Although I’d hesitate to say Domino is a terrible film, it is certainly not at all very good either and a complete misfire from the legendary filmmaker Brian De Palma who utilizes his usual visual style but with little effect.
Domino
(2019)
Genre(s): Thriller, Action
Lionsgate | R – 89 min. – $21.99 | July 30, 2019
Date Published: 07/31/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Lionsgate provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 1.75/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: A Copenhagen police officer, Christian Toft (NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU), seeks justice for his partner’s murder by ISIS member Imran. Determined to hunt Imran down, Christian and Alex (CARICE VAN HOUTEN), a fellow cop and his late partner’s mistress, are unwittingly caught in a deadly cat-and-mouse chase with a duplicitous CIA agent (GUY PEARCE) who is using Imran as a pawn to trap other ISIS members. Their quest for revenge becomes a race against time to save their own lives.
Quick Hit Review: About 15-minutes into Domino, there were certain angles and stylings that made me think this was directed by the poor man’s Brian De Palma. Then I actually took a closer look at the cover and honestly forgot, this film was actually directed by De Palma, who is the latest former talent entering the sad world of the direct-to-video. Conceptually, Domino isn’t bad. Even Nikolaj Coster-Waldau was at least okay in the lead while Carice van Houten hardly made an impact either way and Guy Pearce turned on a rather bad American (Southern I think?) drawl. So although Coster-Waldau was fine, he hardly is a leading man which is why he works better on television such as Game of Thrones, never really having a full command of the screen. But in fairness, he is working with a De Palma, unless he proves otherwise, on the decline. Although the acting wasn’t anything to write home, the film itself fell flat from a script that reads like it was a rejected (or repurposed) storyline out of Homeland, and even De Palma’s direction, where he utilizes his usual style (split-focus shot for instance early on) and yet you can just see the disinterest, perhaps the production issues concerning the budget. Listen, I love De Palma, even his work on his more commercial films like Mission: Impossible (outshined over the years by the sequel’s spectacles, makes it look quite mundane, even quant, by comparison) and his earlier works, most notably the hauntingly beautiful Blow Out (“It’s a good scream”). Even 1998’s Snake Eyes, a somewhat of a misfire, had its moments of cheesy entertainment, and a guilty pleasure of mine with Nic Cage’s good-bad sporadic performance.
In the end, Domino is a misfire from an otherwise solid director and perhaps with better actors and another pass at the screenplay, this might’ve made for an okay independent thriller, instead even De Palma’s camerawork couldn’t help. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0/5 |
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This release does come with a glossy slip cover and Digital HD redemption code but nothing else. |
VIDEO – 4.25/5 |
| Lionsgate releases Domino onto Blu-ray where it’s shown with a 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and given a fine looking 1080p high-definition transfer. For the most part the picture looks good, detail is relatively sharp and colors, even with the darker tone and content, do shine through well enough. There were no major instances of artifacting, aliasing, banding or other flaws. |
AUDIO – 3.75/5 |
| The movie includes your basic but decent enough DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Outside of some of the dialogue which comes across a bit too soft at times, probably due to the sound design than with how the disc was manufactured, the action scenes do provide a slight boost to the LFE and ambient noises, such as the sounds of a crowd, do come through the rear channels with respectable clarity. |
OVERALL – 2.25/5 |
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Although I’d hesitate to say Domino is a terrible film, it is certainly not at all very good either and a complete misfire from the legendary filmmaker Brian De Palma who utilizes his usual visual style but with little effect combined with a poor script and, at best, bad acting. The Blu-ray from Lionsgate has no bonus features although the video and audio transfers are both adequate. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.