BLU-RAY
REVIEW: SWING VOTE
01/10/09
In Swing Vote, Bud Johnson
(Kevin Costner) is a slacker coasting through life. His care
taker is his twelve year old daughter Molly Johnson
(Madeline Carroll) who runs the household. She’s the one who
wakes him up in the morning and cooks all his meals. Molly
even urges her dad that he has a civil responsibility to
vote and that she wants him to meet her at the voting booth
cause it’s election day. However, Bud gets drunk and doesn’t
make it, leading Molly to trigger a series of events that
lead Bud into becoming a celebrity as his vote with
determine the next president.
President Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer), the Republican
incumbent and Democratic presidential hopeful Donald
Greenleaf (Dennis Hopper) must now fight for the vote of not
an entire nation but of a single person, Bud. While the
situation that triggers the swing vote is implausible, it’s
not too farfetched the extend that President Andrew Boone
and Democratic nominee Donald Greenleaf are willing to go to
win. The hypocrisy is best seen in two scenes that has
Republican President Andrew Boone and Democratic nominee
Donald Greenleaf going against key issues they believe in
just to please Bud and get the winning vote.
The main theme of the movie is Bud and his relationship with
his daughter and how being thrown into this situation is
going to make him a new man. Of course, those of us that
have seen enough movies know this from the open scenes, and
there are no major surprises here.
While billed as a comedy, the movie got only a hand full of
smiles from me. The strength of the movie is Kevin Costner
who continues to deliver strong performance, but can’t seem
to pick the right movie.
It’s hard to find a Hollywood movie that looks bad in
Blu-ray and Swing Vote is no exception. The film transfer is
exceptional and pretty much free of grain. The detail in
each scene is marvelous and colors look vibrant. To tell the
truth, these days I’m finding it harder and harder to watch
movies in standard DVD format. Since getting my new 52-inch
LCD TV this past Christmas, I’ve been re-watching all my
Blu-ray disc and they look even better than they did on my
old HDTV rear projection television. One last thing
regarding the audio; the track is done in DTS-HD and sounds
decent for this type of movie. Audio levels are good without
overwhelming the dialog.
Review
By Brad Peterson
brad@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
Widescreen Version (2.40:1)(1080P High Definition)
AUDIO:
English 5.1
DTS-HD, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio Commentary
- Audio Commentary by writer/director Joshua Michael Stern
and Writer Jason Richman.
Deleted & Extended Scenes with optional audio commentary by
writer/director Joshua Michael Stern.The best of the
lot “Fox and Crumb Change The System” has Nathan Lane’s Art
Crumb and Stanley Tucci’s Martin Fox joking about running a
fair campaign based on issues.
1. Boone & Greenleaf’s
Magic Moments (4:09)
2. Fox and Crumb Change The System (2:11)
3. Kate and Bud Fight (1:31)
4. Extending Bowling Scene (2:59)
Inside the campaign:
The politics and the production - Writer/director
Joshua Michael Stern and Writer Jason Richman discuss the
inspiration for the movie: the 2000 election. Joshua Michael
Stern also discusses the cast. (12:58)
“Hey Man What About You?” Performed by Modern West -
a music video by Kevin Costner‘s rock/country band Modern
West.(4:17)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
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VIDEO |
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AUDIO |
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