BLACK MASK - Blu-ray review

Jet Li made the giant leap from an Asian movie star to an international sensation when "Lethal Weapon 4" hit theaters ten years ago. It was around the same time when studio executives knew they had struck a nugget of box office gold and signed the charismatic Chinese actor for numerous Hollywood action projects like "Romeo Must Die" (2000), "Kiss of the Dragon" (2001) and "The One" (2001). Of course, those productions were still in the early stages, so in the meantime someone dusted off Hong Kong's "Hak Hap" (1996) and prepped it for a North American release as "Black Mask" (1999).

Nearly a decade later, the folks at Lionsgate saw dollar signs once again when they decided to give "Black Mask" the Blu-ray treatment. When I received a copy for review it was the first chance I ever had to see the movie and saying that it was a disappointing experience is an understatement. I wasn't just let down by the lame movie that really didn't do anything for me at all, but also the shoddy quality of the disc itself. I'll cover more on that later.

Anyway, the plot for "Black Mask" is a relatively simple one. The story revolves around a top-secret military project where a group of biologically enhanced super-soldiers called the 701 Squad were created to combat an escalating war between powerful crime lords. All of the test subjects were given increased strength, stamina, and a very high tolerance for pain--creating the perfect killing machines. But as it usually goes when science meddles with nature, a few of the soldiers started showing signs of mental instability as an unforeseen side effect. After one of the commandos goes completely postal in one of the training facilities, the Chinese government decides to terminate the program and the soldiers involved.

But before the order was carried out, some of the 701s caught wind of the situation and managed to launch a daring escape. One of these guinea pigs is Michael (Jet Li) who makes it out of the place with his main squeeze, Cailyn (Françoise Yip). Just when they think they're nearly home free, tragedy strikes and Cailyn falls. After the dust settles, Michael slips away believing that he's the only survivor.

A year later, Michael has changed his name to Simon and is now a meek and mellow librarian trying to put his violent past behind him. He's made a few friends in Tracy (Karen Mok), a fellow library employee, and a hard-nosed detective in the police force named Rock (Lau Ching Wan). Rock is the city's resident super-cop, so Michael knows that the streets are in capable hands.

This all changes when a large number of bodies start turning up all over the city, and Michael soon learns that some of his former 701s made it out alive and are responsible for the killings. Since the police department and even Rock are completely helpless against a bunch of nearly invulnerable assassins, Michael sees that the only option is to fight fire with fire by becoming a vigilante hero called the Black Mask.

I've read over at IMDB.com that "Black Mask" is really supposed to be an action-comedy, and one comment even stated that when Jet Li dons his black mask and chauffeur cap its actually supposed to be a spoof on Kato from "The Green Hornet." Well, if that's true, it was executed poorly in the film because I didn't crack a single smile during the entire ninety minutes. Even the usual unintentional humor was nowhere to be found.

In my mind, "Black Mask" is mostly a patchwork creation of comic book personalities without a single ounce of originality. We have a Kato look-alike (Green Hornet)--that was part of a super-soldier experiment (Captain America)--that uses gadgets, grappling lines, and the martial arts to stop criminals (Batman)--and has a secret identity of an ordinary Joe (Superman). It was more irritating than entertaining.

Then we have the 701s led by the Commander (Kong Lung). Now when I envision someone called the "Commander," I tend to picture a rugged and weathered stubbly bad-ass in army fatigues and maybe a crew cut, barking orders to his subordinates while chomping down on a cigar. I know it's a cliché, but still, this makes logical sense to me. What doesn't make sense is inserting a creepy gothic kingpin with long hair and stylish sunglasses, clad in a black cloak and matching cape, operating out of a sewer perched on a Victorian-style throne. I really don't know what director Daniel Lee or the writers were thinking, unless one of them was midway through an Anne Rice novel at the time.

Hip-hop music also runs rampant throughout the entire film, obviously because this is a 90s flick and in the 90s, it was the in thing to put hip-hop in everything. I'm not a hip-hop hater by any means, but too much of anything is usually a recipe for disaster. I remember once when my friend Jeff pigged-out on cherries when we were kids. Jeff must have eaten a hundred or so in one sitting, and man did that guy ever have one hell of a stomach ache afterwards. In "Black Mask," the cheap hip-hop (or "rap" that's spelled with a capital "C") was in every nook and cranny, scratching away in scenes where it just didn't belong. I was in the same boat as Jeff with one hell of a headache afterwards.

The only tolerable part about the experience was Jet Li, and even then I wasn't blown away by the action sequences. They might have been amazing feats of brilliance once upon a time, but this time around it just seemed like pretty routine stuff.

Video:
"Black Mask" comes on a single-layer BD-25 (MPEG-2 video codec) and features a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio. I must say that this is one of the worst transfers I've encountered. Some scenes have excessive grain interference, while the rest of the production seems to have a mild murky haze (and I don't remember seeing any smokers). I kept blinking thinking that it was my eyes, but no, it was actually part of the movie. As a result of this, colors are much softer and details are pretty lackluster, too. All in all, I just didn't experience anything close the crispness that I expect from Blu-ray.

Audio:
The high-definition release features a lone English dub DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless track as well as optional English and Spanish subtitles. The sound is easily the highlight of the disc and blows away everything else, but then again that isn't a very difficult task to begin with. I found a good balance between the front and center channels and the rear channels were cranked to enhance many of the action sequences. The bass, on the other hand, felt overdone to me and that's coming from someone who is normally a fan of heavy subwoofer usage. Between the clockwork explosions and seemingly nonstop hip-hop music, a powerful rumble every three seconds or so eventually became redundant and forgettable. It would have also been nice for Lionsgate to tack on the original Chinese language track for the hard-core fans, yet they still chose not to do so.

Extras:
Unfortunately, Lionsgate didn't include much in terms of bonus features for the "Black Mask" Blu-ray, either. In fact, according to the archived review of DVD Town's own John J. Puccio, you'll actually find more on the standard-definition DVD.

What we do have is a text-based feature explaining the "Wushu Technique." Jet Li is actually a Wushu World Champion and has practiced the martial art since he was eight years old.

"Wushu in Action" is basically just a section gathering all of the Wushu fight scenes together in one place and there are nine of them in total: "The Escape," "The Bathroom," "The Drop-Off," "Rock Saves The Black Mask," "The Setup," "Hospital," "The Tower," "The Graveyard," and "Final Fight."

After watching the film, viewers can test their "Black Mask" knowledge with a multiple choice "Black Mask Trivia Game."

The only real exclusive, which I'm being generous calling it such, is a grouping of high-definition trailers: "Bangkok Dangerous," "Forbidden Kingdom," "War," and "Crank." All four trailers also autoplay on startup.

The Final Cut:
John gave "Black Mask" a 6 for film value quite a while ago, and if I could travel back to the 90s I'd probably agree with him. But by today's standards, the film is severely dated and the one thing it really had going for it--the stunts--no longer amaze and bewilder when compared to what we see nowadays. Plus, the poor transfer combined with minimal extras just adds insult to injury.