- Aspect Ratio: 2:40:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
- Region: A
- Rating: PG-13
- Run Time: 98 Mins.
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray)
- Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: August 30, 2011
- List Price: $29.99
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BestBuy.com:
Purchase Skateland on Blu-ray at CD Universe
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Overall
[Rating:2/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
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:1.5/5]
Skateland tells the story of a small Texas town, where all the teenagers gather at Skateland, the local roller rink. Friendships are formed here and good times are had. For Ritchie Wheeler (Shiloh Fernandez), Skateland represents a place where he can get away from the seemingly pending divorce his parents are about to go through. Skateland is the only area Ritchie can go to escape everything life is demanding from him. A place where he can just be with his friends and enjoy his young life. His friends share the love of Skateland. Kenny (Taylor Handley), the local rich, party going kid, all helps to fuel Ritchie’s disinterest in moving forward. Brent (Heath Freeman), a motorcross-winning local kind of hero, wants nothing more than to relive his younger days…despite being in his late 20s. Michelle (Ashley Greene), Brent’s younger sister, seems to have a thing for Ritchie, but wants to move forward with her life. Ritchie just doesn’t know what to do anymore, something of which is brought to the forefront after a tragedy induced night. What results is a film that tries too much to be like The Breakfast Club.
Where films like The Breakfast Club succeeded because of the connections the characters draw with the audience, Skateland fails in that regard. None of the characters, well perhaps with the exception of Ritchie, really mean anything once the credits roll. Akin to Andrew Clark in Club, Ritchie comes off as that teenager who doesn’t want to grow up…doesn’t want any sense of responsibility. But where Andrew had a solid cast of supporting actors to help convey his message (and who had equally interesting issues), nobody can really match up to Ritchie. This is what ultimately causes this film to fail. I’ll admit that this was kind of a shame to me as the concept of the film, while not original, seemed interesting…like a modern Breakfast Club. Instead Skateland tries to bill itself as a serious teenage film, but just ends up being something we completely forget about after viewing it.
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The 2:40:1 framed, AVC/MPEG-4 encoded transfer features an all around genre approved effort from Fox. Shot on 35mm film, the film’s color palette features the type of colors that all but help to capture the film’s genre and locales. Warm colors like bright reds and sky blues capture the elements. Darks are handled equally as well as our brighter counterparts. Detail is solid during the exterior daylight sequences and, for the most part, is just as good during the night shots. DNR, EE and other anomalies are all but absent. Grain can tend to be a bit heavy at times, but I’m going to assume that this was a stylistic decision from director of photography Peter Simonite. This didn’t ever really bother me that much, so I can’t overly fault the transfer. All in all, Fox has produced the kind of transfer that suits the film just fine.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
The film’s provided DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 features a solid track from Fox. Dialogue is well reproduced throughout via the center channel. I didn’t notice any kind of hisses or drop outs. Atmosphere is somewhat subdued minus a bit of ambience via the rears. There isn’t much all around activity out of the rears minus one semi-action moment. The film’s score by Michael Penn helps to add a substantial amount of life to this track. Mixing in the score provided by Penn with the varying musical selections, the sense of the 80s…that carefree time in a teenager’s life…is brought to the forefront quite well. This isn’t a dynamite track, but one that does suit the film just fine.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
The provided supplement are shown in SD:
- Deleted Scenes- Here we get a whooping 34 minutes of deleted scenes, of which are worth a watch if only to see the kind of differences some of these scenes would have made to the final product.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:2/5]
While billed as a film with a serious tone, Skateland just ends up being a mixed affair of teenage emotion…without the sense of anything important. While Fox has brought the film to Blu-ray with a solid V/A, I just didn’t enjoy the film enough to recommend even a rental. Just check out The Breakfast Club for the umpteenth time.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B00553K976[/amazon-product]
BestBuy.com:
Purchase Skateland on Blu-ray at CD Universe
Shop for More Blu-ray Titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:2/5]
The Film
[Rating:1.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
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