Bulletproof

 (1996)

Bulletproof Blu-ray offers solid video and mediocre audio in this mediocre Blu-ray release
Small time crook Archie Moses considers Rock Keats his best buddy, until Moses graciously brings Keats on a big-time drug score and is horrified to discover that his trusted friend is actually an undercover cop. When a gunfight breaks out, Keats is accidentally shot in the head by Moses in the ensuing melee. After recovering, Keats returns to work only to find that his first assignment is to escort his ex-best friend back home from Arizona, so Moses can turn state's evidence against the ruthless drug king pin he was working for. Hardly a happy traveling duo, they soon discover that there's a mole revealing their every move and that they are neither safe from the police, the FBI nor the drug thugs hot on their trail. Although they hate each other now, they soon realize that with their lives at stake, the original ties that bind are still strong--especially if it means surviving.


For more about Bulletproof and the Bulletproof Blu-ray release, see Bulletproof Blu-ray Review published by Michael Reuben on June 20, 2011 where this Blu-ray release scored 2.5 out of 5.

Director: Ernest R. Dickerson
Writers: Lewis Colick, Joe Gayton
Starring: Damon Wayans, Adam Sandler, James Caan, Jeep Swenson, James Farentino, Kristen Wilson

» See full cast & crew

Bulletproof Blu-ray Review

Good Crook, Fake Crook

Reviewed by Michael Reuben, June 20, 2011

Adam Sandler knows how to play comedy as a team sport. On film he's paired off effectively with co-stars as diverse as Jack Nicholson (Anger Management), Seth Rogen (Funny People), Drew Barrymore (The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates) and Kevin James (I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry). In 1996's Bulletproof, Sandler co-starred with Damon Wayans at a point when their film careers had opposite trajectories. Sandler was on the cusp of mainstream box office success, while Wayans, after a mixed track record in the early Nineties, hasn't starred in a studio project since Bulletproof. The film is a trifle, but Sandler and Wayans have a loose, lively rapport, and the director, Ernest Dickerson, keeps a firm grasp on the underlying crime story so that the comedy enlivens but never overwhelms it. The reliable James Caan supplies the right degree of menace as a vicious drug lord so that the threat facing the heroes always feels real.



Rock Keats (Wayans) and Archie Moses (Sandler) are best friends and small-time crooks. They boost cars, hang out and chat up girls. Keats, who's much tougher than Archie, watches his friend's back and fights his battles for him. But Keats keeps asking Archie how come he always has so much extra money.

Neither buddy is what he seems. Moses is no small-timer, but works for one of L.A.'s biggest drug dealers, Frank Colton (Caan), whose cover is that of a used car salesman. And Keats is a cop who's gone deep undercover to nab Colton by cultivating Moses. After appropriate introductions, Moses persuades his boss to include Keats in on a major buy, but something goes wrong. Colton escapes, Moses goes on the run, and Keats is badly wounded.

Keats's recovery is overseen by a bright-eyed physical therapist, Traci (Kristen Wilson), who might as well have a sign flashing "future damsel in distress" over her head. The Florence Nightingale syndrome kicks in, and Keats and Traci move in together after he recovers and returns to the LAPD, where he's now known as "bulletproof".

Meanwhile, Moses, who's hopeless without Keats to back him up, has been captured in Arizona. He agrees to return and testify against Colton, but only if Keats comes to get him. It's the last thing Keats wants to do, but his captain (James Farentino) insists. Things have changed, though, and the former best friends can't be in the same room without arguing and trading recriminations. But their feud has to be put on hold when the prisoner transfer is attacked. It seems Colton has someone on the inside feeding him confidential information. Suspicion falls on the recently arrived DEA man, Finch (Bill Nunn), but Moses and Keats quickly realize they can't afford to trust anyone except each other.

The screenplay of Bulletproof, credited to Joe Gayton (Faster) and Lewis Colick (Ladder 49) from a story by Gayton, provides a simple narrative with characters drawn in broad strokes. This turned out to be an advantage for Wayans and Sandler, because it left them free to fill out Keats and Moses with elements from comic personas they'd been developing for years. But neither actor phones in a performance. They create real characters and a genuine relationship. Moses may do bits that fans of Adam Sandler will instantly recognize - his rendition of The Bodyguard's "I Will Always Love You" is particularly good - but Moses is more than shtick. He's the weak kid who had to learn to be funny to save himself from a daily ass-kicking, and he's survived by befriending guys tougher than him, first Colton, then Keats. When Moses discovers that Keats had an ulterior motive for their friendship, it causes him real pain, and his humor acquires an angry edge (a Sandler specialty).

