Paradise Road is a movie that has a powerful message and honestly isn’t a bad film with fine performances but in the end never quite makes the impact it was intending and instead was on the forgettable side.
Paradise Highway
(2022)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Drama, Crime
Lionsgate| R – 115 min. – $21.99 | September 6, 2022
Date Published: 09/05/2022 | 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 — 2¾/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: When her brother’s (FRANK GRILLO) life is threatened, Sally (JULIETTE BINOCHE), a truck driver, reluctantly agrees to smuggle illicit cargo: a girl named Leila (HALA FINLEY). As Sally and Leila begin a danger-fraught journey across state lines, a dogged FBI operative (MORGAN FREEMAN) sets out on their trail, determined to do whatever it takes to terminate a human-trafficking operation — and bring Sally and Leila to safety. Quick Hit Review: Paradise Highway tells an oft untold story about the sex trafficking industry and how trucks have been utilized for transportation. So I can give the film, and writer-director Anna Gutto in particular, credit for that. However, the execution wasn’t always the best and is pretty slow early on. That being said, this wasn’t a boring film and did keep my attention. On the other hand, Juliette Binoche at least was semi-believable as a rugged female truck driver while Morgan Freeman defied my own predictions that he’d be relegated to an office somewhere but instead does strut around with a rookie partner, played by Cameron Monaghan. Meanwhile Frank Grillo continues his road to direct-to-video flicks where he spends the bulk of his time either in jail or on the phone, at least until the end, though I won’t say he gave some incredible or noteworthy performance. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2½/5 |
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This release comes with a semi-glossy, title-embossed, slip cover and inside is a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. Features include an Audio Commentary with Producer/Writer/Director Anna Gutto; Making of Paradise Highway (22:43) behind-the-scenes featurette; Deleted Scenes (5:11) with optional commentary; and the Theatrical Trailer (2:44). |
VIDEO – 3½/5 |
| Lionsgate releases Paradise Highway onto Blu-ray presented with a 2.39 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition. The video here doesn’t exactly look brilliant, but detail at least is relatively sharp while colors are tamped down and geared more toward natural elements. There isn’t anything great about the transfer but it’s passable. |
AUDIO – 4/5 |
| The included DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track offers up clear dialogue mostly from the center channel and a respectable level of depth from the front and rear channels but as a whole it’s nothing overly powerful or will give your surround system much of a workout. |
OVERALL – 3/5 |
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Overall, Paradise Road is a movie that has a powerful message and honestly isn’t a bad film with fine performances but in the end never quite makes the impact it was intending and instead was on the forgettable side. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.