- Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English Dolby TrueHD 7.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby 2.0 Mono
- Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
- Region: A (Region-Locked)
- Rating: Unrated
- Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD)
- Run Time: 122 Mins.
- Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: April 17, 2012
- List Price: $29.99
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Purchase The Divide on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]
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:3.5/5]
The premise of director Xavier Gens’ sci-fi thriller The Divide isn’t necessarily a new or inventive one, throw a group of disparate individuals together after a disaster of apocalyptic proportions and see what happens. A film of this nature needs to have a very strong cast and to be very engaging to sustain it over the course of its unfolding. Unfortunately, The Divide crawls along, plods, really, and builds up to a boiling point that anyone could predict from watching any number of disaster movies.
New York City has been hit by a nuclear bomb and a group of residents in an apartment building rush to the basement for shelter. Locking themselves in for safety, they soon realize they are stuck inside with the violent 9/11 survivor Mickey (Michael Biehn) who refuses to let anyone leave lest it should compromise the sanctity of their sanctuary. Also locked in is the neurotic mother Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette) and her young daughter Wendy (Abbey Thickson), tough guy Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and his retiring brother Adrien (Ashton Holmes), Eva (Lauren German) and her husband Sam (Ivan Gonzalez), unhinged Bobby (Michael Eklund), and one other challenger for alpha male, Delvin (Courtney B. Vance). Days turn into weeks and the survivors soon divide into groups as issues over water and food become paramount and the inevitable happens – they turn on one another, with violent consequences.
A dire look at the hope for the future of humanity, The Divide as a few fine performances from its ensemble cast, but the text they have to work with is unfortunately weak. There’s nothing new, thoughtful or provocative in this drawn out (122-mins.) exercise.
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
While The Divide was captured in HD on the Panavision Genesis HD Camera at 1080p/24 and arrives in a solid AVC/MPEG-4 1080p transfer from Anchor Entertainment that more likely than not looks as close as possible to the source, there is a lot of noticeable video noise in the imagery. Thankfully, the noise in the image isn’t very harsh and tends to look a bit more like natural film grain than anything organic. Contrast is good, though it could be a bit stronger, as things tend to get a bit soft and ill-defined in the shadowy scenes with a little bit of crush and lost detail. There is strong foreground detail and decent amount of extension into the backgrounds.
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
The soundtrack is really where it’s at on this release. An exceptional Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mix is on offer here that has a wide dynamic range, big, bombastic low frequencies and takes advantage of those extras back channels by banning lots of discrete and atmospheric effects into them. Dialogue is clear and action across the front is engaging and wide as well.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]
There isn’t much on offer here, so the reasonably entertaining, but ultimately obligatory audio commentary is really the only thing to extend the material.
The supplements:
- Audio Commentary with director Xavier Gens and actors Michael Biehn, Michael Eklund, and Milo Ventimiglia
- Trailer (2.35:1; 1080p/24)
- DVD
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Divide is ultimately a run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic character study. There are plenty better out there. This one might be better left as a last minute rental for a slow weekend, given that the Blu-ray still provides really good home theatre value.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B007549YM4[/amazon-product]
Purchase The Divide on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:2.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:1.5/5]
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