comes together at the end.
If you are looking for a decent crime film, Cold Comes the Night is a fine effort for what it is. It really is a quick watch, as the film clocks in at barely 80 minutes, before the 9 minutes of credits begin to roll (take that contractual obligations), and it has just enough effort put into the filmmaking to make it a fun watch that happens to have Alice Eve giving a good performance and an always game Cranston taking on a colorful role. That should be enough to make this Night worth checking into.
Video: 
Encoding: AVC MPEG-4
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1:78:1
Clarity/Detail: There is a nice level of clarity seen throughout this film that I was happy to appreciate, given the seedy nature of this story. Despite not being set in an ideal location, as far as living situations go, the details all rang true, as one could really take in the trashiness of a lot of these characters.
Depth: Given the location, once again, it was easy for me to handle the depth one could take in, while watching this film and its not-so-glamorous environments, given what one could inspect going on around the characters featured on screen.
Black Levels: A lot of this film does take place at night and the Blu-ray does a fine job reflecting the blackness of the various environments, rooms, and other settings.
Color Reproduction: Between the blood and Alice Eve’s blonde hair, there are some colors that pop in this film more than others, and the ones that do come out have a fine look to them, which reflects the quality of the picture on this Blu-ray.
Flesh Tones: One can really tell how stripped down a lot of these characters are in this film, as everyone has a natural quality to them.
Noise/Artifacts: Nothing to report in terms of complaints here, as the film is done proper justice in this Blu-ray presentation.
Audio:
Audio Format(s): English, French (PAR), German, Portuguese 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English – Audio Description Track
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Icelandic, Norwegian, Portuguese, Swedish
Dynamics: The film is done justice here, as you get a sense of where everything is on screen, given the way sound is balanced well enough to properly handle the dialogue being tossed around, while minimal amounts of score come in and out of the film.
Low Frequency Extension: The bass helps to emphasize the tension that Topo creates in this film, which is a nice way to get an extra kick out of the solid audio track.
Surround Sound Presentation: This is the kind of film that plays up the ambient sounds, but still does a fine job of splitting the different aspects of the soundtrack in a way that makes it feel as immersive as this pulpy thriller can feel.
Dialogue Reproduction: I never had an issue understanding what anyone was saying, whether it was quiet chatter, shouting threats, or crazy Russian accents.
Extras:
Not a lot to see here.
Features Include:
- Deleted Scenes – Nothing that came close to being important within the ten minutes of deleted footage seen on this disc.
- Trailers
Summary:
Cold Comes the Night will not be a film that many will come to remember as an overlooked gem, but it is a decently made thriller that is made a bit better by the presence of Bryan Cranston and a surprisingly strong performance by Alice Eve. The Blu-ray looks and sounds pretty good, but it lacks much in the way of extras. Worth a rental if you are into to checking out a neat little thriller.
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Aaron is a writer/reviewer for WhySoBlu.com. Follow him on Twitter @AaronsPS4.
He also co-hosts a podcast, Out Now with Aaron and Abe, available via iTunes or at HHWLOD.com
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