THE
ONE ($28) is one heck of a fun popcorn movie that combines an interesting
science fiction premise with Hong Kong style martial arts action and terrific
special effects. Not only that, THE ONE also combines the talents
of Hong Kong cinema’s Jet Li with those of James Wong and Glen Morgan,
who’ve had their hands in cool stuff like THE X-FILES TV series
and the under appreciated genre flick FINAL DESTINATION. Those
who enjoy escapist entertainment that that they can lose themselves in,
will find that THE ONE offers rapid-fire pacing that bounces from
one action sequence to the next, while sweetening the whole deal with
plenty of high tech eye candy.
The
plot of THE ONE proceeds from the notion that there is more than
one universe, a multiverse if you will, comprised of alternate realities.
In some of these alternate universes the technology exists that can bridge
these different realities and allow individuals to travel between universes.
Jet Li stars in THE ONE as Yulaw, a criminal who has been illegally
traveling between universes and killing off his counterparts that are
native to those particular universes. It seems that Yulaw has discovered
that he and his counterparts are somehow interconnected, and by killing
off the others their energies are redistributed amongst the remaining
versions of himself. After killing 123 of his counterparts Yulaw has become
incredibly strong, incredibly fast and nearly indestructible. With a single
counterpart remaining, Yulaw manages to escape from the multiverse’s equivalent
of law enforcement and makes his way to the universe containing the only
individual that is keeping him from becoming The One. However,
Yulaw finds dispatching his final counterpart more of a challenge than
he ever expected.
Although
English isn’t Jet Li’s native tongue, he acquits himself quite well in
this American movie. He has mastered the language well enough to be convincing
in his two primary roles- Yulaw, the obsessed criminal, and Gabe Law,
the duty bound police officer and loving husband. While many actors have
pulled off multiple roles in films before, THE ONE adds a technical
complexity of having Jet Li fight against himself in a very convincing
manner. Although aided by digital effects, different camera angles and
editing, Li has to perform both sides of the fight and maintain the different
fighting styles of both characters. In addition to leading man Jet Li,
THE ONE features a solid supporting cast that includes Carla Gugino,
Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham and James Morrison.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made THE ONE available on DVD in
a 2.35:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for 16:9 displays.
A full screen presentation is available on a separate layer of the DVD,
but this review will address the wide screen version of the film. Like
any other brand new movie coming out of Columbia TriStar, THE ONE
looks great on DVD. The image is very sharp and richly detailed, with
only a miniscule amount of grain showing up in a couple of places. Colors
are vibrant and well saturated, with absolutely no signs of noise or smearing.
The film’s cinematography makes use of colored lighting to create atmosphere,
but the picture is always rock solid. Additionally, flesh tones are always
rendered in a completely natural manner. Blacks are deep and velvety,
contrast is quite smooth and there is plenty of shadow detail in the darker
sequences. Digital compression artifacts are never problematic during
the presentation.
As
one should expect from any good science fiction/action movie, THE ONE
features a kick-ass Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack. The mix is very
aggressive and highly active throughout the course of the film. Sound
effects swirl, bounce, ping-pong and generally draw the viewer into the
high-octane movie experience. The rear channels are utilized exceedingly
well, giving all the surround junkies out there a satisfying fix. Dialogue
reproduction is very clean and never buried under the other sonic elements.
The bass channel is deep, percussive and lends genuine weight to the film’s
sound effects. Music is well integrated into the mix, with both the film’s
score and incidental music sounding full bodied. A French Dolby Surround
soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVD, as are English, Spanish, French,
Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive
menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as a nice complement of supplemental materials.
THE ONE includes an audio commentary with co-writer/director James
Wong, production designer David Snyder, cinematographer Robert McLachlan
and editor James Coblentz. This is an interesting commentary track, which
offers a good deal of behind-the-scenes detail pertaining to the technical
aspects of the production. Also included on the DVD are four featurettes.
Jet Li Is The One runs thirteen minutes and is a fairly
standard behind-the-scenes featurette that includes movie clips and interviews
with the cast & crew. Clocking in at eighteen minutes is Multiverses
Create The One, which focuses on the technical challenges of the
films stunts and special effects work. Running about five minutes is About
Face, which explores the difficulties of having Jet Li fight against
himself in the film’s climatic martial arts sequences and the techniques
employed to produce two copies of the actor on screen at the same time.
The Many Faces Of Jet Li runs about two minutes and looks
at the various guises that actor takes on to play his character’s numerous
counterparts. The DVD also features a theatrical trailer, cast & crew
filmographies and an Animatronic Comparison for one of the film’s key
special effects sequences.
THE
ONE is pure popcorn entertainment
at it best, making this one heck of a fun movie. If you are looking for
something that is both entertaining and slick to feed your home theater
system, you really can’t go wrong with a copy of THE ONE. The audio
and video quality of the disc is first class all the way, making this
a disc you’ll want to show to you friends when they happen by and ask
what’s new and cool on DVD.
