• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  
• Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
  
• Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
• Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit)
  
• Subtitles: English, English SDH, Spanish
  
• Region: A (Region-Locked)
• Rating: R
  
• Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
• Run time: 124 Mins.
• Studio: Lionsgate/Miramax
  
• Blu-ray Release Date: March 6, 2012
• List Price: $14.99

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BestBuy.com:

Purchase Reindeer Games: Director’s Cut on Blu-ray at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:2/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

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:3/5]

This is the director’s cut of the 2000 action/thriller from the late director John Frankenheimer starring Ben Affleck (The Company Men; Extract; Good Will Hunting) and Charlize Theron (The Burning Plain; The Cider House Rules). It’s a confused and inconsequential story abut Rudy (Affleck), an ex-con just out of prison, who assumes the identity of his former cellmate Nick (James Frain) and meets up with Ashley (Theron), Nick’s prison pen pal only to find himself in deep with Ashley’s violent and criminal brother Gabriel (Gary Sinise). Gabriel and his fellow thugs have been planning a casino heist at the Indian casino where Nick worked and they need his expertise. Rudy, doesn’t know anything about the casino, being that he isn’t really Nick. He has to manage to fool Gabriel long enough to stay alive and pull off a heist that he is clueless about. Meanwhile, he’s really falling in love with Ashley who either does or doesn’t believe he’s really Nick and may or may not have played a part in setting him up.

Reindeer Games, even in this Director’s Cut runs out of steam early and is one of the most non-thrilling, hard to follow thrillers to come out of the 2000’s. Affleck’s acting is as monotone and dull as ever, especially against a reasonably charming Theron and crazy Senise.

Video Quality

[Rating:2/5]

Reindeer Games: The Director’s Cut is yet another disappointing Miramax release on Blu-ray distributed by Lionsgate. From the very opening scenes, the AVC/MPEG-4 1080p/24 transfer looks a bit rough with some heavy grain and softness. Right from the first shots of the outside of the prison Rudy is housed in the transfer shows definite haloing around the edges of the building and it continues throughout the film. Throughout the presentation there is some dirt and scratches that creeps in and a little video noise.

Audio Quality

[Rating:3.5/5]

Audio is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1(48kHz/24-bit) soundtrack that seems to have a bit of a wonky balance, if’ you’ll pardon the non technical term. Low frequencies are quite big from the opening, making you believe this is going to be an aggressive mix, but it isn’t really. In fact, most of the time the audio is very front-heavy while dialogue seems pinched, not very full at all. There’s an overall dull sound to the mix and occasional sounds in the surrounds seem out of place.

Supplemental Materials

[Rating:2.5/5]

There’s nothing terribly necessary to go through on here and everything offered is a port over.

The supplements:

• Audio commentary with director John Frankenheimer
• Original Theatrical Cut Scenes:
  • Oh, Ashley
  • Sex Scene
  • Welcome Home Nick
  • Casino Shuffle
  • First Robbers
  • Cowboy and Indians
  • The Chase is On
  • No More Games
• Behind the Scenes Featurette
• Trailer

The Definitive Word

Overall:

[Rating:3/5]

Reindeer Games: The Director’s Cut is both a disappointing movie and Blu-ray release. For a reasonably better Affleck thriller, see The Sum of All Fears and leave this one alone.

Additional Screen Captures

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[amazon-product]B006N8GNW2[/amazon-product]

BestBuy.com:

Purchase Reindeer Games: Director’s Cut on Blu-ray at CD Universe

Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com

Overall
[Rating:3/5]
The Film
[Rating:3/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:2/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:2.5/5]

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