Why So Blu?

Apex (Blu-ray Review)

In APEX, serving a life sentence for a crime he didn’t commit, ex-cop Thomas Malone is offered a chance at freedom if he can survive a deadly game of Apex. Six hunters pay for the pleasure of hunting another human on a remote island, but once Malone arrives all hell breaks loose. Laying traps and playing mind games, Malone tries to turn the tables and fight for his life and his future. Apex is now available on Blu-ray!

Film

In the future, wealthy people hunt criminals and those less worthy. Think of it as Surviving the Game meets The Running Man. In Apex a wrongly convicted man named Thomas Malone (Bruce Willis) will now be hunted by those that can afford to hunt people like him. Dr. Samuel Rainsford (Neal McDonough), a trillionaire several times over, gets his rocks off hunting his fellow man and he never loses. His next target: Bruce Willis, I mean, Thomas Malone.

Being that Apex is Bruce Willis’ eight film in a year, one has to go in with zero expectations. I went in there, because I’m a general fan of films that resemble The Most Dangerous Game. They’re fun and this one looked fun enough. First things first, is the film any good? Not really. Is it entertaining? Sure. There are some groovy kills and the special visual fx are not half bad by low budget cookie cutter standards.

The story is a simple cat and mouse game, with Bruce Willis looking a bit less bored and Neal McDonough relishing his role as the uber-wealthy top-dog assassin. Some of the supporting characters are really awfully portrayed. It’s much more entertaining when Neal and Bruce are on screen. As I mentioned before, the cool kills do come in clutch.

I have not seen all of eight Bruce Willis’ from last year, but can say that Apex is one of the better ones (I assume). That may not be saying much all things considered, but the fact that the production values and McDonough’s enthusiastic performance elevates the material higher that much higher. Not by much, but it’s enough to give it a “for fans” only.

 

Video  

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Clarity/Detail: Apex looks great on Blu-ray. Contrast and sharpness levels are nice and balanced.  Any processing done for this release would be for aesthetics and not a fault with the authoring — there’s an occasional lens flare here and there.

Depth: Being that this is a lower budgeted film, there is a nice sense of scale that the Blu-ray brings out.

Black Levels: Black levels are deep and inky — I did not notice any crush.

Color Reproduction: The color palette is rich and vibrant. The outdoor scenes out in the forests really stand out the most. Some of the scenes involving futuristic cityscapes also looked great.

Flesh Tones: Flesh tones looked nice and healthy.

Noise/Artifacts: I did not notice any artifacts or debris on this Blu-ray release.

 

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD MA 5.1

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics: As is customary with these RLDJ releases, the audio specifications are top notch for a lower budgeted feature. The lossless DTS 5.1-HD MA is practically demo-quality and really adds some depth to the film. It’s a very active soundtrack and I was pleased with it.

Low Frequency Extension: Guns of all calibers are used throughout the film, but the biggest canon around is that of the LFE-subwoofer channel, which handles the explosions and carnage with some heavy artillery of its own. Fire in the hole, indeed.

Surround Sound Presentation: Apex takes place on an island, so the ambiance is heavy with aerial wildlife, gunshots, and various shuffling in the weeds. It’s quite impressive.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue levels are excellent, even when Willis mumbles about, “like bacon and eggs on Sunday morning.”

 

Extras 

There are no special features on this Blu-ray release.

 

Summary 

Apex was not as godawful as I thought it was going to be if past Bruce Willis DTV films were any indication. The tech specs rocked, with great video and audio. The lack of extras on this Blu-ray do drag the score down, but I would give it a “for fans” of the “hunting humans” sub-genre only.

 

 

Apex is now available on Blu-ray!

 

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