PARKER
(2013, Blu-ray released May 21, 2013 – MSRP CAN $32.99)
THE FILM:
- “Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez team up to get their cut in the crime thriller, PARKER, based on the series of bestselling novels by Donald E. Westlake. Parker (Jason Statham) is a professional thief who lives by a personal code of ethics: Don’t steal from people who can’t afford it and don’t hurt people who don’t deserve it. But on his latest heist, his crew double crosses him, steals his stash, and leaves him for dead. Determined to make sure they regret it, Parker tracks them to Palm Beach, playground of the rich and famous, where the crew is planning their biggest heist ever. Donning the disguise of a rich Texan, Parker takes on an unlikely partner, Leslie (Jennifer Lopez), a savvy insider, who’s short on cash, but big on looks, smarts and ambition. Together, they devise a plan to hijack the score, take everyone down and get away clean. “
WHO SHOULD BUY:
Who should buy the Parker Blu-ray? My girlfriend and people like her. The moment the credits rolled she told me this was the best film of the year. A+. Five stars. Golden statue. Yeah, Parker is just her cup of tea and it might be yours too.
My girl likes nothing more than a good heist picture. Even better if it includes a mystery, people wearing disguises and some solid action. And Parker has all of those things in spades. The film doesn’t re-invent the wheel but, to be fair, neither does its source material – the series of books by novelist Donald Westlake, written under his pen name Richard Stark. Fans of the books might not appreciate Statham playing their favourite thief-with-a-strict-moral-code, but he’s just the right ingredient to give the flick the cinematic verve it needs to hold the audience’s interest.
Parker‘s not the most stylish or inventive heist flick but it’s loads of fun and, to some folks (cough,) the “best movie of the year.”
THE BLU-RAY DISC:
Parker looks great on Blu-ray. Though shot on digital, it’s got a very film-like look in HD, with fantastic detail and colour reproduction. The The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is even better, with enough muscles to blow the grills off of your home theatre speakers.
Pickings are slim in the bonus goodie department but fans will be happy to know that the eOne Films disc offers up a fantastic, thorough commentary track by director Taylor Hackford. The “making of” featurette is also a much-watch, though it clocks in at under 8-minutes. Check out “The Origin of Parker“, a 4-minute long piece, to see a lot of that same footage regurgitated.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Commentary with director Taylor Hackford
- Bringing the Hunter to Life: The Making of Parker
- The Origin of Parker
- Broken Necks and Bloody Knuckles
