{"id":5737,"date":"2013-06-18T00:15:17","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T07:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=5737"},"modified":"2021-06-13T15:17:30","modified_gmt":"2021-06-13T22:17:30","slug":"review-numbersstation-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2013\/06\/review-numbersstation-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Numbers Station Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>While I didn\u2019t think The Numbers Station<\/i><\/b> was anything special, there\u2019s still enough here to warrant at least a rental. Cusack and Akerman deliver enticing performances, and that includes Cusack being dourer than ever, the story unfolds in a unique manner and at least provides some entertainment until the end.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\nThe Numbers Station (2013)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Genre(s): <\/b>Drama, Suspense
\nRLJ | R \u2013 89 min. \u2013 $29.97 | May 28, 2013<\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/span>Directed by: <\/b>Kasper Barfoed
\nWriter(s): <\/b>F. Scott Frazier (written by)
\nCast: <\/b>John Cusack, Malin Akerman, Liam Cunningham, Richard Brake, Finbar Lynch, Lucy Griffiths, Joey Ansah<\/p>\n

Theatrical Release Date: <\/b>April 26, 2013<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:
\n<\/span>Features: <\/b>Featurette
\nNumber of Discs: <\/b>1<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/b>English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/b>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40
\nSubtitles: <\/b>English SDH, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/b>22.2 GB
\nCodec: <\/b>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/b>A<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 3.25\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

At this point whenever I see a movie headlined by John Cusack, I automatically assume he plays a dour character, possibly with a drinking problem and almost certainly lives a lonely and depressing existence. Sure, he\u2019ll throw you a curve in something like Hot Tub Time Machine<\/i> or 2012<\/i>, but more often than not you\u2019ll walk away from his movies more dejected than when you started. Seeing the cover for The Numbers Station<\/i><\/b> with Cusack holding a gun and a building on fire would lend to one hell of a suspense-thriller… or not.<\/p>\n

Emerson Kent (JOHN CUSACK) is a covert CIA agent who receives his assignment via coded messages. As the movie begins, his latest is to take out a former agent who had squirreled away some cash and was living a quiet life running a bar in the middle of nowhere America. See, like the roach motel, in this agency you can check in but you do not check out. Although Kent takes out the target and the three others in the bar with relative ease, he had missed one patron. Since there can be no witnesses, Grey (LIAM CUNNINGHAM), Kent\u2019s senior partner, drives to the man\u2019s house, as this individual left in hurry leaving his wallet behind, and inside Kent comes across this man\u2019s daughter as she witnessed her father\u2019s assassination. For some reason, this girl is fearless running after Kent and when Kent can\u2019t pull the trigger to kill the girl, Grey does it for him.<\/p>\n

This failure leads to a psychiatric review and demotion. Grey sends him to some desolate locale, where no doubt they have movie tax credits, to be a personal bodyguard to a civilian named Katherine (MALIN AKERMAN) who is a genius, inputting numbers to covert agents around their world for the next assignment. Along with another young woman who has her own attach\u00e9, these civilians are an important factor in espionage as their codes are old school and unbreakable.<\/p>\n

While Katherine is chatty and friendly, those are two qualities Kent does not and \u2013 being the introspective type \u2013 cannot have. But after spending a lot of time with Katherine, he does have a soft spot for her and takes his duties of protecting her seriously. In the meantime, we also get a glimpse of the other pair who obviously have taken their relationship to a personal level but all that is about to change.<\/p>\n

One morning, Kent and Katherine go to work like normal but things at the Numbers Station is anything but. Instead of the other two waiting for the shift change, there\u2019s nobody there and the area is far too quiet. But they soon receive gunfire and a vehicle nearby explodes. They rush inside into the facility to escape the attack and find an eerie site where the facility is damaged. After getting Katherine into a safe place, Kent clears the rest of the facility and finds it empty.<\/p>\n

At the same time, they can hear somebody attempting to drill their way inside and their communication to the outside world is extremely limited (via a red phone) and compromised. Now it\u2019s up to them to find out what\u2019s going on and what the perp\u2019s want with this facility.<\/p>\n

The Numbers Station<\/i><\/b> is less an action thriller and more a pensive character drama and on that level, it works fairly well thanks to the performances by Cusack, in all his dramatic glory, and Malin Akerman. Also setting it primarily in one location gives it an almost claustrophobic vibe, adding another layer. That being said, after about an hour or so, and despite a clever way of unraveling the events before Kent and Katherine\u2019s arrival, the plot gets bogged down and by the finale, I was actually uninterested in the outcome.<\/p>\n

Directed by Danish filmmaker Kasper Barfoed in his English feature film debut and written by F. Scott Frazier marking his own debut, The Numbers Station<\/i><\/b> does have a few things going for it. The plot isn\u2019t anything special but the performances by Cusack and Akerman are good and some of the plot elements do put an interesting spin on the storytelling. While I didn\u2019t think the movie was anything special, there\u2019s still enough here to warrant at least a rental.<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 1.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This release comes with a semi-glossy slip cover. The only feature included is The Making of The Numbers Station<\/i> (14:26; HD)<\/span><\/b>, a behind-the-scenes featurette with your standard on-set interviews with the cast and crew about how the project came along and the actors talk about their characters.<\/p>\n

Previews<\/b> \u2013 The Tall Man<\/i>, Day of the Falcon<\/i>, The Double<\/i><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

VIDEO \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Not sure if it was shot on the cheap or what, but the picture here is relatively shabby. The Numbers Station<\/i><\/b> is presented with a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. The black levels aren\u2019t too bad showing some nice starkness in a few scenes but the detail levels are at times a tad hazy. By no means is it a bad transfer, just weaker and average than most, even independently financed ones.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

AUDIO \u2013 4.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The disc includes an adequate 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track especially considering there\u2019s mostly dialogue with the occasional explosion or action set pieces providing the depth for the lossless track. Although this isn\u2019t a special track or anything, it\u2019s still should be satisfactory for most with a home theater.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

OVERALL \u2013 3.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, while I didn\u2019t think The Numbers Station<\/i><\/b> was anything special, there\u2019s still enough here to warrant at least a rental. Cusack and Akerman deliver enticing performances, and that includes Cusack being dourer than ever, the story unfolds in a unique manner and at least provides some entertainment until the end. The Blu-ray offers adequate video\/audio transfers and the single featurette is OK, getting insights by the cast and crew.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Movieman
\n<\/i>Published: <\/b>06\/18\/2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I didn\u2019t think The Numbers Station was anything special, there\u2019s still enough here to warrant at least a rental. Cusack and Akerman deliver enticing performances, and that includes Cusack being dourer than ever, the story unfolds in a unique manner and at least provides some entertainment until the end.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[31,894,2126],"class_list":["post-5737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-john-cusack","tag-malin-akerman","tag-numbers-station"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5737"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26554,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5737\/revisions\/26554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}