- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
- Subtitles Color: White
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: R
- Run Time: 90 Mins.
- Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD)
- Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: July 24, 2012
- List Price: $29.99
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Overall
[Rating:2.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
I’ll come right out and say it – this psychological drama from writer/director D.W. Brown (The Haunting in Connecticut) would be completely worthless without the wonderful eye candy that is Olivia Wilde (Tron: Legacy; TV’s House). Not that she doesn’t put in a decent performance here as well given the poor material she’s handed, but this film is beneath her talents. With that out of the way, On the Inside is sort of a poor man’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, only it’s much lighter on any depth – much lighter. The story follows Allen (Nick Stahl; Sin City; In the Bedroom), a man with a troubled past who is sent to a government mental health facility after he retaliates for the rape of his girlfriend, killing the wrong man. While “on the inside,” Allen is thrown in together with really violent and psychopathic criminals, but is eventually sent to a minimum security area where, after a mixed-gender mixer he meets the beautiful, bipolar Mia (Wilde). The two develop a relationship, but are soon faced with a harrowing situation when one of the more violent patients breaks free and Allen is at once forced to confront his past and defend Mia from the horror.
Let’s just say that, there’s nothing thrilling or surprising about On the Inside, as the film tips its hand on what is about to come at every turn. The scenes are so unbelievably silly it is impossible for the sense of tension ever to build. One example is when the father of the man Allen mistakenly killed appears at the institution to confront him. The end result is some strange conversation in which Allen offers that “you didn’t come here for that, did you? You came here because I was with him at the end and you want to know.” Yeah, sure. And, not to spoil it for anyone, but this scene also blows the supposedly “twist” ending.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Perhaps it’s too much to ask that this relatively low budget effort (the film cost only an estimated $4 million dollars) look great on Blu-ray, because the picture quality of On the Inside‘s AVC/MPEG-4 1080p encodement fluctuates too much for a film of such recent (2011) vintage. There are moments where it looks sharp and detailed with strong contrast, then, just like that, it gets blurry, soft, and noisy. It doesn’t really seem like any sort of artistic intent either.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The film’s lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack is much better, yielding big, extended low frequencies, a pretty aggressive use of the surround channels to capture the din of the inside of the psychiatric facility, and it offers clean, full dialogue.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]
This is pretty barebones, providing only an obligatory audio commentary with the director and a couple of the film’s secondary stars.
The supplements:
- Audio commentary with writer/director D.W. Brown and actors Joanne Baron and Daniel Franzese
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:2.5/5]
Not much to see in this awful film outside of, as I said before, Olivia Wilde. Skip it entirely.
Additional Screen Captures
[amazon-product]B007VXTB4U[/amazon-product]
Purchase On the Inside on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
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[amazon-product]B007VXTB4U[/amazon-product]
Purchase On the Inside on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1/5]
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