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VERTICAL

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Tate Taylor
Cast:
Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, John Malkovich
Writing Credits:
Matthew Newton

Synopsis:
When a job goes dangerously wrong, assassin Ava must fight for her own survival.

MPAA:
Rated R.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English DTS-HD MA 5.1
English PCM Stereo
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
None

Runtime: 97 min.
Price: $19.99
Release Date: 11/24/2020

Bonus:
• None


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RELATED REVIEWS


Ava [Blu-Ray] (2020)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (November 30, 2018)

A new entry in the “female assassin” genre, 2020’s Ava introduces us to the title character. Ava Faukner (Jessica Chastain) serves as a cool, efficient killer for a secret organization.

As time passes, though, Ava starts to question her career choices. After she beats some addictions, Ava finds herself more guilt-ridden about the deaths she executes.

However, Ava can’t easily extricate herself from her past. While she attempts to reconcile with her estranged family, she also tries to simply stay alive.

Director Tate Taylor’s biggest success behind the camera unquestionably came with 2011’s The Help. Not only did it bring in a tidy $216 million worldwide – a nice profit for a movie that only cost $25 million – but also it earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture.

To Taylor’s credit, he branched out with his subsequent flicks and didn’t stay in the same genre as The Help. From there, he went to 2014’s musical biopic Get On Up, 2016’s psychological thriller The Girl on the Train, and 2019’s horror tale Ma.

While I admire Taylor’s willingness to branch out, that doesn’t mean I view him as a particularly good filmmaker. “Watchable but flawed” tended to be my view of each of those earlier films.

At its best, that’s what I can say for Ava. A disjointed and surprisingly dull tale, the movie really doesn’t go much of anywhere.

Ava attempts to meld action beats with a character journey that feels cribbed from a self-help book. While Ava’s personal path attempts to add depth to the proceedings, instead it simply feels underdeveloped and phony.

As I alluded at the start, Ava comes from a crowded genre, so it needs to find a way to stand out from the crowd. However, the threads about Ava’s addictions and family issues don’t work, as they come across as contrived and artificial.

If the action scenes compensated, these flaws probably wouldn’t matter as much, but Taylor can’t pull off the violent moments well. Perhaps I shouldn’t place too much blame on Taylor, as he apparently came into the film late in the game after the original director got fired.

Still, a dull end product remains a dull end product, whatever the circumstances that led to its creation. If Taylor enjoyed a stronger filmography, I’d be more willing to offer the benefit of the doubt that his last-minute entry into the proceedings impacted his ability to tell the tale, but nothing in his past lends credence to that notion.

Ava does boast a strong cast, as in addition to Chastain, we find Colin Farrell, Common, Geena Davis, John Malkovich and others. None manage much with their roles, and Chastain simply feels wrong as our lead. She does better in the “character moments” than the action bits, but she doesn’t seem like a good fit in general.

Nothing about Ava makes it an embarrassment to those involved, but it still stands as a fairly blah product. Even with a narrative that lends toward violence and tension, it seems slow and lackluster.


The Disc Grades: Picture B/ Audio B/ Bonus F

Ava appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with a good but unexceptional presentation.

Sharpness appeared good. A few interiors could be a little soft, but the movie displayed nice clarity and definition most of the time. Jagged edges and moiré effects failed to appear, and I also noticed no edge haloes nor print flaws.

In terms of palette, Ava favored teal and/or orange much of the time. These hues seemed fine within the visual choices.

Blacks appeared full and dense, while low-light shots gave us acceptable clarity. Nighttime shots tended to seem a bit murky, but not to a substantial degree. Overall, I felt generally pleased with the transfer.

Though not packed with action, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack accentuated the story. Most of the livelier moments related to violent beats, so those managed to use the spectrum in a decent manner.

When these occurred, they created a vivid soundscape, but they showed up less often than one might expect given the movie’s genre. Otherwise, the film emphasized quiet ambience and not much more.

Sound quality satisfied. Music was full and rich, while effects demonstrated nice clarity and accuracy.

Speech came across as crisp and natural. The mix seemed more than satisfactory for the material.

No extras of any kind appear on the disc.

Part of a well-worn genre, Ava fails to create a lively tale. Mediocre at best – and usually not even that good – the movie seems unconvincing and half-baked. The Blu-ray brings generally positive picture and audio but it lacks bonus features. Ava wastes a strong cast on an underdeveloped action drama.

Viewer Film Ratings: 2 Stars Number of Votes: 2
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Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main