Review | Decisions | Blu-ray Authority

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Plot: What’s it about?Video: How does it look?Audio: How does it sound?Supplements: What are the extras?

Plot: What’s it about?

Lou (Corey Haim) is a Los Angeles detective, but he doesn’t protect and serve that much. Instead, he is on the take and just tries to serve his own needs. He has a violent history with suspects, a horrible relationship with his female partner, and has close ties with well known crime boss Frankie (Anthony Vitale). While he continues his personal downward spiral, elsewhere a young couple is on the brink of a new life together. Dave (Matt Medrano) and Serena (Yennifer Behrens) want to buy a home and settle down, but money is tight, especially since Dave has a deep debt to Frankie. In effort to get from under the mountain of debt, Dave and a few friends conspire to rob a bank. A massive risk, but one that would solve all of their financial issues and then some. But when the heist unfolds, unexpected consequences surface that brings the friends, Frankie, and Lou into a tense situation. With desperate situations in each case, what will happen in this volatile conflict?

This film is probably best known for being Corey Haim’s final film appearance. Decisions gives him a prominent role, but not a lot of depth to work with. The writing here is not great, as characters are shallow and aside from some cliche moments, none show much development. Haim does seem to try to bring the role to life, but his performance is middle of the road at best. The material holds him back, but this also doesn’t seem to be a role within his wheelhouse. The cast overall is rather bland, but I didn’t find most of the performances to be that bad. You can tell some believe in the project and work hard to do well, but in the end a mediocre script keeps them down. The film picks up a lot toward the conclusion, but more depth in character establishment and a stronger middle act would have done wonders. As it stands, Decisions is just not that good. I appreciate the evident hard work that went into the film, but in the end, it is a rental at best.

Video: How does it look?

Decisions is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. This transfer isn’t bad, but it isn’t that good either. The film’s visuals tend to be dark, but the contrast here seems off. I am not sure if the transfer or the source are to blame, but in any case, detail is not good. The colors have a washed out texture, as intended, but again I think the poor contrast impacted the colors as well. Again, this transfer is watchable and by no means awful, but it doesn’t look as good as it should.

Audio: How does it sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack fares much better, with a more solid presence. The surrounds are active in numerous scenes, both action driven and otherwise. So even calmer sequences have competent audio here. I found dialogue to be clean and never hard to understand at all. So overall, quite a good soundtrack that enhances the experience. This disc also includes a Dolby 2.0 surround track.