Wayans drew on several sources for Keats. In his undercover role, he played the streetwise punk he'd perfected in standup routines and films like Mo' Money. When Keats first encounters Moses after his recovery, Wayans drew on the uptight authority figures he'd parodied in Major Payne (and would parody again in Spike Lee's brilliant, underseen satire, Bamboozled). When Keats finally realizes that he and Moses have to cooperate, Wayans slips into a variation of the focused professional he played in The Last Boy Scout. Throughout, Wayans and Sandler bounce off each other like an established team. You almost expect Keats to turn to Moses and say, "Well, this is another fine mess you've gotten us into!"

Director Dickerson began as a cinematographer, building a reputation for innovative, stylized camerawork in such films as Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X. As a director, however, Dickerson took the opposite approach, eliminating obvious stylistic curlicues and keeping the narrative lean and efficient. (Most of his recent work has been for TV.) This is the right method for a film like Bulletproof, which, at a tidy 84 minutes, doesn't overstay its welcome. Laughs, excitement, the good guys win - roll credits.

Bulletproof Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

It makes little sense that Universal issued an 84-minute film on a featureless BD-50 (especially since they've crammed much more demanding material onto BD-25s), but the result is a pleasing, VC-1-encoded Blu-ray with zero artifacts or other compression-related issues. The cinematographer, Steven Bernstein (Monster), is best known for his work in independent film, and he delivers a detailed image without the overlit "pop" that lets you know you're in Tinseltown's world. Blacks are black, colors are natural, and you can always see what's happening, even in shadows. There's nothing in this image that will make you gasp and go "wow!", but there's nothing to fault either (and these days that's what makes me go "wow!").

Bulletproof Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

The 5.1 track, presented here in DTS lossless, makes full use of the surround speakers, but not as you might expect. There are any number of sequences involving such things as gunplay, cars and aircraft where a typical action film would have sounds panning from rear to front and left to right, but in Bulletproof they almost never do. This appears to be one of those tracks where the director told his sound designers that he didn't want viewers' attention distracted from the screen. (Yes, there are such directors, even today.) Instead the surrounds are used subtly to shift the entire atmosphere of the soundscape to indicate a change in mood or scene. The most frequent example is the memorable hook from Salt N' Pepa's "Champagne", which, at least initially, is synonymous with Keats's undercover alter ego. In a properly balanced sound system, that urban rhythm should detach itself and float above the rest of the soundtrack, supported by an extra boost from the LFE. When the same bit of music returns later in the film, it's like a piece of Keats' former life returning to him - rap as leitmotiv.

Ambient atmospheric sounds also appear in the surrounds, but the musical score is the most important element of the 5.1 mix. Original underscoring is credited to Elmer Bernstein, but by far more memorable are the hip-hop selections, concluding with "The 2 of Us" by DTTX, which plays over the closing credits.

Bulletproof Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

Universal has continued its unfortunate habit (and it's not alone here) of omitting the film's trailer from the extras, even though it was included on the 2001 DVD. The trailer was especially well done, contained footage that didn't make the final cut, and it routinely cracked up audiences in theaters.

By my reckoning, the Blu-ray has no features, and the score so indicates. However, Universal considers the following to be "extras":

• My Scenes: As I have said in previous reviews, bookmarking should be standard on any disc encoded with BD-Java. What's more, Universal remains the only studio that requires the film to be actually playing before the bookmarks become accessible, which makes them far less useful.



• D-Box Motion Code.



• BD-Live: Though my initial attempt to access the Universal BD-Live site was unsuccessful, when I did ultimately succeed, I did not find any content specifically related to Bulletproof.



• pocketBLU™: Versions are available for PC, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry, Android and some Nokia phones. The app "unlocks" certain content if your pocketBlu-enabled disc is loaded on a version 2.0 player that is also connected to the internet. The relevance here is that accessing Bulletproof through pocketBLU gets you the film's trailer (at least, as of the date of this review).

Bulletproof Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

Released as part of Universal's "early Sandler" Blu-ray wave, Bulletproof is worth a look if you're a Sandler fan, a Wayans fan, or just a fan of "buddy" comedies. But given the lack of features, I recommend either waiting for a bargain price or renting.

Bulletproof: Other Editions

Bulletproof Blu-ray 1-disc

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