S p a r t a n

Demiurge

Underrated movie. Seems to have slipped under the radar...at least around here. Well worth a rental or even a purchase.

Willow

I give it one thumb down

a tad hard to follow

dorokusai

I bought it but haven't watched it yet. I liked Kilmer in The Salton Sea, so I figured it was a worthy purchase.

Demiurge

Yeah....I really like it, but that's just one mans opinion.

I just think it really slipped under the radar scene, and the new releases have been a bit weak as of late. Think it's worth checking it out. I've been sold on Kilmer since Tombstone so I had to buy it.

kuntasensei

Here's my review:
I'm always suspicious of a DVD for a movie that didn't get a wide theatrical release. You have to think that maybe there was a reason, like maybe the movie just wasn't that good. But lately, there have been a few movies like this that I have found absolutely outstanding. SPARTAN is one of those movies.

Directed and written by David Mamet, this naturally has the intelligent dialogue that he's known for, which flows almost like dramatic poetry. Spartan is about a government agent named Scott (though that may or may not be his real name) who is tapped to help when the daughter of a government official is apparently kidnapped. What agency he's with or what his function is is never really stated, but it's clear that he's black ops -- the kind of guy you call in when it hits the fan and you need the job done, laws be damned. I won't give anything else away, because the fun of this movie is discovering what's going on as the main character discovers it. Val Kilmer is excellent in the role of Scott, giving one of the best performances he's done since Tombstone in my opinion. William H. Macy takes what looks like a walk-on role and lends it some serious menace. Young actor Derek Luke also gives a good performance, imparting the proper amount of innocence to his role. With lesser actors, this movie would not be nearly as intriguing, but this cast takes Mamet's dialogue and makes it wholly believable.

What I liked most about this movie is that it doesn't fall prey to the usual Hollywood habit of over-explanation. When the movie starts, you're thrown right into the deep end of this world of international espionage. These agents speak spycraft and though you may not understand every reference, it isn't long before everything starts to make sense. It makes you a little dizzy at first, because the movie is intelligent enough that it doesn't need to explain who these people are or what they're doing; it just shows you and lets you do the thinking. That's something we don't see often in movies anymore.

Video quality is good, though the image is soft in places. This is a very detailed and filmlike transfer, with some really nice black levels in places. There were a few instances where blacks looked muddied, but I think this may be a stylistic choice since some of the movie seems like the whites are slightly overblown. Still, nothing to complain about here.

Sound is solid, though I honestly didn't notice much surround usage throughout the movie. The sound that is here is very clear, especially gunshots, and the oh-so-important dialogue is presented very clearly. What I did notice is quite a lot of bass usage in the movie that was unexpected to me. There are several instances of this bass note in the score being used to heighten the tension, and it works well. I wouldn't use this to show off my system or anything, but for a political thriller this is a pretty decent soundtrack.

As far as extras, I'm utterly disappointed. Given the theme of the movie, they could have really done a lot more here. All we get is a commentary track by Val Kilmer, though that is admittedly entertaining (especially when he talks about how Mamet keeps cutting all of the best scenes). Still, Kilmer's commentary isn't constant and has some pretty sizeable silences. I would have been more interested to hear Mamet on this track.

All in all, this is a decent enough DVD for an outstanding movie. In fact, this is probably the most realistic movie I've seen as far as presenting this world of shadow ops. Throw in some outstanding performances and an intriguing plot, and you get a movie that gets a very high recommendation from me.

Loud & Clear

5 out of 10 in terms of the flick. Yes, there was some bass here and there that I enjoyed. Not much in the way of surround. Could certainly have done without, but I figured it was worth the risk.

gacole2000

I really liked it as well. I must agree though, it is not a movie you can go get popcorn and come back to.

dorokusai

I liked it, Val is still solid in my book. Blah blah, real good movie.

Kpt_Krunch

Just watched it last night. Was not impressed, but far from a bad movie. I found it a bit on the boring side - as for black ops - the Bourne Identity is a much better movie, and I'm looking forward to the new Bourne movie.

I think this is what Spartan was trying to parallel to a certain extent, but it didn't quite work. Overall a decent flick, but I found it highly predictable and nothing in it really surprised me, except for one scene, but I don't know how to do spoilers, lets just say it is the 'gone fishin' scene for those that have seen it, you'll know what I mean.