Half Past Dead

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Travis Willock reviews

Half Past Dead
Distributed by
Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

    Cover

  • Cert: PG-13
  • Cat.no: 08784
  • Running time: 98 minutes
  • Year: 2002
  • Pressing: 2003
  • Region(s): 1, NTSC
  • Chapters: 28
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 (Eng only)
  • Languages: English, French
  • Subtitles: English, French
  • Widescreen: 1.85:1; Full Frame: 1.33:1
  • 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: No
  • Disc Format: DVD 9
  • Price: $27.96
  • Extras:3 Deleted Scenes, Director’s Commentary, Making of Half PastDead, Theatrical Trailers

    Director:

      Don Michael Paul

Screenplay:

    Don Michael Paul

Cast:

    Sasha: Steven Seagal
    Nick: Ja Rule
    49er One: Morris Chestnut
    49er Six: Na Peeples
    El Fuego: Tony Plana

There are some theatrical releases in this world that deserved to beeither canned or doomed to video.Which one is this abysmal Steven Seagal hogwash? I’d have to say neither becausethis film deserved to have been Half Past Dead a long time ago… alright that was a bad pun.

Segal tries to repeat the “pair an action star with a hip, fresh rapper”formula set in his last effort Exit Wounds (where he was teamed withDMX who can be seen in the recent and decent Cradle 2 the Grave withJet Li). Does it work a second time or has Seagal reached the bottom ofthe barrel? I think you know what the answer is.

You want a story summary? Well… I’ll try the best I can. Two fellowpartners in crime Sasha (Seagal) and Nick (Ja Rule) are arrested by theFBI after a failed car boost. Sasha survives some wounds only to bedeclared half past dead which for some reason deserved the title of themovie. The two are sent to… wait for it… the recently reopenedAlcatraz! That’s a great idea! Let’s take “The Rock” and put a spin onit!

Meanwhile, the first convict to be executed at New Alcatraz has a secretof his own. Years earlier he stole two hundred million dollars in USgold brick and hasn’t told where it is. Of course, moments before hisexecution a group of terrorists come and take the whole place over. Theywant the location of the gold and they’ll do anything to stop itincluding threatening to execute a judge in return for a chopper. NowSasha and the rest of the convicts must fight for The Rock (had to saythat) and save the judge’s life.

What follows is a series of mindless action scenes spread out pretty farand when they’re there you can tell it’s forced. Take for example ascene where Sasha and the villain… 49er One just fight out of nowhereon chains, I had no idea why or where that came from. Watch the fightbetween Nick and 49er Six to see a person flip six feet in the air whenkicked.

Sony also has another infamous product placement moment (not asbad asMen in Black II,for more on that read my R1 review) when aconvict is seen playing a PS2 with Hot Shots Golf 3. I doubt a convictwould have the money for a PS2 and I highly doubt that Hot Shots Golf 3would be his game of choice but it’s a Sony game so why not? Anyway…

Now I love action movies. The genre is my favorite and there’s nothingbetter to me than popping in a great action flick and having fun butwhen there’s absolutely no story or reason behind the action then what’sthe point? I mean this formula was done inxXx,mindless action, mindless story=no fun. I’m not expecting too much from Steven Seagalnowadays but this is quite a step back for him. I guess he takes what hecan get.

Despite the terrible film Columbia Tristar presents an awesome transfer.Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen the cold blue and often verydark color palette looks great. The only problem with the transfer is afew moments of background flicker mainly on walls but this seems to becommon in Screen Gems films(Resident Eviland Formula 51 come to mind). Pixelization is absent. Columbia has alsoincluded a worthless full frame transfer on the same disc.

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. For an action flick your systemwon’t get that much of a work out. The track just doesn’t show enoughambience and bass when needed, gun shots and other sound effects comeoff as very plain. Not a total loss but could have been much better.

The extras department will leave you feeling as empty as this movie.Here’s how it stacks up:

  • Director’s Commentary: Why anybody would want to listen to the creatorof this mess is beyond me but here it is. He explains how he wrote thisyears ago but it was shelved when ‘The Rock’ went into production. Ithink we know which film is better.
  • Deleted Scenes: Presented in non-anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen (wherethe bars are a faded grey for some reason). These add only more to thegruelling mess of the film and definitely deserve to have been cut.
  • Making of Half Past Dead: Nothing but the standard promotional fluff filled with interviews and scenesof the film. Little over 13 minutes, Full frame.
  • Theatrical Trailers: Trailers for Half Past Dead, I Spy, National Security, andxXx are included. I can’t even remember a Columbia DVDwithout a xXx trailer included.

You won’t find much of anything worth watching here in the extras, trustme.

Packaging is amaray and sports a horrible art for it’s cover. It’s quitea departure from the pure white with distorted characters of thetheatrical poster. Menus are static and feature music in the background.

Overall, I found Half Past Dead to be really dead and devoid of anyenjoyment. This is a major step back for the action scene but it wasquickly forgotten so I guess it didn’t cause much damage. The transferon this disc is great though if that’s any shining light but what elseis here is not. Die-hard Seagal fans might find something worth interestin here but all else should stay far, far away. Imagine that, I didn’tsay anything about Steven Seagal’s career being the same as the title!

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Travis Willock, 2003.

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