- Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Audio Codec: Portuguese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, PCM 2.0 Stereo
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Subtitles: English (Forced)
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Certification: 18
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: Revolver Entertainment
- Run Time: 110 Mins.
- Blu-ray Release Date: December 26, 2011
- RRP: £10.21
[amazon-product region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B005IWB64Y[/amazon-product]
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(Screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG thus are meant as a general representation of the content and do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Bráulio Mantovani, writer of City of God, co-wrote the screenplay for Elite Squad: The Enemy Within with writer/director José Padilha. The similarities are immediately recognizable in this latest look at the criminal underbelly of Rio de Janeiro.
The story, inspired by real events, revolves around a Lieutenant-Colonel Roberto Nascimento (Wagner Moura) who, after leading a violent prison invasion during a riot, is bumped up to an office job and oversight over cleaning up the drug crime in Rio slums. As leader of BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion), Nascimento actually succeeds in cleaning the streets of the drug dealers and crime lords, but inadvertently opens them up to further corruption by dirty cops and militia groups that leads all the way to the top echelons of the political system.
The film, with its slick production and on-point narration by Moura as Nascimento is an edgy, action-drenched thriller dipped in blood and dirty politics with complex twists and memorable characters. The actors are on top of their game as well, making Elite Squad: The Enemy Within one of the best actioners to hit Blu-ray this year.
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Elite Squad: The Enemy Within comes to Blu-ray in a strong AVC/MPEG-4 encodement from Revolver Entertainment. The image is clean shows strong detail, good contrast, nice color saturation, and an extremely fine grain structure. There is no evidence of video noise and shadow details are nicely extended. One major issue I have with this transfer is the fact that the English subtitles are encoded right into the image for this release. There is no way to shut them off or, in fact, no subtitle file even listed on the disc. That should never be.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
There are two audio options, Portuguese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and PCM 2.0 Stereo. Both are rather good, offering clean dialogue, wide dynamics, and extended lows. The 5.1 mix uses the surround channels nicely for atmospherics and some front-to-back and vice versa panning of discrete sounds such as helicopters flying overhead and so forth.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
There’s not much here at all, really. There is a nearly hour-long “making of” featurette with lots of behind-the-scenes footage, but that’s it besides the theatrical trailer.
The supplements:
- Making Of (1.78:1; SD; 00:56:59)
- Trailer (1.85:1; 1080p/24)
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
This sequel to 2007’s The Enemy Within is a high quality foreign action thriller. No, strike that. It’s a high quality action thriller, period. The Blu-ray, apart from the forced subtitles, which will only be a problem for anyone who speaks Portuguese, is a solid effort from Revolver as well.
Additional Screen Captures
–
[amazon-product region=”uk” tracking_id=”bluraydefinit-21″]B005IWB64Y[/amazon-product]
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.co.uk
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:4.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
–
