Review by Gary Tooze

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Description: A handful of tourists looking for adventure get more than they bargained for when they cross paths with a massive man-eating beast in this thriller. Pete McKell (Michael Vartan) is a writer for an American travel magazine who has been assigned to write a story about vacationing in rugged Northern Australia. Pete signs up for a cruise along a river that's home to a large crocodile population, with tough but pretty Kate Ryan (Radha Mitchell) serving as guide. Pete soon finds he's roughing it in the Aussie wilds with an eclectic variety of travelers, including Russell (John Jarratt), who is dealing with the death of his wife; Simon (Stephen Curry), a tactless amateur photographer; and Allen (Geoff Morrell), a member of the British upper crust making the trip with his ailing spouse (Heather Mitchell) and their rambunctious daughter (Mia Wasikowska). While Kate's former husband, who also works on the river, makes a pest of himself in the early stages of the voyage, the travelers soon find they have more to worry about when their craft is attacked by a massive 25-foot crocodile, who is just clever enough to know how to trap its prey before enjoying them for dinner. Rogue was written and directed by Greg McLean, who made a splash among horror fans in 2005 with his debut film, Wolf Creek.

 

 

The Film:

Excerpt from James Gracey at Eye For Film located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.
 

The transfer from Alliance is interlaced (1080i) but the outdoor cinematography of Australia  on Blu-ray still looks quite impressive. Detail is quite good in close-ups.  This is only single-layered but has an acceptable bitrate. Colors seem brighter and truer than SD could relate and while noise exists - it is never intrusive - but more prevalent later in the film. The daylight scenes are more impressive and the latter 1/3 of Rogue is very dark. This Blu-ray is not exceptional but does an adequate job of presenting this gripping film with very pleasing, if not stellar, visuals.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alliance offers another surprisingly strong DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 3673 kbps and there are plenty of effect noises, rock music and awkward suspense cues to go along with the chilling pauses. It has decent bass and is impressively robust. There is also a standard 5.1 and French DUB available but no subtitle options at all and my Momitsu has identified it as being Region 'A'-locked.

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
I see that many laud this film more than I do. It's a decent creature-feature with exaggerated characters and, in almost an homage to it's 50's predecessors, doesn't show the 'monster' very much at all. I admit to being entertained - but that is about all. The Blu-ray has typical Alliance weaknesses and only those very keen to see this is 1080 should indulge. 

Gary Tooze

October 19th, 2009