Blink Twice - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Blink Twice



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



AV NIRVANA is member and reader-supported. When you purchase an item using our links, we might earn an affiliate commission.
​

Movie
I’m a HUGE fan of terrifying thrillers, and was especially intrigued by the trailer for Blink Twice as I really believe that Channing Tatum was one of the more over looked actors of his time. He started out as this massive pretty boy, playing dumb and hunky meat puppets who were supposed to induce women swooning over him, but slowly started to evolve over the years. He made an absolute FORTUNE with the Magic Mike franchise (which to be fair is one of the cringiest roles he’s ever played, but hey, it made him mega millions), but then started to pull back from general Hollywood and semi retire. Now he’s slowly making his way back into mainstream films, picking and choosing roles that mean something to him. Usually in roles that stretch him as an actual actor instead of just relying on his looks and physique. So picture me MORE than excited to see him as an actual villain in Zoe Kravitz’s first feature film.

Blink Twice starts out with an absolutely fantastic concept. It starts out with lowly server Frida (Naomi Ackie) and her roommate Jess (Alia Shawkat) crashing a party where Frida gets to meet Billionaire philanthropist Slater King (Channing Tatum) and fan girl. The night takes an interesting twist when Slater invites the two women to come along with all of the groupies and have a drug fueled party weekend at his hidden island getaway that he calls home. At first things are just hunky dory. The guests are all partying it up like it’s 1999, tossing back shots, smoking big fat blunts, and of course having fun with other recreational substances. However, things get weird when Jess gets bit by a snake and subsequently goes missing, instigating Frida into realizing that things are NOT OK. It seems they’re being drugged for a nefarious reason, and it’s up to Frida to try and unravel this whole ball of yarn and figure out how to get off the island alive, if they can.

I’m not going to spoil what Frida finds out completely, as the final half of the movie really relies on that massive reveal. Needles to say, the island is basically a mixture of Epstein’s island with P-Diddy’s parties with all of the horrible things that you could imagine from that comparison. The first half of the film is actually really creepy and terrifying, and had me on the edge of my seat. The audience is clued into the fact that this is not the party island that the girls think it is, and the tension is thick and heavy for the first act and a half till we get to the horrifying reveal. However, it’s at this point that film starts to spiral out of control. Before you can say “Bob’s your uncle” the girls get into full girl boss mode and start turning the island into a bloodbath as they enact their revenge on the clueless men. This means there’s plot armor galore, and over the top super hero level of action to the point where even I was chuckling out of incredulity. THEN we come to the final 10 minutes of the film where Zoe Kravitz seems to run out of steam and simply goes off the rails with an ending that is just eye roll inducing. I mean, I actually liked the reverse slasher element of the final act, but the last 5-10 minutes of the movie LITERALLY kills any good will for the film that has been building. Friday comes across as coldly calculating and “ambitious” instead of righteous, and the last few minutes really feels like it could have been cut out and left the film with her dragging the bodies away from a few minutes earlier.

Kravitz’s freshman attempt at a feature film comes across rather stilted, with burgeoning promise, but ultimately ends up fizzling out in the last act as she seemingly can’t seem to find a way to actually deliver on the horrifying promise of the first 2 acts. She tries to be Avant Garde with quick cut close up edits, a creepy score with out of focus background shots, but overall the film just “is”. Which is kind of sad as the premise of trafficking women and being abused is absolutely RIGHT on target with the whole Epstein debacle, and the new surfacing problem of Diddy and his long standing abuse of people coming out the last couple of months. It works, but only to a point, and then her inexperience behind the camera shows.




Rating:

Rated R for strong violent content, sexual assault, drug use and language throughout, and some sexual references.




Video:

One nice thing of the disc having literally ZERO extras is the fact that the entire 50 gigabyte dual layer disc is given to video bitrate, resulting in a very tasty looking 1080p transfer. The image is almost completely immaculate, with a nice and shiny sun drenched look, with an abundance of colorful encounters on the lush tropical island. Foliage greens really pop off the screen, as does the plethora of red, blue and green clothing materials of the ladies. There’s a weird camera technique where background shots look a bit out of focus and blurry with the foreground images being RAZER sharp, which sort of adds to the dreaminess of the first 2 acts. There’s some really oppressively dark scenes near the last 1/3rd of the movie that really tax the black levels on your TV, though not to 2014 Godzilla by any stretch of the imagination.









Audio:

Blink Twice sports a very engaging and intensely focused 5.1 DTS-HD MA track to enjoy on the disc. Right from the opening Tranformers esque “bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!” from the LFE channel I knew it was going to be good, and I was NOT disappointed. The first section of the movie is definitely forward heavy, with a moderate amount of surround activity from the opening party. Dialog is crisp and clean, and front panning effects moderate. HOWEVER, once the venue shifts over to the island things kick off in high gear. The fronts and surrounds both make VERY heavy use with discrete background noises, often making those “background” noises the actual front and center of the track. Effects are well placed, with a solid low end throughout, and there are more than a few sonic surprises along the way that really keep this mix interesting.












Extras: :

•

Final Score:
​

If I had to compare Blink Twice to anything else I would have to say it borrows a whole ton from Get Out, blends in a little bit of Ready or Not for the final act, and some David Fincher vibes as well. It’s a solid enough rental for a thriller/horror film, but it’s not going to rival the already mentioned Get Out in terms of cultural smash hit. The Blu-ray from Warner looks and sounds great, but the disc is extraless (which is not out of the ordinary for Amazon/MGM physical releases), so all in all I’d give this a decent rental recommendation.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Channing Tatum, Naomi Ackie, Christian Slater, Geena Davis, Alia Shawkat, Simon Rex, Haley-Joel Osment
Directed by: Zoe Kravitz
Written by: Zoe Kravitz, E.T. Feigenbaum
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, French, Spanish, Italian DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 102 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: November 5th, 2024

Recommendation: Decent Rental