Why So Blu?

Good People (Blu-ray Review)

Millennium Entertainment brings us the home entertainment release of the crime-thriller, Good People.   The film feature plenty of prestige and award respect flaunting talent in front of and behind the camera.  Let’s just start listing off shall we?  Academy Award nominee Henrik Ruben Genz directs the all-star cast lead by Academy Award nominee James Franco, Academy Award nominee Kate Hudson, Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson and Omar Sy of Gregg Senko’s favorite film that he loves The Intouchables. Written by Kelly Masterson (Same person who wrote Snowpiercer!) and adapted from the book of the same title by Marcus Sakey, Good People.

Film 

Tom and Anna Wright have moved to London to gain a fresh start for both their careers and family life.  They’re hoping to have a baby with these new plans too.  However, while doing some renovations on a house, Tom has fallen into massive debt and faces an eviction on their apartment.  When they find their downstairs neighbor, who had mob ties, dead, Tom finds $400,000 stashed in his ceiling.  Keeping it from the police, Tom and Anna ponder over whether to snag the money or to report it.  They slowly start leaning on spending the money and also the mob starts turning up wondering where their money disappeared to.

Good People is very much the kind of adult thriller that would have been an A-list blockbuster back in the 90s.  You have stars leading a very kind of pulpy thriller.  The plot, or more the setup for the movie, reminded me a lot of Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan.  Its the basic idea of what would average joe people do if they came across a loot of unclaimed money not knowing where it came from.  And that place it came from of course is a dangerous one.  And then they face the repercussions of holding onto it when violent people come looking for it.

As always, Jame Franco is solid, appearing in one of the hundred films he’s usually associated with in the calendar year.  I was mostly impressed by Kate Hudson who puts in some of her best work in years.  I’m not sure whether this was a theatrical release or not (I’m sure it saw some sort of theatrical play).  But, this is the sort of work that could help her to climb back up the ranks.  She really is talented, we saw that in her debut, and she’s still absolutely stunning looking as if she hasn’t aged a day in the last decade.  That talent is on display here in Good People.  I hope this really opens things back up for her, as she is an enjoyable presence, she just seemed to pick all the wrong movies.

Bad people tend to ruin the Good People‘s time in this thrilling film that works as some rock solid adult thriller entertainment.  The film plays a sort of morality tale and slowly builds on its intensity.  By the end of the film it gets pretty violent and surprisingly so.  All I got to say is “nail gun”.  And yah, it gets used.  Good People is a really decent way to kill sometime and enjoy yourself with an old school 90’s type thriller.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Clarity/Detail:   This is a dimmer darker looking image that is sharp and well defined.  Most of the movie is through a blue filter and some scenes appear yellow.  Dirt, denim patterns, fabric texture and surfaces all feature plenty of detail.  There was even a shot where you could make out a few little bubbles in the wallpaper.

Depth: Pretty decent job between foreground character and background.  Some tracking shots through hallways provide a good sense of separation between person and setting.

Black Levels:  Blacks are inky and help the sharpness and definition of the picture.

Color Reproduction:  Blues stand out, but that’s helped by the fact this whole thing is through the eyes of a blue filter.  Mostly the colors are kept pretty natural and the palette isn’t full of bright staggering colors.

Flesh Tones:  Due to the nature of the film’s look, flesh tones have a little more blue or yellow (depends on the scene of the film) in them.  Consistent throughout and facial detail is high.  In some instances skin appears a little smooth.

Noise/Artifacts:  Clean.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English Stereo 2.0

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics:  This is a loud track that feels very involved even if this isn’t an action heavy film.  Sounds are distinct and well rounded.  There is an efficient balance between score, voice and effect.  Each one feels loose and on their own turf.  Its an above average track that feels mostly standard, does impress in some action moments.

Low Frequency Extension: Gun shots, punches and noises like doors closing are all enhanced by the subwoofer.

Surround Sound Presentation: Rear speakers are used for ambiance and lowered score.  Left/Right/Center interaction is perfectly measured with the action and dialogue onscreen.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is mostly centered, clear and clean.  Volume appropriations are accurately placed.

Extras 

Aside from a slick looking, shiny and texture slipcover, Good People doesn’t offer too much.

“Making Of Featurette” (HD, 2:52) – A pretty worthless little clip that features interviews with the actors who pretty much tell you the synopsis of the film.

Summary 

Good People is a good movie.  Millennium brings it to Blu-ray with a really good presentation.  Both audio and video are quite good.  Where this thing stinks it up is in the extras department, but I don’t know that this film necessarily warrants a huge collector’s edition full of stuff.  It just needs a little more solid interviews than the EPK friendly stuff.  Aside from that, for the right price this is a pretty solid movie to pick up.  Oh yeah, you also get to see Kate Hudson’s unclothed posterior.  I should maybe add to the bonus material score for that 😉