Review of Bones

Introduction

Jimmy bones (Snoop Dogg) is the well-respected neighbourhood protector who, while defending the locals from gangs and drugs, eventually is murdered in a botched drug scam by a gang and corrupt cop Lupovich (Michael T. Weiss).
20 years later we return to the drug ravaged streets Bones used to live in and his decaying old mansion is to be renovated into a trendy new nightclub by four teens. Unknowingly to them, they eventually release the tortured spirit of Jimmy Bones who seeks revenge on his killers and eventually threatens the one person he cared about, his former lover Pearl. (Pam Grier).

What follows is the standard yawn fest that is typical of films aimed at the teenage market. The film is not effective at all with very average to poor performance from Snoop Dogg (no change there then), some really contrived plot devices and some very average effects.
The only thing positive worth mentioning is the nod towards earlier horror films, and camera work that is reminiscent of 70`s horror and especially Argento, with lots of scenes using coloured filters. Although visually quite nice this adds little in the way of tension and certainly does not detract the viewer enough from realising that there is a total lack of suspense, plot or indeed horror.
With a truly bad performance from Snoop Dogg, who ends up looking stupid not scary and a plot that isn`t worthy of an episode of Scooby Doo this is one bad Bone that needed to be buried.

Video

Presented in widescreen 2.35:1, the video is actually pretty good quality. Most of the film takes place in the dark and the blacks seem pretty solid and deep throughout. Colour filters are used extensively in this film, some scenes such as the seventies flashbacks are filmed using a sepia like tone and at other times a blue/green tone is used much like on the film The Matrix. All were well represented with no bleed and any compression artifacts are kept to a minimum. Sometimes the picture can look a little soft, lacking deep detail or a slight amount of grain is visible, but overall this is a very clean presentation with no real problems.

Audio

With the R1 version sporting not only a EX 5.1 Surround soundtrack but also a DTS ES 6.1 one as well, the 2 channel digital surround here is a major disappointment. I suppose for a Dolby surround track it`s fairly decent with a good frequency response and some nice effects. Dialogue is clear but there really is no excuse for not having a 5.1 track. Overall it`s above average yet you come away with the feeling that it could have been so much better.

Features

The only extras included are a trailer and two versions of `A Dogg Named Snoop` music video, one standard and one live. These are just appalling and are really not worth watching in any form.
See the region one disk for what we missed out on.

Conclusion

A total lack of ideas, and some pretty average performances makes this bare bones DVD a definite miss I`m afraid.
One to avoid.