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    • BLU-RAY REVIEW

    D13-U District 13: Ultimatum

    Featured In Issue 148, May/June 2010

    Picture4
    Sound4.5
    WSR Score3
    Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
    (Studio/Distributor):
    Magnolia Home Entertainment
    (Catalog Number):
    10287
    (MPAA Rating):
    R
    (Rating Reason):
    Some violence, language and drug material
    (Retail Price):
    $29.98
    (Disc Type):
    Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
    (Widescreen Edition):
    Yes
    (Full Screen Edition):
    No
    (Running Time In Minutes):
    101
    (Color Type):
    Color
    (Chaptered/Scene Access):
    Yes
    (Closed Captioned):
    Yes
    (Regional Coding):
    Not Indicated
    (Theatrical Year):
    2009
    (Theatrical Release):
    Yes
    (Direct-To-Video Release):
    No
    (Disc Release Date):
    04/27/10
    (THX® Digitally Mastered):
    No
    (Director):
    Patrick Alessandrin
    (Screenplay/Written By):
    (Story):
    (Music):
    (Director Of Photography):
    (Production Designer):
    (Visual Effects):
    (Costume Designer):
    (Editor):
    (Supervising Sound Editors):
    (Re-Recording Mixers):
    (Executive Producers):
    (Co-Producers):
    (Producers):
    (Academy Awards):
    (Principal Photography):
    (Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
    (Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
    (Disc Soundtrack):
    DTS HD Lossless 5.1
    (Theatrical Sound):
    (Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
    (DTS Bit Rate):
    (Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
    (Additional Languages):
    (French Language):
    (Spanish Language):
    (Chinese Language):
    (Subtitles):
    (Cantonese Language):
    (Mandarin Language):
    (Japanese Language):
    (Italian Language):
    (German Language):
    (Portuguese Language):

    In this sequel to "District B13," "District 13: Ultimatum" ("D13-U") return us to the state of the notorious district populated by violent drug gangs and vicious killers. The district has deteriorated to the point of civil unrest, despite government promises to maintain order. As a group of corrupt cops and elected officials conspire to cash in on the district's redevelopment by proposing a nuclear air strike that will wipe the district off the map, elite police officer Damien Tomasso (Raffaelli) and reformed vigilante Leito (Belle) join forces once again to protect the fate of the racially charged Parisian ghetto. They must use their mastery of martial arts and their unique physical skills to bring peace to the neighborhood by any means necessary. (Gary Reber)

    Special features include a making-of featurette (SD 26:34), a production diary, a music video (SD 03:35), deleted and extended scenes, HDNet: A Look At District 13: Ultimatum (HD 04:43), up-front previews, and BD-Live functionality.

    The 1080p 2.35:1 VC-1 picture exhibits a raw visual character with fast-action edits. The imagery is inconsistent, with some scenes exhibiting a natural visual experience and others with pushed contrast and distortion. At times black levels are pushed and shadow delineation suffers. At other times shadow delineation is nicely revealing. Fleshtones exhibit a yellowish hue and appear slightly washed out. In any event, they do not appear natural. This is an aspect of the inconsistent visual quality. Overall, the action scenes are intense and engaging, but the picture quality is stylistically unnatural. (Gary Reber)

    The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is aggressively surround engaging throughout, virtually nonstop with a strong directionalized surround presence. This is due to a powerful music score augmented with Foley, atmospheric, and sound effects that actively engage every channel. At times the sonic impact is very exciting and always the sound is dynamic and powerful, with a deep, low-frequency foundation excited with intense .1 LFE bass extension to below 25 Hz. The dialogue track, whether the original French or the dubbed English, is poorly integrated spatially and sounds unnaturally forward and canned. It sounds as though all the dialogue was ADR derived and unnatural. Still, the overall sonic impact of the other sound elements is exciting, dynamic, and holosonically dimensional. (Gary Reber)

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