Perfect Getaway, A

A Perfect Getaway is a gripping suspense-thriller about an island vacation in Hawaii that turns deadly for newlyweds on their honeymoon. Cliff (Zahn) and Cydney (Jovovich) are on an adventuresome hike on a paradisiacal jungle trail to a remote beach when the couple encounters Kale (Hemsworth) and Cleo (Shelton), two disgruntled hitchhikers, and Nick (Olyphant) and Gina (Sanchez), who help guide them along the trail to the dead-end beach. Along the way they learn that two island vacationers had been murdered, and the suspected killers are somewhere nearby. Unsure whether or not to stay, they stick to their plans, but things start to go horribly wrong. A brutal battle for survival begins when no one is certain who the killers are among them and no one is who they seem. (Gary Reber)

The disc contains two versions: the theatrical
R-rated (01:37:10) and the unrated Director's Cut (01:47:39), the original scripted ending (HD 02:39), D-BOX Motion Code™, and BD-Live functionality.

The 1080p VC-1 picture is scenically appealing and perfectly captures the Hawaiian landscape, with its multicolored foilage and earthy contours. Resolution is excellent, with imagery that is sharp and clear, revealing fine facial features and object textures, especially during close-ups. The color palette exhibits warm and rich hues, for a perfectly natural visual character. Contrast is excellent, with deep and solid blacks and shadow delineation that is revealing of fine shades of natural foilage and geological formations. Fleshtones are nicely rendered with natural hues. The extensive black-and-white segments are tinted and not pure in the visual sense. Overall, this is a visual delight, especially the color segments depicting the dense foilage of the jungle canopy and the earthy contours. (Gary Reber)

The DTS-HD Master Audio™ 5.1-channel soundtrack is a mixed bag of terrific music scoring that is suspenseful and fully engaging holosonically® when energized, and then for no apparent logic, the sound collapses to monaural. Surround envelopment can be engaging as well, with directionalized atmospheric sound effects. Gunshots pack a wallop and are enhanced with D-BOX Motion Code effects, as well as occasional floating water movements. But, unfortunately, the soundtrack is front-channel focused throughout most of the film, even though the motion imagery takes place in the Hawaiian jungle canopy and at the shore or on the water. Such natural soundfield ambiance is absent, and the sound becomes overly two-dimensional. While environmental ambiance is present in the surrounds throughout most of the film, it is at far too low a level to be effective. Even the holosonic soundings of the sea cave are weak compared to reality. Dialogue is generally portrayed with better spatial integration, but still too often forward sounding. Towards the end of the film, .1 LFE provides thrilling moments of deep bass intensity to below 25 Hz, but not enough bass energy is present where it would be natural to expect. This was such a great environmental soundscape to work with and transport viewers completely into the scenes, but the sound designers missed the potential. (Gary Reber)