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Time to Kill (A) (Blu-ray)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - United Kingdom - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak & Samuel Scott (1st May 2013). |
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The Film
 When was the last time you saw a truly good movie from either Sandra Bullock, Matthew McConaughey or Samuel L. Jackson... and for that matter director Joel Schumacher? Seems like a long time huh? While "A Time to Kill" might not be a great film, it's still a pretty good one. Bullock had earned a massive following after her star-making turn in "Speed" (1994) two years before and was anxious to prove she wasn't a fluke... McConaughey was relatively new and unknown, and although Jackson has been around for a while this was one of the many projects he picked up after he broke out as the cool Jules Winnfield in "Pulp Fiction" (1994). The film manages to capitalize on relatively young star power as opposed to casting high-profile A-listers of the time... It seems obvious after reading into the film's production history to cast such a 'green' leading cast as author John Grisham took an active role as producer and wanted some level of control as it was his first and favorite books in his canon. Despite this the film features a plethora of seasoned pros in supporting roles like the always dependable Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Charles S. Dutton, Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland, Chris Cooper, Kurtwood Smith, Anthony Heald, Patrick McGoohan and a very young Ashley Judd. For those that haven't seen this film before I'm sure there will be plenty of "Hey! I know them..." moments. "A Time to Kill" tells the story of Southern farmer Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson), whose is arrested and tried for the murder of two young men and injuring a Deputy at the courthouse. The two men were accused of kidnapping and raping his 10 year old daughter. The act of vigilantism stirs up a slew of race-related tension in the small town as friend and lawyer Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) takes the case to defend Carl Lee, it's not long when Brigance and his family are under fire when the KKK resurfaces as Carl Lee's trial sees itself through in the divide town. Fans of the book will be pleased that for the most part it stays faithful to its source, the film, while a commercial box office success deals with a rather controversial subjects of racism and vigilantism. The film makes a case for vigilantism and uses the race card rather liberally to make its point. Whatever you believe in regards to Carl Lee, the stone cold fact is that he is guilty of murder. However there are other 'factors' at play that argue in his defense. The gruesome nature of the crime perpetrated against his daughter (and the additional inclusion of the KKK's actions) helps to add fuel to the sympathy fire and in many ways emotionally manipulates the audience into favoring Carl Lee and rooting for his freedom. So is he in the right for committing murder? Or can he be given a pass given the racists nature of the situation? If anything the film insights conversation among its viewers. The film features some fine performances, everyone here does an amicable job in their roles and manages to come across as natural. Jackson does an impressive turn as the grieving father Carl Lee, adding weight to the role and garnering sympathy from viewers. The bright star here, however, is McConaughey. It's a shame he wasn't able to maintain a respectable level of quality to his performances in future films and has been reduced to being a shirtless buffoon. Additionally Bullock isn't as annoying here as she has become in her slew of romantic comedies that have polluted the multiplexes in the 13 years since this film. It's hard to believe that "A Time to Kill" was released 13 year ago, but as a dramatic film it holds up incredibly well. The story may force lines to be drawn among viewers and will certainly be the cause of plenty of post-viewing conversations (always a good thing) and the performances are all uniformly decent, it's one of the better Grisham adaptations and is worth checking out.
Video
 Warner Home Video release "A Time to Kill" on a region free disc at an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. Using a VC-1 encode, the picture quality is strong throughout. There is no sign of negligent digital noise reduction, and the golden colours of the Mississippi sun are strong, with the sweat running down the faces of the characters looking finely detailed. Skintones look perfect, facial close-ups reveal the chapped lips of the cast from the heat and the panning shots have good depth with no judder, and there are only minor signs of edge enhancement. Every now and again, the shadows took away from some of the detail and blacks would merge ever so slightly, but as far as catalogue titles go, Warner have done a bang up job on the transfer.
Audio
There are several audio options available to choose from here: - English Dolby Digital TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit) - English Dolby Digital 5.1 - French Dolby Digital 5.1 - German Dolby Digital 5.1 - Spanish (Castellano) Dolby Digital 5.1 - Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround - Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround - Spanish (Latin) Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround For obvious reasons, I went with the English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, despite the film starting with the Dolby Digital audio by default. Although it's a dialogue heavy film, there are several moments of action which have been well reproduced into the surrounds. The crowd during the fight between the Ku Klax Klan and their opposers, the house explosion, and gunfire, all sound rather good and the LFE, subtle as it is, can be quite robust when required. Sometimes directionality felt slightly lacking and I could've been more immersive, but overall this is a good track, free of damage. Subtitles are available in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. The English subtitles are clear and concise at all times, and have no mistakes that I noticed. They are also unobtrusive.
Extras
Just a trailer.
Overall
Film reviewed by Noor Razzak. A/V and extras reviewed by Samuel Scott.
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