Unforgettable - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Unforgettable

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
The world of crazed jealous women making life hell for the men and women who dare to subvert their perfect lives is pretty much a thing of the past in terms of cinematic greatness. Back in the 80s and early 90s the genre was rife with Michael Douglass style dramas that reeked of this temperament, but lately the genre has been over saturated by Lifetime films of the same ilk, diluting the market to the point of overabundance and heavy burnout. With Rosario Dawson at the helm I was really tempted at wanting to like the film, but I remembered one thing. When was the last time Rosario Dawson was in a big name film? Or Katherine Heigl for that matter? With that thought in mind you’re pretty much prepared for the low budget cheese that is Unforgettable. A movie with barely a single creative bone in its body, and well warmed up to the fact that it is a piece of 80s and early 90s cheese that has been melted, dried on bread, and then re-heated a decade or so too late to be really relevant.

The film opens with Julia Banks (Rosario Dawson) sitting in a police station, all bruised and battered, listening to a cop tell her that she murdered her ex-husband. A man whom she had left on abuse charges several years back. The film immediately flicks to 6 months prior, where Julia is moving away from her job and into the home of her fiancé David Connover (Geoff Stults), an up and coming entrepreneur who is making a brew pub in his home town. Not only is Julia acquiring a new man, but she is acquiring David’s daughter Lily (Isabella Kai Rice) as well. Well, that and the baggage of his gorgeous, but slightly controlling ex-wife Tessa (Katherine Heigl), who seems to have not fully let go of David just yet. As with all these psycho ex-girlfriend thrillers, things start out simple enough, but soon go into the scary territory when Tessa starts getting a little TOO possessive of her ex, and begins to make life a living hell for Julia.

Soon Tessa is setting Julia up for a fall, as she messages Julia’s ex-husband, and drags him back into her life, trying her best to form a wedge between David and the new fiancée. This naturally leads to a confrontation when Julia’s ex shows up, and mysteriously is murdered right after. This lands Julia in HOT water with the police, as Tessa has been slowly planting circumstantial evidence of Julia being unfaithful in an attempt to get the police to view HER as the suspect to the murder, but you all know what’s coming next. Julia is not about to go down without a fight and this leads to the two opposing women hashing out their disagreements with violence and cat screams that will ring to the heavens.

To say that Unforgettable is completely forgettable is an understatement. The film doesn’t blaze any new trails, and in fact, just tends to stick with overly well-worn clichés to the point of embarrassment. If I have to look back at the film honestly, it’s not THAT bad, but it still is really awful when you take into effect that the movie takes every cue from the Lifetime Channel playbook to its inevitable conclusion. Tessa is the evil ex woman, and Julia wonders what is going on around her till it’s almost too late. Then the inevitable cat fight between her and Tessa ensues that will end with Julia magically triumphant against both the police charges and her fiancé’s doubt.

I almost wanted to like Unforgettable. There is this schlocky 80s vibe that The Boy Next Door tried (and failed) to replicate a few years back. A kind of throwback to the day when Glen Close and Michael Douglass, or Demi Moore were heating up the screen with these sleazy little love/hate/psychosis triangles. The problem is, the Lifetime channel has pretty much killed the genre with horrible schlock that would make even the 80s cry in sheer embarrassment, and Unforgettable ends up just being a Lifetime Channel movie with a few extras dollars and falling movie stars attached to it. There’s virtually no entertainment to be had, but the increased budget of being backed by a major studio like Warner Brothers lends some credibility




Rating:

Rated R for sexual content, violence, some language, and brief partial nudity




Video:

Unforgettable is a decidedly digital affair, with all of the earmarks of a glossy, shiny digital encode written all over it. The movie is given a nice and shiny veneer, with bright sunny colors during the daylight and then dark and murky blacks when it gets sinister and severe. Colors tend to be fairly natural, with bright greens, and reds and whites, combined with the dark shadows of the big house that Julia and David live in when she’s being stalked by crazy Tessa. Fine detail is remarkably excellent, although the movie does employ a very light gauzy softness that keeps the detail levels from ever being truly resplendent. Blacks are deep and inky, and despite some mild crush, the film shows off more than enough shadow details to please most everyone.





Audio:

You know what to expect from a love triangle drama of this genre in terms of its audio mix. The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is quite full and rich, and heavily tweaked towards the front end of the sound stage. Dialog is the main feature of the track, and it is replicated with pinpoint precision and accuracy. The surrounds are actually given quite a bit of activity in the ambient noise category, but doesn’t really excel at anything besides delivering said ambient background data. The LFE channel is weighty, but never overly aggressive, and acts as some hefty support for the more sinister moments of the film. It’s a solid entry in the thriller genre, and does everything well without going into the giant blockbuster extravaganza audio style.









Extras:

• Reclaiming What's Yours: Making Unforgettable Featurette
• Director's Audio Commentary
• Deleted Scenes with Audio Commentary

Final Score: ​

Unforgettable isn’t a train wreck, but the train just barely is able to keep its wheels on the track without careening out of control. The entire film feels like a bad Lifetime movie on a higher budget, and the inclusion of several big-name actresses on their downhill spiral just confirms that conclusion. Director Denise Di Novi tries to make the cheesy little film into something entertaining, but the ham fisted directing, and blatant copying of every “jealous girlfriend” movie cliché ever leaves the film with this sour sense of “hit and a miss” syndrome. The Blu-ray from Warner is well done, with good audio and video, but the week extras and week film leaves me with the sad job of warning people to just stay away and skip it.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Rosario Dawson, Katherine Heigl, Geoff Stults
Directed by: Denise Di Novi
Written by: Christina Hodson
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English DD 5.1 (English DD 5.1 is DVS)
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 100 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: Own Unforgettable on Blu-ray and DVD on July 25 or Own it Early on Digital HD on July Now!

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Skip It

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. So basically unforgettable is forgettable.

Thanks for taking one for the team.

 

[Michael Scott]

yup, you just summed it up...

 

[Asere]

Wife and I thought the trailer looked good but don't they all.
I'll have to just rent it.
On The Boys Next Door I remember watching that one everything it would air. A classic I think.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Thanks for the review. So basically unforgettable is forgettable.

Thanks for taking one for the team.

I was just going to say: appropriately named flick!

 

[Michael Scott]

some times they just write themselves