Hi Bryan Here….
I vaguely remember this movie being released. I seem to recall seeing a trailer for it somewhere, but was never sure. Come to find out, this was a little indie film that was released in less than 50 theaters and did not do well. ‘The Double’, starring Richard Gere and Topher Grace has some good ideas, but ultimately does not stick the landing. However for what the film itself lacks, it makes up in its audio and video presentation, which is pretty outstanding. I had hoped for better things from this movie, but it just never crashes that barrier into being any good.
THE FILM
Like I said above, the film wants to be clever and be an awesome film. And the material is there, but it just all falls flat. We follow Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere) who is a retired FBI agent who is called back into duty to track down a Russian hitman assassin named Cassius. Supposedly this Cassius has killed a senator, but nobody knows for sure its him, but by the way he was killed. Paul is given a rookie agent named Ben Geary (Topher Grace) to help him track down Cassius and who is supposedly an expert on this assassin. So where to start looking? The two travel to a prison to talk to a guy who worked with Cassius, who really does not help them a whole lot. Then about a 4th of the way through the film, a big climatic twist is revealed. You read that right. A 4th of the way through the film. So this entire rest of the film, I find myself talking to myself out loud saying, “Why would they reveal this now? Ohhhh, some other twist is going to happen.” Then the time came for that “DOUBLE” twist. (I couldn’t help it.) I won’t spoil it, but it’s the same twi….just think of Topher Grace’s character in ‘Predators’. That’s all I need to say. Most of the film lacks clever dialogue and any real substance. Does any of the film make sense? Not a whole lot. It seems like they had these two big twist climactic ideas, and decided to pour filler for an hour and half. I like Topher Grace and Richard Gere as actors. This is not their finest work. But now, at least I can say “I saw ‘The Double’ and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”.
THE VIDEO/AUDIO
The video comes with a glorious 1080p transfer in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. This is a very pristine picture. The depth is great in the city and the colors are very vibrant and bright. The flesh tones are natural and the detail is impeccable. You can actually see how much Richard Gere is aging from his maturing skin. Some of the film has some grain to it, but that’s just how part of the film was made to show you present and past. I saw no evidence of aliasing or specks. Truly an outstanding video presentation. The audio has a great DTS-HD 5.1 mix and just sounds great. The dialogue is crisp and clear with no cracks or hissing. The car chase, the guns shooting, and the other action sequences a blast. They sound real and are loud and give your speakers a good workout. Just like the video, the audio was pretty amazing.
THE EXTRAS
- Audio Commentary – Here we have a commentary track with director Michael Brandt and writer Derek Haas. They talk about making the film and how hard it was and what a tight budget they were on. I’m glad they loved making this movie even though it wasn’t seen be a lot of people. Informative, but with a movie you don’t like, it will be hard to listen to a commentary.
- Producer Interviews (HD, 8 min.) – A short featurette with the crew of the film talking about making the movie.
- Trailer (HD, 2 min.) – The theatrical trailer for the film.