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WARNER

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Luca Guadagnino
Cast:
Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, Mike Faist
Writing Credits:
Justin Kuritzkes

Synopsis:
Former tennis prodigy turned coach Tashi molded her husband into a champion, but to overcome a losing streak, he needs to face his ex-best friend and Tashi's ex-boyfriend.

Box Office:
Budget:
$55 million.
Opening Weekend:
$15,011,061 on 3477 Screens.
Domestic Gross:
$50,119,408.

MPAA:
Rated R.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
English Dolby Atmos
English Descriptive Audio (US)
English Descriptive Audio (UK)
French Dolby 5.1
Quebecois French Dolby 5.1
Spanish Dolby 5.1
Castllian Dolby 5.1
Italian Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
Castillian
French
Quebecois French
Italian
Dutch
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
None

Runtime: 131 min.
Price: $29.98
Release Date: 7/9/2024

Bonus:
• None


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
-LG OLED65C6P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV
-Marantz SR7010 9.2 Channel Full 4K Ultra HD AV Surround Receiver
-Panasonic DMP-BDT220P Blu-Ray Player
-Chane A2.4 Speakers
-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


Challengers [Blu-Ray] (2024)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (July 15, 2024)

Although 2017’s romantic drama Call Me By Your Name didn’t do much at the box office, it earned ample accolades including an Oscar nomination as Best Picture. To capitalize on this positive momentum, director Luca Guadagnino did the logical thing: he made two consecutive horror films.

Yes, that’s cheap sarcasm, but Guadagnino’s decision to follow his 2017 breakthrough with 2018’s Suspiria and 2022’s Bones and All nonetheless seems mystifying. Sure, both offered “art house horror” but they still felt like perplexing choices for a filmmaker on the rise.

Perhaps Guadagnino eventually recognized this, as 2024’s Challengers changes course. This film takes him closer to the romantic drama of Name.

A former athletic prodigy, Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) becomes a tennis coach after a brutal injury ends her playing career. In that position, she helps her husband Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) develop into one of the world’s best players.

When Art suffers through a losing streak, however, he goes into a “Challenger” event intended to help him rebound and regain confidence. This comes with a twist when Art finds himself pitted against Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), his one-time pal and also Tashi’s ex-boyfriend.

Challengers came with some hype as a potential commercial hit, mainly due to the presence of Zendaya. Well-known and popular, she seemed like a possible conduit to box office bucks.

That didn’t occur, as Challengers failed to find much of an audience. With a budget of $55 million, it made $94 million worldwide, so it didn’t turn a profit.

Honestly, Zendaya seems overrated as a possible marquee draw. While she clearly enjoys global fame, her only hit movies have come from flicks where she played a supporting part and didn’t appear to impact ticket sales.

Granted, that becomes difficult to firmly establish. Nonetheless, does anyone believe the Spider-Man and Dune flicks would’ve performed worse without Zendaya involved?

None of this reflects her talent, and to be fair, Challengers actually represents Zendaya’s first primary starring film role. All her prior flicks placed her below others in the credits.

Whatever Zendaya’s draw may be, it seems possible Challengers failed to find much of an audience because the story just didn’t entice viewers. Promos painted it as a mix of sports movie and relationship drama, without a lot of clarity.

Ultimately, that is what we get from Challengers, though it feels like the project hangs almost entirely on one gimmick: “Zendaya gets into a three-way”. Which – spoiler alert? – doesn’t actually happen.

Oh, we get a scene that involves fooling around among Tashi and the two men in her life. However, it stops well short of anything particularly spicy.

As such, anyone who expects Challengers to give us erotic thrills – or naked Zendaya - will likely leave disappointed. It does manage to work in other ways, though not in an especially rich manner.

Challengers tends to offer a fairly stock love triangle tale, with tennis as the backdrop. The “big match” between Art and Patrick intends to add some tension, but it feels perfunctory.

It also leaves Challengers as a bit of a mish-mash. The movie hangs on a combination of sports film and relationship drama, but the first domain doesn’t seem to really engage Guadagnino.

The character elements don’t exactly soar either, mainly because they feel fairly trite. Indeed, at times I wondered if Guadagnino intends Challengers as a parody of the genres it covers.

Not that it plays for overt laughs or camp. However, the film just fails to offer anything original and it leans far enough into melodrama and what the audience theoretically expects that it often plays like a spoof.

Challengers also gets less interesting as it goes. Despite the cliché elements, the first act manages a reasonable amount of intrigue as it builds the characters and situations.

However, the movie eventually just starts to drag. This happens largely because we never really invest in the story or its participants.

Do I care if Art beats Patrick in the tournament? Nope.

Do I care if Patrick beats Art in the tournament? Nope.

Do I care how the Tashi/Art/Patrick love triangle develops/resolves? Nope.

A character movie in which I don’t care about the characters becomes problematic. Guadagnino invests the project with just enough pizzazz to make it watchable but it never develops into anything particularly good.


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

Challengers appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The film came with a generally positive presentation.

Sharpness became the occasional semi-weak link, as some wider shots sporadically looked oddly soft. Granted, most of the film looked precise and I suspect the less-than-precise elements reflected photographic choices, but they still stood out as unusual.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws remained absent.

Chellangers went with a pretty standard orange/amber and teal palette. Though less than imaginative, the disc replicated the hues as intended.

Blacks felt deep and dark, while low-light shots displayed appealing clarity. Outside of the soft shots, this became a quality presentation.

Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos mix offered some involving moments. Tennis matches used the spectrum well, and other segments like parties or seaside also brought positive engagement.

Music also broadened to the various channels in an appealing manner. Still, this became a fairly character-heavy tale, so don’t expect a slambang soundscape.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that seemed concise and natural. Effects boasted good clarity and accuracy.

Music showed solid range and punch as well. This felt like an appropriate soundtrack for the story.

No extras appear on the disc.

Though Challengers combines romantic drama and sports competition story, it does neither especially well. The movie often plays like genre parody and while it keeps us moderately engaged, it doesn’t turn into anything more than mediocre. The Blu-ray comes with generally positive picture and audio but it lacks bonus materials. Expect a passable but fairly flat flick.

Viewer Film Ratings: 2 Stars Number of Votes: 4
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