THE MOVIE

Enjoying some music on the porch.

In the Electric Mist is the type of film that is easily missed. Despite the fact it stars Tommy Lee Jones and John Goodman the title could only manage to go direct to retail in America and naturally, the fate is the same for the title here in Australia. The film is actually a sequel to 1996's Heaven's Prisoners, except this time the main character in the film, Dave Robicheaux is played by Tommy Lee Jones, rather than Alec Baldwin.

The premise of the film is a little strange. Dave Robicheaux is on the hunt for a serial killer, who is wanted for preying on young women. On his way home from a crime scene Detective Robicheaux meets a Hollywood movie star, Elrod Sykes (played by Peters Saarsguard) who is in town shooting his new movie, which is funded by the local crime kingpin Babyfeet Balboni (played by John Goodman).

Dave arrests Elrod and in an attempt to get out of jail he informs Dave of a decayed corpse which he and Kelly had found in the swamp. Upon investigating the decayed corpse Detecctive Robicheaux is reminded of a past case, and soon everything starts to unravel, revealing more bodies and all linking back to one person, Babyfeet Balboni.

John Goodman as Babyfeet Balboni.

In the Electric Mist isn't the type of film that necessary warrants a second viewing, and it isn't going to win any awards, but it's a decent film that's well worth watching, especially for fans of Heaven's Prisoners, who are enthusiastic to learn about what happens to Detective Dave. Halfway through the film everything does become a little bit convoluted and you'll need to be focusing fully on the film to really appreciate the story.

The Blu Ray release of In the Electric Mist comes with both the 102 minute cut as well as the darker and more lengthy 117 minute director's cut version. The fifteen minutes of extra footage in the director's cut version is well worth watching, especially as this is how the film was originally meant to be released. It also provides a lot more of a backstory and makes the sometimes confusing narrative, a lot easier to follow.

In The Electric Mist is on Blu-Ray now.

VIDEO
In the Electric Mist may be a small release, but the transfer is rather excellent. The image is a 1080p AVC MPEG-4 encoding and throughout the entire film the bit rate didn't drop below 30Mbps on our PlayStation 3. There is very little noise or compression artifacting in the transfer and the film has made an impressive leap to Blu-Ray.

AUDIO
The audio in the film, and on this disc, is decent. The movie comes with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround Track (48kHz/24-bit) as well as a Dolby Digital 5.1 option. Due to the nature of the film though the audio doesn't really get much of a workout, there is a decent soundtrack, but the surround sound does sometimes feel like it has been left as an afterthought.

Tommy Lee Jones and John Goodman fighting!

EXTRAS
One of the disappointing aspects of this release is the extras, or actually, the lack of extras. Australians have been treated in regards to receiving both the original Director's cut of the film and the U.S cut (whereas the Americans only receive the shortened version of the film), but unfortunately that is it as far as special features. No trailer, no commentary, nothing. It would have been good to have at the very least seen a featurette featuring the director on exactly why the extended scenes were originally left out, but unfortunately we are left disappointed.

OVERALL
In the Electric Mist isn't an overly impressive film, but at times it can be clever and a lot of thought has gone into the story. If you like the genre, it's worth a watch, but not necessarily a purchase.

Review By: Luke Van Leuveren

THE MOVIE	6/10
THE VIDEO	8/10
THE AUDIO	8/10
THE EXTRAS	2/10
OVERALL	6.5/10