Franchise Pictures needs to pay more attention to the content rather than the cast, as the emphasis lay on in one of their more interesting (if still financially unsuccessful) efforts, the brooding drama The Pledge. As with most Franchise projects, there’s no shortage of name talent involved, but for once the talent–Sean Penn directs, Jack Nicholson toplines–seems incidental to the story of a cop obsessed with finding a killer. Some creaky plotting and an overly chilly directing touch make the film fall just shy of the mark, but the merits of the film (namely, Nicholson’s work) are memorable.
Warner has given The Pledge similarly barebones DVD treatment. The film looks and sounds as good as it can for home viewing, but the pickings are ridiculously slim when a mere listing of cast and crew information, with only one or two full filmographies, is passed off as a special feature.
Specifications: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen; English and French 5.1 Surround; English and French subtitles; English closed captioning.
