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    • BLU-RAY REVIEW

    Rundown, The

    Featured In Issue 112, September 2006

    Picture4.5
    Sound5
    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):
    Universal Studios Home Entertainment
    (Catalog Number):
    30023
    (MPAA Rating):
    PG13
    (Rating Reason):
    For adventure violence and some crude dialogue
    (Retail Price):
    $
    (Disc Type):
    Single Side, Dual Layer (HD-30)
    (Widescreen Edition):
    Yes
    (Full Screen Edition):
    No
    (Running Time In Minutes):
    104
    (Color Type):
    Color
    (Chaptered/Scene Access):
    Yes
    (Closed Captioned):
    Yes
    (Regional Coding):
    1
    (Theatrical Year):
    2003
    (Theatrical Release):
    Yes
    (Direct-To-Video Release):
    No
    (Disc Release Date):
    06/13/06
    (THX® Digitally Mastered):
    No
    (Director):
    Peter Berg
    (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):
    Dolby Digital+ 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 The Rundown (aka Welcome To The Jungle), a guy sends Beck (The Rock) to the jungles of Brazil to bring back his son Travis (Scott), and Beck reluctantly heads off for the Amazon. When he arrives, Travis has his sights set on finding a valuable gold icon, and he's determined to get it before he goes anywhere. With the powerful mine owner Hatcher (Walken) and his thugs right behind them, Beck and Travis find themselves on a journey like nothing they've ever experienced before! (Suzanne Hodges)


    Special features include two audio commentaries: one with Director Peter Berg and The Rock, and the other with Kevin Misher and Marc Abraham; an 11-minute Rumble In The Jungle featurette; a five-minute location featurette about turning Hawaii into the Amazon; an eight-minute visual-effects featurette; a six-minute featurette on Kamila the Baboon titled The Rundown Uncensored; a four-minute production design featurette; a six-minute highlight on Walken's World; and 14 minutes of deleted scenes.

    Like the high-definition 2.35:1 D-VHS® D-Theater™ release, the HD DVD picture has a "hot" color scheme, with vivid hues (especially the green vegetation), with deep, endless blacks. Bright whites are blown-out, and visual information can drop off in the darker scenes. The picture has a highly contrasted appearance. Fine details, like the sheen of sweat and crags and pocks of faces are impressive on tight shots, but the detail in further shots is a bit wanting, like the D-VHS. The HD DVD picture does seem slightly sharper than the D-VHS release, which is most noticeable in scenes with heavy motion. (Danny Richelieu)

    While both the DTS® Digital Surround™ and Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel encodings of the D-VHS D-Theater release were good, the Dolby Digital Plus encoding on the HD DVD release is better. The Digital Plus encoding improves fluidity of the soundtrack, which in turn improves fidelity, even when compared to the excellent DTS encoding of the D-VHS tape. Overall levels are slightly lower in the HD DVD encoding, which is easily corrected by turning your volume knob a few clicks to the right. From start to finish, the entire set of channels is used very well, with phantom imaging accomplished wonderfully across all four audio walls. Dialogue has a very neutral tonality, and the LFE channel is used prodigiously for effects as well as music, creating a very nice foundation for the sub-25 Hz bass presented through each of the full-range channels. (Danny Richelieu

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    Dick Lew
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