The Losers (Blu-Ray)

Warner | 97 minutes | 2010 | PG-13 | Directed by: Sylvain White |
Blu-Ray reviewed by: Matt Brighton

As I've said time and again, it seems that most movies these days come from three major categories: remakes of previous films, comic book/graphic novel adaptations and television series that are now feature films. And, as it turns out "The Losers" fits very nicely into one of the aforementioned categories. Now that's not to say that there aren't some truly original and thought-provoking films out there - there are. However, Hollywood seems to have left the writing to some of the other artists out there and they seem fine with that. Ok, well if they're fine with it then so am I. That aside, "The Losers" is a comic book that I've not heard of before. As a former reader of comics myself I fell into the more mainstream titles like "Daredevil", "X-Men", "Spider-Man" and "The Incredible Hulk" (and, wouldn't you know it, all have been made into feature films. However I do remember DC's "Vertigo" line of comics which were more on the risqu? side of things in regards to sex and/or violence. Coincidentally, "The Losers" again fits very nicely into this mold. So if you're judging a book by its cover, then you might be a bit surprised as to what "The Losers" has in store.

An elite special force team led by Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is sent to Bolivia. They're about to wrap it up (and by "wrap it up" I mean an air strike is set to take out a small town) when they notice a bus load of children who are being used as drug mules. Having consciousness, the team decides to scrap the mission and rescue the children before the bomb is dropped. Things don't exactly go according to plan and before they know it, a mysterious man by the name of "Max" tries to kill them. Presumed dead, the group tries to go their separate ways but is soon drawn back into the fold by Aisha (Zoe Saldana). The group doesn't really know what to make of Aisha. Is she good or bad? But they decide to put their differences aside and join forces to take out Max and hopefully prevent World War III from breaking out. Will they succeed or will they fail?

Admittedly, "The Losers" isn't the type of movie that I'd line up to see in theaters and judging by the box office gross neither did anyone else. After my viewing of the movie I can't say it was bad, but it really didn't re-invent the wheel either. Yes, there's a bit of sex (relax guys, you don't see anything), there's plenty of gunfire and things blowing up. Hell, this is the epitome of a "guy movie" if there ever was one. Still, I feel "The Losers" falls a bit short. If you're looking for some mindless action film that will make their speakers earn their keep well then this is for you. However if you're looking for something to challenge you intellectually, then you might want to look elsewhere. I can't blame this on being a "comic book movie" since other films of the genre have been very well-done, this just doesn't seem to be one of them.

One thing I will say is that Warner's transfer for "The Losers" looks positively amazing. Colors are bright as can be and seem to almost leap off the screen. Black levels are right on the mark and contrast is amazing, giving a near 3-D effect on your HDTV. The color palette utilizes the entire spectrum and from the green jungles of Bolivia to the burnt out asphalt of the city, "The Losers" pretty much has it all. This is up there with some of the best live-action transfers I've seen, too bad that the content of the film isn't as superb.

Equally as impressive as the video is the DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack. Vocals are very clean and well-focused, but the main draw here is the surround effects as well as the LFE. As I mentioned above things (and a LOT of things) go "boom" in this movie. That's good when it comes to how it sounds. There's plenty of bass line in the soundtrack and just about everything in this film was engineered to sound amazing. And it does. This uncompressed soundtrack puts some life into your surround sound system and again, too bad that what was coming out of the speakers didn't have more substance to it. If you're looking to show off your system though, you could do a lot worse.

"The Losers" on Blu-Ray has just enough to warrant a purchase if you're a fan of the film. We get a trio of featurettes that encompass the training ("OPS Training") required for the film, "The Losers: Action-Style Storytelling" focuses on the central plot and how the story was meant to be told (emphasis on the word "meant"). "Zoe and the Losers" focuses on the female aspect of things. We also get a first look at "Batman: Under the Red Hood" which may seem cool now, but how about a few years from now? There's a single deleted scene as well as a digital copy of the film on a separate disc.