Why So Blu?

The Runner (Blu-ray Review)

I have a fascination with Nicolas Cage that is paramount to most things in my life. I googled bio-sonar once because I was on a walk in the dead of the night on the hem of a field of straw far from existence and I thought I heard Nicolas Cage’s voice from Adaptation and immediately jumped to the conclusion that we must have a secret way of communicating, a harmonic composition if I may. Then I thought to myself, “that must be my new cochlear implant malfunctioning.” And then I thought — “I don’t have a cochlear implant” — and then I thought, “I am a microbat bat and Nicolas Cage is a horseshoe bat and we can communicate through echolocation.” I had this friend who was telling me a story once about how he’d met Nicolas Cage, after the conversation I thought about what an imaginative yarn my friend was spinning, yet I found myself jogging and soon running to said location and their I saw an Owl. It looked me in the eye and I knew it was him. I chased after it but it soon left me to the light of the moon and there I did the same hand gesture that they do in Mad Max when someone dies — in a state of displeasure I comforted myself by walking home and watching a crowd pleaser,The Runner.

Film 

Well gee wiz and a bag of peanuts if Nicolas Cage didn’t do it again! He didn’t do it again. Sans my extreme fascination with Nicolas Cage and terrible obsession with the myth surrounding his being a vampire, there isn’t a lot of cloth to work with while writing this review. The Runner follows an emotionally and slightly morally corrupt politician and his involvement with the aftermath of the BP oil spill in 2010. Colin Price (Nicolas Cage) struggles with an alcohol addiction and an acute allergy to elevator cameras that catch him in the act with ladies of the night. She wasn’t a lady of the night, she was just a lady who was getting her a good dose of some Mr.Price. I’m surprised she didn’t exclaim, “and the Price is Right!” post-coital. I’m surprised not one of the three women he sleeps with in this movie says that. An opportunity missed. Needless to say this scandalous moment forced Price to resign which in turn stems resentment from his wife, Deborah Price (Connie Nielsen) who is essentially a political robot. She’s a powerful attorney and her vibrator is definitely shaped like “doughface” James Buchanan —  with a sexual prowess to match his political slogan, “I acknowledge no master but the Law.”

If there is one thing that jives well with me about this film it’s Cage’s ability to capture Colin Price’s seemingly very real love for politics. The urgency, sense, and need to do the right thing, relatively speaking, came across nicely and was the most enjoyable part of this movie. The transparency of Price was compelling at times. Painting a perfect portrait of someone is dull, and I found Price’s infidelity coupled with his passions refreshing. Imperfect, and that is what most of us are. This film also serves as some pretty interesting social/political commentary on what type of marital disrupt the public is OK with concerning politicians. As mentioned in the film, there was a politician who was caught soliciting illegal sex from prostitutes yet was still in office, and Price was asked to step down because he cheated on his wife. We often think of heroes as someone who is entirely perfect and there is rarely any such thing and even then by who’s definition of perfect. That’s what I liked about this film, I could relate to at once not being the perfect human by definition but also having extreme passion for projects at hand. This movie is a reminder that those qualities aren’t negated by what is considered moral or not.

Jokes ensue. Deborah Price’s wishes are to be left the EFF alone if Colin Price decides to resign and that he does. Side note, GOOD. Colin Price didn’t want to associate himself with oil-loving assholes and I am down with that JIVE. I digress. He get’s with his savvy consultant Kate Haber (Sarah Paulson.) There minute affair is kind of sweet at first but I found the only thing I could concentrate on was Paulson’s not so exciting acting ability in this role. She’s also going through a divorce by the way, but oh wait, she’s not and does a fake out on Price who then get’s rip roaring drunk and slams into his almost ex-wifes garage where suddenly three-thousand dildos in the shape of various oil-lobbyists come springing from the broken door. I’m kidding. Price does get drunk and run into their garage door though. A literal thirty movie seconds later, Price loses his back bone and goes back to his wife and deceives his political values making the last half hour of this movie sad. Everyone’s acting was sad. I was sad. My cat was sad. My dead relatives were sad. My husband fell asleep — he was even crying in his sleep because he was sad. It was sad.

This movie could have been something entertaining and it fell apart unfortunately. I still enjoy Nicolas Cage.

Video 

Encoding: AVC/MPEG-4

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Clarity/Detail: I could draw every facial expression from Nicolas Cage’s face — that’s how damn clear it was.

Depth: One word– Blu-ray. Second word — awesome. Third word — effing clear

Black Levels: Dark as the deep sea where Poseidon himself rests upon his throne of coral — flanked by two Octopi.

Color Reproduction: Grey tones — much like the desert they serve in Beauty and the Beast 

Flesh Tones: Grey — much like the desert they serve in Beauty and the Beast 

Noise/Artifacts: Zilch

Audio 

Audio Format(s):English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish

Dynamics: There’s a lot of sexual noise in this movie as well as the sounds of being an alcoholic and also the sounds of being sad.

Low Frequency Extension: In this case — Colin Price has no problem extending at a low frequency. It’s quite the opposite actually, he has what I would consider a high frequency extension. ha-ha-ha.

Surround Sound Presentation: Full effect. I could her the sadness as if it were coming from me even — so there’s that.

Dialogue Reproduction: Awesome and very southern.

 Summary

I stand by my rating of the film as the over all rating of the entire Blu-ray. Not that great, it could have been juicy but instead it was like a bad pilot for The Real Housewives of —- whatever’s ville. That being said, I love Nicolas Cage so you know, let’s get into it. Put down whatever your doing and watch this movie and then stop it and throw it out the window only to go get it again — pop in the DVD player — finish it and have some ice cream. You’ll be fine.