Man on a Ledge Blu-ray Review

Coming in at it's original 2.4:1 aspect and at 1080p, the picture quality is not bad. Grading is nice and adds a modern blueish tinge to everything. Blacks aren't particularly strong, and look to be crushed to a feint green in places, clearly as a result of the grading on the movie, but still manage to look inky at times. There is some subtle artifacting problems on the encode with some scenes, potentially a byproduct of the grain which does give the movie a filmic and gritty feel. This is not a huge problem, and the picture's grading definitely distracts from this quite effortlessly. Skin tones are reasonably natural, though sometimes fall on the slightly desaturated grey side. Shadow detail is not great, but it doesn't massively impact the image negatively. Some signs of DNR but it's acceptable levels and only really stands out under close scrutiny. Overall, the image quality seems to vary from scene to scene, from very good, to decidedly average.

The English DTS-HD Master 5.1 track is decent and stands up reasonably well. Lots of city scape audio with some nice delays and reverbs give a sense of depth in scenes viewed from the ledge. Dialogue is strong with no major faults or discrepancies. Sourrounds are used but with to no real noteworthy effect, save a few occassions with swirling helicopter noises and distant traffic and city ambiences. Music is typically suited to the genre, and brings nothing new to the table, drifting between a steady bass thump to bigger orchestral swelling. Its boring, really. Generally foley and SFX are crisp and cut through the mix well, but lack any kind of ingenuity; an opportunity missed with such a vast and sprawling setting. Just distant car horns and trains. LFE is not used that often, but where it featured, I had no major problems with it.

Pretty meagre really, the highlight of the few extras offered being Elizabeth Banks' commentary on the trailer. Quite amusing.

Featurette: The Ledge – A 15 minute featurette or making of that shows some of the techniques used to get the shots on the 21^st floor of a downtown New York building. Some cast and crew chat about the movie. Promo piece, uninspiring.

Trailer with Commentary from Elizabeth Banks – The highlight of the extras. Listening to Elizabeth's natural comedy timing is refreshing, and endearing. She jokes about scenes from the movie, and makes it clear to everyone that she thinks Sam Worthington is hot.

Interviews with Cast and Crew – 12 interviews with major cast and crew featuring Sam worthington, Elizabeth Banks and Ed Harris

To best describe Man on a Ledge honestly and fairly would be to say that it's not terrible. There's an almost arrogant sense that it think's it's an edgey and gritty fast paced thriller, but the truth is, if this movie had had slightly less budget, and compromised production values, it could easily have been a straight to video flick. The cast and their performances are what set it apart from a “made for TV” feel, but as an action thriller, it falls short of the mark. Man on a Ledge builds to what is intended to be a clever and twisting climax, but sadly, seems rather to fizz around like a deflating balloon, completely unsure about where it's going to land.

The Blur-ray package on the whole is not terrible either, but falls short of doing the format justice. Visually, while good quality on the whole as far as audio and visuals, it's nothing to write home about, and with bit of a black hole where any extras of value should be, it leaves a lot to be desired. Elizabeth Bank's commentary on the trailer being the absolute highlight of the entire package.