Bruce Willis holsters up to mount a rescue attempt in the jungle as all hell breaks loose in Nigeria. Peering in amongst the fronds we reckon that the film is a, "muddled, unacknowledged reworking of The Magnificent Seven." Whatever the film is really meant to be about, it does rake over raw issues that this DVD trivialises.

Real Footage

In his commentary, Antoine Fuqua fails to fully deal with the sense of unease that some might have in watching the film. Indeed as Fuqua talks about purposefully re-watching again and again footage of a young boy being stamped to death to remind himself why he was making the film, the whole exercise begins to feel quite distasteful. Contrasted with Fuqua describing how the film was shot in Hawaii to keep everyone safe and any claimed grit this movie has evaporates in a trice. Fuqua claims that he didn't want to make a typical Bruce Willis action movie, but yet a lot of the commentary is about shooting an efficient slick product. Fuqua may well believe in his heart that he should have made this film, but his words just don't ring true.

Real People

Eight people who survived the trauma of civil war in Africa were interviewed for this DVD, and in the section Voices Of Africa you can hear their stories. What is so crassly stupid about this is that here we have people who have witnessed brutality beyond imagination and they're given MTV-sized two-minute slots in which to tell their stories. This is all too cursory treatment for, in some cases, sole survivors of entire families to merely become soundbites for a DVD.

Get Real

The film boasts a powerful 5.1 mix and the cinematography transfers beautifully to disc. The extra features are competently produced. Therefore as a DVD this product passes. The overriding impression you're left though, from this DVD, is of glorified triviality, and that everyone involved in the production has completely missed the point. And that they're morons.

EXTRA FEATURES

This DVD was reviewed on a JVC XV-N5 DVD player.