[REVIEW] Maggie (2015) Blu-Ray

Runtime: 149 mins (total)
Rated: PG-13
What To Expect: Nice transfer, about one hour of extras, but still a so-so movie

Since his return to cinema, Arnold Schwarzenegger has kinda been pushing an elephant up the stairs.  Times have moved on quite a bit since the early ’00s and he has to work harder to retain his former status – his return has not set the world on fire, with his latest trip up being Terminator: Genisys.  Here, he’s trying something different.  The fact that this is a smaller feature allows room for experimentation and he is trying to come out of left field.  The plan here was for Schwarzenegger to woo the socks off the people who have moved on by doing something bold – acting his way back to repute.

At one point, Schwarzenegger sheds a tear, something I’ve never seen him do before.  And I respect and commend him for doing it, something that reminds me in multiple ways of Sylvester Stallone’s turn in Cop Land, where he went the understated route and put on extra pounds.  I’m man enough to try other things, that was the message.  Abigail Breslin (the little girl from ‘Signs’) plays the daughter, giving an extremely impressive performance.  Natural and in touch with sombre gravity of the character’s situation.  She is featured slightly more than Schwarzenegger, title role after all, so her woes as a female are explored more.  Which is why females might dig this more, you could get away with taking your girlfriend to the movie, especially if you’re an Arnold fan.

If you’re intent on buying the Blu-Ray and liked the movie, I would advise you to go ahead and put the money down on it.  To start with there are six featurettes, with Schwarzenegger fans probably happy to hear that the longest ‘Schwarzenegger’, an interview witht he man, is around 19 minutes, although most of the rest are standard YouTube-sized affairs in the form of interviews with cast and crew.  Another ‘Making Maggie’ featue clocks in at 17 minutes.  There is only one two minute deleted scene, but I don’t know if we should have expected more.  The transfer is impressive and helps highlight the best part of this movie – how it looks and feels.  It’s an atmospheric film and comes across as such with this print.

But this movie, overall, is slow, dreary and kind of depressing.  It’s kind of rote, it refuses to move, with concrete-stiff pacing.  Even at 97 minutes or so it feels like chewing tough old meat too often.  It’s an average movie with a mostly average Blu-Ray release, or above average if you consider how small the movie is.