Fall - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Fall



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


​

Movie
Fall is one of those films that is very obvious from the start is going to be rather paint by the numbers. Just from the trailer alone you get the entire gist of what is about to go down. 2 women get trapped at the top of a high tower, and have to figure out how to survive until they’re rescued. Simple, we’ve seen this a million times. And you would be correct too. There is nothing overly complex about the film, even though the 3rd act tries to throw us a couple of twists and add some horror elements into the mix. But at the end of the day this is a simple, sometimes exile rating, sometimes bland survival thriller.

The film opens up with best friends Shiloh (Virginia Gardner) and Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) with Becky’s Husband Dan (Mason Gooding) rock climbing out in the wild, only for Dan’s line to slip and cause him to fall to his death. Fast forward a year and Becky is literally drowning her sorrows in booze, dying inside for the man who left her that day on the rock face. Becky’s father James (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) tries his best to get through to his daughter, but she’s intent on literally killing herself with grief and booze. That is until Shiloh comes back into town and pushes Becky into doing one final climb in order to get her mind off Dan and kick the fear she’s been battling straight in the teeth.

This “climb” happens to be a metal tower out in the middle of the Nevada desert. A tower which is quite literally double the height of the Eiffel tower. It’s been abandoned for years, which gives Becky and Shiloh the perfect opportunity to give the aging structure a go and hopefully scatter Dan’s ashes off the peak. The climb itself is brutal, but once at the top the girls watch as the aging ladder that got them there literally dissolve underneath them, leaving the two girls stranded on top of a said tower with not a soul knowing where they are.

Fall is pretty typical, as I said. The standard survival tropes kick in , with the girls having to salvage water bottles, try their best to MacGuyver ways to signal for help, and generally be on the edge of death for most of the film. The first two thirds are actually pretty intense, and being that I’m absolutely TERRIFIED of heights (like full on cry like a baby level) I was biting my nails the whole way up the tower. Yeah, every beat in the film is pretty much telegraphed a mile away (there’s only so much you can make novel or “new” in a film like this), but it’s a pretty intense trip. Even after the girls are up on the tower and trying to get down I was still enjoying the film. The struggle to enjoy comes in the third act, where director/writer/producer Scott Mann tries to throw a few twists and turns into the mix. Twists which play with elements of horror and other more brutal survival films, but which ultimately feel sort of cheesy and not very clever. The “twist” with Shiloh is one that most of us saw coming a mile away, and by the end of the movie with Becky eating the corpse of a scavenger bird that she literally beats to death with her own hands I was actually laughing at the unintentional comedy.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for bloody images, intense peril, and strong language.




Video:

Fall “falls” into the Lionsgate rule of 4 (as I’ve dubbed it). Meaning that it’s as solid looking/sounding flick with straight 4’s across the board for the technical specifications. The digitally shot film is always good (even if it’s never great), with a dusty bronzed look to it s the young women head out into the Southwest desert areas. Colors are a bit monochromatic due to the yellow tinge, but things like Shiloh’s blue shirt, and the red blood of a dead animal do have some pop to them. The black levels are generally good, but once the night time shots kick off there is a LOOOT of banding (it majorly starts when Becky and Shiloh shoot that flare up into the night sky). Overall, solid looking encode framed in the increasingly popular 2.00:1 aspect ratio.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track fares just about as well. It’s a good mix with plenty of surround activity as the girls climb the tower. Whipping wind, the screech of scavengers birds, and the general rattling and shakiness of the rusting tower come through nicely from all angles. There is some really impressive bass jolts throughout the film as well, with the ladder falling, or the slam of a bird impacting Becky shaking the listening position with gusto. Dialog is always crisp and clear, centered in the middle where it’s supposed to be with no signs of imperfections. There was a few times where a voice sounded drowned by the wind, but that was sort of by design and not something I’d consider a major flaw. All in all, a very solid sounding mix for a thriller such as this.












Extras:

• Commentary with Producer, Co-writer, Director Scott Mann and Producer James Harris
• Fall: The Making Of
• Madison Beer I Have Never Felt So Alive from the feature film Fall
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

Fall is a pretty rote and standard survival movie. Its got it’s tense moments, its cheesy moments, but overall is a satisfying rental adventure flick at the end of the day. I got my money’s worth out of the watch and with solid video/audio and some moderate extras, is a flick I can give a solid single thumbs up for a Friday night movie rental. Have fun.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Grace Caroline Currey, Virginia Gardner, Mason Gooding, Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Directed by: Jonathan Frank, Scott Mann
Written by: Scott Mann
Aspect Ratio: 2.00:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DVS
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 107 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 18th, 2022

Recommendation: Rental

 

[Asere]

This one is on my list as it looks interesting. Thanks for the review.

 

[Todd Anderson]

I watched this over the weekend in 4K on K-scape... I liked it a lot more than Mike did. Yes, perhaps a bit formulaic... but I thought it had two twists that kept things interesting. It has good pacing... and if you have any fear of heights OR falling from something tall (I don't have a fear of heights per se, but have a fear of heights when safety is ignored), I think this movie will have you on the edge of your seat in anticipation. I give it two thumbs up (whatever that means!).