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Headhunters aka Hodejegerne [Blu-ray]
(Morten Tyldum, 2011)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Friland Video: Magnolia Home Entertainment
Disc: Region: 'A' (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:40:17.011 Disc Size: 24,826,728,205 bytes Feature Size: 20,453,793,792 bytes Video Bitrate: 20.97 Mbps Chapters: 12 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: August 28th, 2012
Video: Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio Norwegian 2117 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2117 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit) DUB: DTS-HD Master Audio English 2331 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 2331 kbps / 16-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 16-bit)
Subtitles: English (SDH), English, English (Titles and Text only) Spanish, none
Extras: • Behind the Scenes of Headhunters (22:39)• Theatrical trailer (2:08)• Magnolia Trailer • Bookmarkable • BD-Live
Bitrate:
Description: Roger is a charming scoundrel and Norway's most accomplished headhunter. He lives a life of luxury well beyond his means and chooses to subsidize his expensive lifestyle through stealing highly prized art. When his beautiful wife, an art gallery owner, introduces him to a former mercenary in the possession of an extremely valuable painting, he decides to risk it all in order to obtain it, and in doing so, he discovers something which makes him a hunted man.
The Film: A man living on both sides of the law is caught in a dangerous game in this thriller from Norwegian director Morten Tyldum. Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) makes his living as a corporate recruiter, finding talented people who work for other companies and making them lucrative offers to join the firm currently signing his paychecks. Roger's work pays a handsome salary, but he suffers crushing insecurity when it comes to his beautiful wife Diana (Synnove Macody Lund), and he constantly showers her with expensive gifts in hopes of staying on her good side. Between Diana's expectations and the expensive tastes of Roger's mistress Lotte (Julie Olgaard), Roger needs cash, so he's taken on a high-paying second job -- stealing rare works of art. Roger is just good enough and smart enough to know that he'll get caught eventually, and when he learns of a man with an authentic Rubens, he hopes to make one last score that will keep him well set for a long time. But Roger soon learns there's a catch -- the man with the painting is also someone he's supposed to recruit for a client, and he's clearly a few steps ahead of Roger. Hodejegerne (aka Headhunters) was an official selection at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. Excerpt from MRQE located HERE
Image : NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc. Headhunters appears decent if not dynamically stellar on Blu-ray from Magnolia. The image quality has acceptable detail - but occasional softness creeps in, there is a shade of gloss and adept contrast - certainly excelling over SD. I didn't catch this at TIFF but would think this is a fairly strong replication. This is only single-layered with an average bitrate. The film has many darker scenes but no prominent noise was evident. Skin tones seem true. Perhaps one day we will compare to a region 'B' edition which might ratchet-up the visual portion by a small notch - it's hard to say. This gave me an entraining presentation without flaws - but never wow'ed me with the 1080P image.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :There is a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround in original Norwegian at 2117 kbps with significant pop in some of the more daring scenes. Sounds quite good actually with depth and a few keen separations. There is an equally robust English DUB with the same level of lossless transfer but the English appears awkward coming out of the characters mouths. I'd opt for the original with the optional English subtitles (also available for 'text and signs' IF you utilize the DUB). My Momitsu has identified it as being a region 'A' although there is a region 'B' disc available HERE in the UK (and probably elsewhere in Europe).
Extras : Supplements offer Behind the Scenes of Headhunters - a 20-minute standard piece on the production as well as a theatrical trailer (2:08) and a handful of Magnolia Trailers. The disc is Bookmarkable and is BD-Live functioning.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze August 19th, 2012
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 5000 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
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