Why So Blu?

Tremors 5: Bloodlines (Blu-ray Review)

A deadly threat resurfaces halfway around the world when giant, man-eating worms attack a South African wildlife park in the sci-fi comedy, Tremors 5: Bloodlines, available on Blu-ray^™ Combo Pack, DVD and Digital HD on October 6, 2015 from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. Michael Gross (“Family Ties,” “Suits,”) returns as Graboid hunter extraordinaire Burt Gummer, with Jamie Kennedy (“The Cleveland Show,” Scream franchise) as his new tech-savvy second-in-command, in this all-new adventure. The latest chapter of the franchise known for its campy humor and voracious monsters features thrilling new special effects, 25 minutes of bonus features; extended scenes and outtakes, as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film.

Film 

The stakes are raised for survivalist Burt Gummer in his most dangerous monster hunt yet. When Gummer’s hired to capture a deadly Assblaster terrorizing South Africa, he and his new sidekick, Travis Welker, find themselves in a battle to the death against the fiercely aggressive Assblasters and Graboids. Discovering that the monsters have evolved into even more lethal creatures, their mission takes on a whole new level of unseen terror — far more than they bargained for.

When it comes to Tremors, I can’t say I’m a superfan or even let alone a fan.  When I was younger I watched the first one once or twice and really liked it.  Then, when the first sequel came out, I checked it out.  I couldn’t tell you much about it aside from the fact that i was kinda underwhelmed.  Two more straight to video adventures would come and go and I never checked them out.  I did have an admiration for Michael Gross, who kept coming back for each installment.

With this fifth one, the first Tremors film in eleven years, I figured it would be a dung heap.  To my surprise, it wasn’t.  It was a surprise in the fact that this wasn’t completely terrible and it at its peak was pretty ok.  As you’d expect, it has the look and feel of a film that would air as a SyFy Channel original.  I’m not sure if it went that route (I wouldn’t be surprised if it did), but its already fitted for it.  Its only rated PG-13, but that’s actually true to the series as three of the other sequels are rated that with the third one being rated PG.  Its a series you’d think would have had an R, but it never has.

Michael Gross is back, and he seems refreshed and completely game in the film.  Not a beat is missing from the character I remember of the films I saw.  He’s a brings a lot of camp and he brings a lot of fun as well.  Jamie Kennedy joins him for this go-round and I was a little worried about him at first.  I figured it might be a “Ugh…this is all I can get nowadays” performance from him, but nope.  Kennedy is quite enjoyable and all in here.  He only suffers from some bad one-liners they force upon him, but he makes the most of all of it.

If you’re a hardcore Tremors fan…I don’t know what your gauge is.  This movie gives the series a change of scenery in going to Africa, but it kinda plays the same sort of desert action landscape.  The effects are pretty good for as low budget it as it is, and they get away with some solid gore for a PG-13.  As just some random coming into it with low expectations, I didn’t really mind checking this one out and might go back and check out the franchise again, since I realized its one I’m not super familiar with.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Clarity/Detail:  This ass-blasting picture comes in razor sharp and full of grisly detail.  The picture is very vivid and a little bleached over to have a highly detailed look.  Desert landscapes are wonderfully chronicled here.  Details such as dirt on a motorcycle or pieces of exploded creatures on clothes all come through with good definition.

Depth:  There is some good 3-D looking environments in spots.  The desert feels very open and figures and objects feel free and loose.  Movements are smooth and the creatures look well rounded.

Black Levels:  Blacks are deep, hiding some detail in heavy shadow when intended and no crushing is present.

Color Reproduction: There aren’t a lot of jumpy colors in the mix as its tone down for the desert, but colors do appear quite bold and the creatures all look very strong and solid.

Flesh Tones:  Skin tones are a bit warm to reflect the desert atmosphere.  Facial detail is outstanding with stubble, wrinkles, cracks, scrapes and scars all look pretty crystal clear.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean.  There is some intended distortion in spots.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Spanish 5.1 DTS, French 5.1 DTS, German 5.1 DTS, Italian 5.1 DTS

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French (Canada), Spanish (Castillian), French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hindi, Icelandic, Mandarin, Norwegian, Swedish

Dynamics:  This is a very awesome 5.1 track that brings the Tremors action right into your living room.  It has a good handle on the balancing both the “talkie” scenes and the action ones with making both sound precise and accurate.

Low Frequency Extension:  Explosions, engines revving, creatures swooping and caw’ing are examples of the things that rumble the LFE.

Surround Sound Presentation:  Action flies around the room.  Creature noises and some random actions occur in the rear in addition to ambiance.  The front speakers keep good track of the action moving right to left and back again.  It also keeps good track of volume placement.

Dialogue Reproduction:  Dialogue is loud and clear.

Extras 

Tremors 5: Bloodlines comes with a DVD copy and UltraViolet Digital Copy of the film.

Deleted and Extended Scenes (HD, 10:21)

Outtakes (HD, 6:58) 

Tremors 5: Behind The Bloodlines (HD, 8:10) – A little EPK featurette with on set interviews with cast and crew.

Summary 

Surprisingly with a “name” franchise at a big studio and an eleven year absence since its last entry (With all the sequels being straight to video, to boot), we got a fifth film rather than attempting a reboot.  You could easily sell a Tremors reboot more than this I would think.  But, more power to them.  Keep going.  This Blu-ray has some generic extras, but it also has an outstanding picture and sound presentation.  Its also not that bad of a movie, fans should pick this one up.