The Nines Blu Ray Review (Mill Creek Entertainment)
The Nines is a 2007 drama film written & directed by John August (Go, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, & Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). It was produced by Bruce Cohen (Pushing Daisies, American Beauty, Hook, Milk, & Big Fish). The director used his own house for the main location. It debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It made $130,880 at the box office during it’s theatrical run. Chapter One: The Prisoner: Gary (played by: Ryan Reynolds from Deadpool 1/2, Green Lantern, Blade Trinity, & X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is a troubled actor who is wearing a green bracelet on his wrist & under house arrest living in another person’s house because he burned down his own. The owner of the house is described as a TV writer away on work. While living in the house, he is befriended by both a P.R. “handler” Margaret (played by: Melissa McCarthy from Ghostbusters, Gilmore Girls, Bridesmaids, & The Kitchen) & the single mom next door Sarah (played by: Hope Davis from Captain America: Civil War, Wild Card, & Real Steel). Over the course of his house arrest, Gary becomes convinced that he is being haunted by the number nine including finding a note saying “Look for the nines” in his handwriting. He encounters many occurrences of the number nine. He also sees different versions of himself around the house. Chapter Two: Reality Television: A television writer Gavin (played by: Ryan Reynolds from 6 Underground, Life, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, & R.I.P.D.) is trying to get his pilot produced. He leaves home to work on his TV show Knowing. It’s about a mother & daughter who are lost. It stars his friend Melissa (played by: Melissa McCarthy from The Heat, The Happytime Murders, & Can You Ever Forgive Me?) as the lead actress. Susan (played by: Hope Davis from The Newsroom, The Weather Man, & Synecdoche, New York), a television executive & producer of the show tells Gavin to look for the nines which he then writes on a piece of paper.
It’s the same piece that Gary found in Part One. He also tells Melissa that he thinks he is haunted by himself. During the process of post-production, Susan pushes for Gavin to ditch his friend Melissa as the unconventional lead of his project in favor of a more attractive well-known actress. He finds out that the actress was actually cast in another show after replacing Melissa. It starts all kinds of drama & leaves his life a mess. This leads to him telling the reality TV cameraman to leave him alone but no one is there. Chapter Three: Knowing: Acclaimed video game designer Gabriel (played by: Ryan Reynolds from Safe House, Adventureland, Waiting…, & Smokin’ Aces) whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. He leaves his wife Mary (played by: Melissa McCarthy from Tammy, Spy, The Hangover Part III, & This is 40) & young daughter Noelle (played by: Elle Fanning from The Neon Demon, Deja Vu, Super 8. & Live by Night) to try to get a better signal on his phone. He meets a woman Sierra (played by: Hope Davis from Flatliners, The Daytrippers, Arlington Road, & Hearts in Atlantis) who leads him off into the woods to her car. Noelle watches a video on a digital camera showing Gavin talking to Melissa from Part Two & Margaret talking to Gary in Part One. She is confused & shows her mom who appears confused as well. Gabriel shows signs of intoxication as Sierra had drugged water she was giving him with GHB. She likens Gabriel’s addiction to video game addiction. That Gabriel has been playing for 4,000 years, reincarnating into different roles to play with the humans. The 3 nines plead with him to come back home. Is this fantasy or reality????
The Nines is basically three short films into one full length that somewhat connects all of them together. It’s a very weird & unique drama, I haven’t seen too much like this feature. It’s definitely one you have to fully focus on & pay 100% attention on because it willl leave you confused if you miss something because it all adds up with this. If you have seen one of Tim Burton’s somewhat recent material, you will be very familiar with John August’s writing & style. This is an actor’s film because they get to do a variety of characters & different things with The Nines. My personal favorite segment was “The Prisoner”. Ryan Reynolds, Melissa McCarthy, & Hope Davis all deliver some of their best efforts here. I am not even a fan of McCarthy but she killed it in every role. Each segment, they bring something different to the table. It has a solid supporting cast which you will recognize a few from other films or television shows. The writing & screenplay are great for The Nines, it has everything feeling like it’s own little world but they all come around to feeling familiar towards their end to tie up the material. This one might be the type of movie that it takes a re-watch to fully appreciate it because it’s not what you are used to. RECOMMENDED!!!!
Let’s talk about the high definition presentation from Mill Creek! This 1080p (1.78:1) transfer looks better than the previous version that paired with Slipstream for it’s original double feature release. I’ve owned the original DVD since it was first released & it’s a big improvement over that also. The English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is decent but nothing special. Then again, this is not the type of movie that’s going to blast through your speakers because there’s really not much action in this. The dialogue is very clean & the music has a solid boost to it. It has English, French, & Spanish subtitles. There’s no special features on this disc so you still need to hold on to your old DVD if you own it. As always, Mill Creek has great prices so this could be added to your collection for really cheap. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!