THE
ONE ($28) is one heck of a fun popcorn movie that combines an interesting
science fiction premise with Hong Kong style martial arts action and terrific
special effects. Not only that, THE ONE also combines the talents
of Hong Kong cinema’s Jet Li with those of James Wong and Glen Morgan,
who’ve had their hands in cool stuff like THE X-FILES TV series
and the under appreciated genre flick FINAL DESTINATION. Those
who enjoy escapist entertainment that that they can lose themselves in,
will find that THE ONE offers rapid-fire pacing that bounces from
one action sequence to the next, while sweetening the whole deal with
plenty of high tech eye candy.
The
plot of THE ONE proceeds from the notion that there is more than
one universe, a multiverse if you will, comprised of alternate realities.
In some of these alternate universes the technology exists that can bridge
these different realities and allow individuals to travel between universes.
Jet Li stars in THE ONE as Yulaw, a criminal who has been illegally
traveling between universes and killing off his counterparts that are
native to those particular universes. It seems that Yulaw has discovered
that he and his counterparts are somehow interconnected, and by killing
off the others their energies are redistributed amongst the remaining
versions of himself. After killing 123 of his counterparts Yulaw has become
incredibly strong, incredibly fast and nearly indestructible. With a single
counterpart remaining, Yulaw manages to escape from the multiverse’s equivalent
of law enforcement and makes his way to the universe containing the only
individual that is keeping him from becoming The One. However,
Yulaw finds dispatching his final counterpart more of a challenge than
he ever expected.
Although
English isn’t Jet Li’s native tongue, he acquits himself quite well in
this American movie. He has mastered the language well enough to be convincing
in his two primary roles- Yulaw, the obsessed criminal, and Gabe Law,
the duty bound police officer and loving husband. While many actors have
pulled off multiple roles in films before, THE ONE adds a technical
complexity of having Jet Li fight against himself in a very convincing
manner. Although aided by digital effects, different camera angles and
editing, Li has to perform both sides of the fight and maintain the different
fighting styles of both characters. In addition to leading man Jet Li,
THE ONE features a solid supporting cast that includes Carla Gugino,
Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham and James Morrison.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment has made THE ONE available on DVD in
a 2.35:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for 16:9 displays.
A full screen presentation is available on a separate layer of the DVD,
but this review will address the wide screen version of the film. Like
any other brand new movie coming out of Columbia TriStar, THE ONE
looks great on DVD. The image is very sharp and richly detailed, with
only a miniscule amount of grain showing up in a couple of places. Colors
are vibrant and well saturated, with absolutely no signs of noise or smearing.
The film’s cinematography makes use of colored lighting to create atmosphere,
but the picture is always rock solid. Additionally, flesh tones are always
rendered in a completely natural manner. Blacks are deep and velvety,
contrast is quite smooth and there is plenty of shadow detail in the darker
sequences. Digital compression artifacts are never problematic during
the presentation.
As
one should expect from any good science fiction/action movie, THE ONE
features a kick-ass Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack. The mix is very
aggressive and highly active throughout the course of the film. Sound
effects swirl, bounce, ping-pong and generally draw the viewer into the
high-octane movie experience. The rear channels are utilized exceedingly
well, giving all the surround junkies out there a satisfying fix. Dialogue
reproduction is very clean and never buried under the other sonic elements.
The bass channel is deep, percussive and lends genuine weight to the film’s
sound effects. Music is well integrated into the mix, with both the film’s
score and incidental music sounding full bodied. A French Dolby Surround
soundtrack is also encoded onto the DVD, as are English, Spanish, French,
Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s interactive
menus. Through the menus, one has access to the standard scene selection
and set up features, as well as a nice complement of supplemental materials.
THE ONE includes an audio commentary with co-writer/director James
Wong, production designer David Snyder, cinematographer Robert McLachlan
and editor James Coblentz. This is an interesting commentary track, which
offers a good deal of behind-the-scenes detail pertaining to the technical
aspects of the production. Also included on the DVD are four featurettes.
Jet Li Is The One runs thirteen minutes and is a fairly
standard behind-the-scenes featurette that includes movie clips and interviews
with the cast & crew. Clocking in at eighteen minutes is Multiverses
Create The One, which focuses on the technical challenges of the
films stunts and special effects work. Running about five minutes is About
Face, which explores the difficulties of having Jet Li fight against
himself in the film’s climatic martial arts sequences and the techniques
employed to produce two copies of the actor on screen at the same time.
The Many Faces Of Jet Li runs about two minutes and looks
at the various guises that actor takes on to play his character’s numerous
counterparts. The DVD also features a theatrical trailer, cast & crew
filmographies and an Animatronic Comparison for one of the film’s key
special effects sequences.
THE
ONE is pure popcorn entertainment
at it best, making this one heck of a fun movie. If you are looking for
something that is both entertaining and slick to feed your home theater
system, you really can’t go wrong with a copy of THE ONE. The audio
and video quality of the disc is first class all the way, making this
a disc you’ll want to show to you friends when they happen by and ask
what’s new and cool on DVD.
