Review of Bone Collector, The

Introduction

While the old killer-thriller has been kicking about for almost as long as there`s been films themselves, there was certainly something of a resurgence in the late-nineties and early naughties as the studios attempted to churn out the next `Se7en`. `The Bone Collector`, based on the first in the Lincoln Rhyme series of novels by Jeffery Deaver, was one such 1999 attempt by thriller genre stalwart Philip Noyce.

Denzel Washington plays Rhyme, a well-respected forensics expert with the NYPD until he was left a quadriplegic by an on-the-job accident. Now something of a go-to guy for the tough investigations, he`s brought on board to lead an investigation into a serial killer stalking the city and playing games by leaving clues to the location and identity of his next victim. Rookie cop Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie) is brought into the fold to act as Rhyme`s eyes and ears on scene as they try to outwit the crafty killer.

This Blu-ray Disc edition re-release of the film is scheduled for release in early June.

Video

Presented as an anamorphic 2.35:1, `The Bone Collector` on BD is a fine looking film, generally speaking. Blacks - and there`s a lot of them - are about as thick as you could ask for without obscuring detail, but not as deep as other BD transfers from the same period. The colour saturation is excellent, and the piece has a typically clean, polished lustre to it as the HD format suggests. However, while certain scenes jump off the screen at you thanks to their vividness, others aren`t quite so lucky in the resolution stakes, and the depth of resolution is a consistent problem throughout the feature. If you`re used to picking out minute detail from the background, you`ll be disappointed by a few of the smeary textures that lie past the foreground frequently. Grain, as usual, is something of an issue. While newer films have to contend with the irritation of artificial filters (think `300`), catalogue titles like this are more often than not plagued by noise of the more natural variety. While `The Bone Collector` manages to bodyswerve the sort of grain that afflicts older films due to its relative youth, there are still a few shots plagued by buzzing; night shots of blue sky over New York for instance. But on the whole, it`s a pleasant enough HD transfer that just isn`t consistently impressive enough to blow your jocks off.

Audio

The main goodies on offer are three Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless surround tracks, in English, German and Italian. For my viewing pleasure, the English track was transcoded and downmixed to the 640kbps standard for Dolby Digital by my player and pumped out via TOSlink. And it sounded absolutely superb, despite not being able to take full advantage of the next-gen audio. Dialogue is weighty, and the spot effects do a great job of dancing around the soundstage without overdoing it, while the creeping score steers appropriately across the channels, all coming together on occasion to create one of the most immersive surround tracks I`ve heard in a long time. The times when the audio manages to do this are, of course, scene specific, but the whole track does generally sound great.

Also featured are 3 Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in Czech, Russian and Polish, although the latter is a voice-over which plays over the English track, as opposed to a dub

Lots of subs, too.

Features

Just two features here; the first is a commanding Philip Noyce commentary which is clearly read from a script, as he drops in and out at will with an impressive tongue. As such, there`s no mumbling or dead air and sounds more like a narration as the director treats us to anecdotes about alternate endings, preview reactions and some interesting, though general "rambling recollections about shooting". The second is a rather standard EPK `making of` feature that we`ve all seen dozens of times before on other discs.

Conclusion

Philip Noyce`s `The Bone Collector` is very much the workmanlike, run-of-the-mill thriller that fails to be bolstered by its glitzy cast, despite the presence of two Oscar-winners who own wholesale copyright to their Christian names and a roster of reliable journeymen actors, including Luis Guzmán, Michael Rooker and Al Bundy`s alter-ego Ed O`Neil. Bringing nothing new to the table, it`s rather unfairly dismissed as rubbish, a waste of a good cast, and while I wouldn`t go that far, there`s very little ammunition presented to return fire at the haters of what is a rudimentary, perfunctory thriller, the sort of film that`s filled to the brim with red herrings, yet you can probably peg who`ll turn out to be the killer as soon as he pops into frame, so zealously does it stick to the guidebook on `how to crank out a studio thriller`. While it`s true that the film`s main roles could be played by Mr T and Madonna for all the paradigm shift Denzel and Angelina create, `The Bone Collector` slides down the throat like a warm oyster because it`s so unchallenging, but leaves the same gritty aftertaste for reasons alike. It`s slick and well made, playing heavily on the friction (and eventually sexual frisson) between the leads, but loses appeal as its plot starts to hang together unconvincingly, racing towards a seen-it-all-before climax and reveal, and blows the few brownie points built up by Noyce`s, at times, suspenseful direction and how good Jolie looks in her blues, by tacking on an ill-fitting coda which, in all its typically saccharine glory, is a step too far for a film which was toeing the line during the opening credits.