BLU-RAY REVIEW

Fair Game

Featured In Issue 156, April 2011

Picture4
Sound4
WSR Score4.5
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):
Summit Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
66117852
(MPAA Rating):
PG-13
(Rating Reason):
Some language
(Retail Price):
$30.49
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Single Layer (BD-25)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
108
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
A
(Theatrical Year):
2010
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
03/29/11
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Doug Liman
(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):

Fair Game is a spy thriller that chronicles a former undercover CIA agent whose career was destroyed and marriage strained to its limits when her covert identity was exposed by a politically motivated press leak. When CIA officer Valerie Plame's (Watts) retired ambassador husband Joe Wilson (Penn) writes a newspaper article challenging the basis for the U.S. war on Iraq, the White House leaks Plame's undercover status—leaving her international contacts vulnerable, her career in shambles, and her life in danger. Fair Game is inspired by true events based on the books entitled "The Politics Of Truth" by Joseph Wilson and "Fair Game: My Life As A Spy, My Betrayal By The White House" by Valerie Plame Wilson. (Gary Reber)

Special features include commentary with Valerie Plame Wilson and Ambassador Joseph Wilson.

The 2.39:1 1080p AVC picture is cinematic in texture, exhibiting well-balanced colors and clarity. The hues are neutral in tone and appear perfectly natural throughout. Resolution is excellent, with revealing facial features, clothing, and object textures, though, at times the imagery is softly focused. Contrast is nicely balanced with deep blacks and revealing shadow delineation. Overall, this is a picture with a gritty, natural quality but with a generally flat color scheme. Still the imagery is quite convincing and realistic, with effective archival footage for authenticity. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is an aggressive soundfield experience, with an extremely active soundfield surround presence that at times challenges the listener to reliably hear the dialogue. This aggressive envelopment delivers a holosonic® experience comprised of scene-related atmospherics. ADR and production dialogue, though, sounds a bit muted and masked that, at times, is hard to hear and limited in spatial integration. The music score delivers segments and scene segues that are at high levels and are aggressively enveloping. The fidelity is, at times, a bit stringent and thin sounding, lacking deep bass energy to balance the sonic character. In this regard, the .1 LFE channel is limited in impact, even during the devastating Iraq bombing sequence. Overall, this is a high-energy soundtrack, with an aggressive surround presence that, at times, overpowers. (Gary Reber)