Monday, March 31, 2014

Welcome To The Jungle Blu-ray Disc Review.

Welcome To The Jungle is an ensemble adventure comedy, which stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, Adam Brody, Rob Huebel, Kristen Schaal, Dennis Haybert and Megan Boone. The comedy has a group of office workers becoming stranded on a desert island under the fearless, but quite crazy guide, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme. I have always felt that Van Damme worked better in his feature films when he doesn't take himself too seriously. There is something about him that gives him an affable charisma when he mixes a few bits self depreciation based comedy or over the top action that again is not intended not to be taken seriously. Arguably his best films are his martial arts epics Blood Sport and Kick Boxer, but he was also quite good in the big screen adaptation of the Dark Horse Comic Time Cop and he displayed a bit of humor about himself when he made a cameo on the hit sitcom Friends in the 1990s and even one of the worst live action feature films based on a video game ever made, Street Fighter, has some memorable hilarious moments such as Van Damme's first broadcast message to the evil General Bison, played by Raul Julia is his final big screen role, and a scene where he just breaks out of a freezer or something literally with a flying sidekick and practically floats through mid air, which is hysterical. His film JCVD also helped to humanize him a lot for international audiences and with a recent role in The Expendables franchise, I find some nostalgic comfort in seeing Van Damme back in action, especially when the director knows how to use him as here I would say the director clearly does. The tiger sequence is very funny.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment's Blu-ray Disc edition presents Welcome To The Jungle in a 1080p full HD (2.40:1) aspect ratio with English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround Sound and French, Spanish, Italian, and Thai Language DTS 5.1 Soundtrack options too. English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and French, Spanish, Italian and Thai Language Subtitles encoded as well. 

A behind-the-scenes featurette and a deleted scene are the only extra value features on the Blu-ray Disc. Within the BD case is an insert with a code for both a free iTunes HD digital copy with iTunes extras and an Ultraviolet HD digital copy, which can be redeemed for a limited time only. 

Welcome To The Jungle is available now at retailers on and offline on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

(C) Copyright 2014 By Mark Rivera
All Rights Reserved.