Kiss the Girls on DVD
Kiss the Girls on DVD
Successful, talented, beautiful young women. Strong-willed
women. They are his prey. We learn he is a "collector" of
them. We meet one of them. She escaped. He knows much
about her. He knows that she kick-boxes. In captivity, he
warns her NOT to use her kick-boxing. Hell, she uses it
anyway, and that's one of her means of escape. Thank God.
It's nice to see a woman whack a bad guy, when he should be
wailed on anyway.
This movie has a lot of plot going on among the main plot.
It does have some originality as well. An escaped, self-
assured, highly educated (a Doctor) victim of an abductor,
teaming with police after her trauma and charging back as
fast as she can to hunt the antagonist down. That's fairly
interesting, I think. Yet the way the plot twists and
turns and the numerous layers that are relevant lack some
foundation. Emotional foundation.
Morgan Freeman, with his outstanding presence, plays a brilliant cop/psychologist who has a niece that is also a present abductee fueling motivation for him to work on the case. However, I thought if we as viewers were to feel a
wider range of empathy with this cop's motivation, we
should've initially witnessed some warm relations between
him and his niece. However, we don't. But I think that's
because this story has great volumes of changes and
journeys to go through. I'm sure the best selling novel is
a dense read which put a strain on this film. Maybe I'm
wrong (I haven't read the novel).
Also there is no explanation of a few of the weirdos's
very, VERY strange relationship 3/4 through. Zip. Were
just left with the fact that it's weird and their
motivations are virtually unknown. So we're kind of
scratching our heads thinking, "….ok. I guess some people
are weird….?" Then again, there is SO much going on in
this film in the journey of the plot, there isn't much
time. It's right under 2 hours at 117 minutes, and
filmmakers seem to try to be following an author's original
story. That's honorablebut thins the story line a bit.
People say the end was odd, and it was, but it was ok. It
just was a touch cliché and not that original. It was ok.
I was tense, though there was some inevitability taking
place.
Sure Ashley Judd is terrific and beautiful. Bold,
equitible, a bit of a loner, but with rays of passion.
Many are a sucker for blue or hazel eyes. My favorite are
brown, and I know they are most common. Brown eyes are warm
to me. Her brown eyes were a pleasure. It's also nice to
hear her speaking voice which isn't shrill, but calm and
solemn. I very much liked her and will have to search out
her other works. Morgan Freeman is the man. Why he
resonates wisdom, gentleness, and that secure sense of all
business is the mystery that leaves him an imprint of a
true movie star. He has a resonating presence & we always
believe him.
Image
The picture was terrific. I sure like DVD. The filmmakers
kept light waning and sometimes washed out (obviously
deliberate); dull greens, sad blues, and dead browns were
common. Colder than a witch's tit in a brass bra. Part of
the sadness and creepiness for sure. I noticed no
artifacts, but twice noticed chroma noise (flickering).
Heavy darkness in this film. VERY SERIOUS, you know.
Shadows were deep, blacks were rich and crisp. Some reds
didn't bleed. Some of the cinematography was quite
beautiful, such as the thrilling waterfall jump. That was
fantastic. A few "slow motion" scenes were unnecessary, I
thought. It's a gritty movie and that's a flashy effect.
Less is more. Fleshtones looked natural. A very nice looking
movie.
Audio
The surrounds were playful, expansive, split, somewhat
inconsistent, and offered a natural soundstage with the
fronts and woofer. Dialogue was a few times muddled and I
had to rewind the film and literally put the subtitles on
to figure out what the people would say, but usually
dialoge was very clear and panned naturally well. The
score was at times exaggerated, & I thought
inappropriate. A tough film needs to lighten up on the
glitter and gush. Doors would open and the front speakers
would whoosh as the bass would thhhunnngg just too much.
Over and over. This is a gritty story, and flashy Hollywood
sound effects reminded you this was a Hollywood movie.
Less is more. Trebbles were crisp, while basses were deep
and smooth. Aside from some unnecessary exaggeration, I
thought the sound mix was very full & pleasing.
I left never feeling "a part" of this movie, sure it was
thrilling at times and the story had it's intrigue, but the
plot seemed too dense without giving us enough foundation,
but it couldn't or it would've been a 4 hour movie. So no
one is to blame, I suppose. The lead actors are very
appealing with strong performances like reputed, and some
of the direction was artistic, panning was fun in
moderation. The pace moves. Yet, it moves all over the
place and leaves you scratching your head just a bit.
Overall, it's kind of a fun rental with some white-knuckle
gripping drama at times.
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2.35:1 aspect ratio (no pan and scan. Ha!)
Dolby Digital 5.1 (must be selected in the set up - it's defaulted
to 2.0 for whatever reason)
Closed captioned
French 5.1 (cool), Spanish 2.0 (with captions for each)
extras: 1 movie trailer (audio commentary would've been nice)
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