On DVD: Bone Dry

 

 

Directed By Brett A. Hart

Directed By Lance Henriksen, Luke Goss, Dee Wallace Stone

 

When I get a copy of a direct to DVD flick in my mail box I'm always pretty terrified of what I'm about to see.  This one caught my attention though because of the solid B movie cast.  I dropped the DVD into the ol' XBOX and crossed my fingers....

 

The Movie

 

I've always said that if you're going to do a low budget film, and you want to make a good one, then keep the cast small, the story tight, and the characters interesting.  I've seen way to many films that try to be so much more than their minuscule budget allows relegating those films to the bottom bin doldrums.  This filmmaker, Brett A. Hart, takes that advice to heart by focusing on two characters and an intriguing and suspenseful story.

 

Eddie (Goss) is a businessman traveling home who stops at a dusty cafe in the Mojave desert and gets flirted with by a bored waitress (Stone).  When he leaves the cafe though he's knocked unconscious.  He awakens to find himself stranded in the desert with nothing but a compass and a walkie-talkie.  Jimmy (Henriksen) chimes in on the radio and tells Eddie that he needs to pick up the compass and get walking.

 

As the story progresses Jimmy puts Eddie through a series of torturous challenges building suspense and curiosity about why Jimmy is doing this to Eddie.  Sure, we've seen this kind of story before but what makes this version of the story interesting is the two actors, who both do a great job in the film, and a fairly clever twist at the end of the film.  As I said this is a lower budget film so it was actually shot on HD rather than film but that doesn't stop it from literally projecting the heat of the desert and making Eddie's sunburn feel real. 

 

Bone Dry isn't an excessively original film but it is well acted and executed.  Bone Dry is easily one of the best direct to DVD films we've seen in a long time.  Anchor Bay ahs done a fantastic job of finding these little gems,  This one's definitely worth a look.

 

8/10

 

The Video

 

Bone Dry is presented in widescreen and considering the budget of the film it looks quite good.  The hi def format the film is shot on does a solid job with color representation and detail is good in brighter scenes.  Darker scenes suffer a bit with some grain and some murkiness though.  Overall the movie looks good, it's just not the disc for demoing your new plasma TV.

 

7/10

 

The Audio

 

The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround presentation here is pretty basic.  Dialogue, score and sound effects are well mixed with dialogue coming through clean and clear which is what's most important.  The surround environment does get use it's just not extremely impressive.  It gets the job done.

 

6.5/10

 

The Packaging and Bonus Features

 

The single disc DVD comes in a standard amaray case with artwork that I found a bit boring actually.  It shows the two main players in the film but that's about all it does.

 

The best of the bonus features is an audio commentary with Lance Henriksen and Brett Hart.  They discuss the story, the cast, and the process of shooting the film.  There's some good stuff here making it well worth a listen for fans of the film.  Other than that there's a sort of fly on the wall style making of featurette that's interesting for a few minutes but I found myself fading from it at about the halfway point.  I'd like to have seen a more structured making of with in depth interviews with the cast and crew.  I have to say that through the featurette and the commentary I got the feeling that Hart is a pretty egotistical dude.  I've met filmmakers like him before that are pretty good at what they do, they just don't have a grasp on what it is that they are actually doing.  He's made a solid direct to video film here but it seems like in his mind he's just finished Halloween or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

 

5/10

  

Overall (Not an Average) 7/10

The Review

The Movie 8/10

The Video 7/10

The Audio 6.5/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 5/10

Overall (Not an Average) 7/10

 

Stephen Lackey