Hijacked Blu-Ray Review

Randy Couture, Dominic Purcell and Vinnie Jones star in the plane thriller Hijacked, directed by Brandon Nutt. Hijacked is your basic straight-to-DVD B action movie with a cast full of stars that never really had their moment to shine. The film also comes with a plot that was probably scribbled down on a napkin some time ago in the 90s and CGI blood that was most likely rendered in Microsoft Paint. Still, underneath all of the cheap production values there lies a movie that is almost watchable, because of its cheesy dialogue, action and story.

Special Agent Paul Ross (Randy Couture) is tracking down a crime lord that leads him to the same plane in which his fiancé is boarding. He boards the plane and shortly after realizes the plane is equipped with a bomb and terrorists, which makes the night a little more frustrating than he had hoped for. He pairs up with a security guard (Dominic Purcell) and together the two try their best to take back the plane and restore it to safety before things get out of control.

That’s the plot in a nutshell and even that vague paragraph is stretching Hijacked into sounding like something that was actually fully thought up and planned. The actuality of the situation is that Hijacked is another one of those concept ideas that sounds great on paper, but gets worse and worse as you go. Trying to stay awake while watching the film might become a struggle, because the film’s cheap budget is almost always poking its head out.

The set design is weak, with most areas of the plane looking like cardboard setups in some warehouse. The blood is beyond bad, with most of the offbeat bright red color being rendered with CGI. I’m not sure who was in charge of the special effects, but they should probably go back to school and realize that doing your effects in Microsoft Paint just doesn’t work.

Randy Couture, Dominic Purcell and Vinnie Jones seem to fit right in, with most of the acting coming off as over-dramatic or incredibly cheesy. None of these men are going to convince you that you’re watching a theatrical film, but they never make things too unbearable. The rest of the cast struggles a little bit more, but most of the background cast consists of one-dimensional people waiting to get killed off by either Couture/Purcell or one of the plane’s numerous henchmen.

Hijacked won’t be winning any medals for most original plot or best set design, but it’s a film that knows exactly what it is. Director Brandon Nutt never wastes too much time on pointless plot points, he instead keeps the action paced out and the blood flowing whenever possible. Hijacked is simple-minded and hard to sit through if you’ve watched any sort of studio action film before, because it never gets past its cheap and campy roots.

The 1080p video transfer certainly helps the film earlier on with its bright colors and excellent contrast, but as the characters board the plane you’ll notice the transfer takes a turn for the worse. The plane looks absolutely fake, which means the transfer only amplifies the texture and detail.

The 5.1 Dolby TrueHD audio track keeps the sounds of the film at bay, with an occasional stray of silent dialogue or odd mixing. I couldn’t identity any real problems with the film that extend beyond the film’s small budget.

They only bonus material found in the package is a DVD copy of the film, which offers up the same garbage, but in standard definition.

Purchasing Hijacked on Blu-Ray would be a big mistake. There’s nothing in this film that you haven’t seen done much better in other action films and actors Randy Couture, Vinnie Jones and Dominic Purcell have all delivered finer performances elsewhere. The plot is of the lowest quality and the sets and blood effects manage to sink even lower than that. Watching Hijacked will put you to sleep within minutes, unless you have a soft spot for those $5 dollar bin Wal Mart movies.

Hijacked has a certain level of cheesiness that makes it fun for all of 5 minutes, but then the reality sets in and the film becomes just another waste of money and time for everyone involved. There’s nothing worth purchasing in this package and the only real positive marks it gets are in the video and audio department, because both the transfer and the surround sound track are of average quality. The disc doesn’t even come with a single special feature, which really makes it a wasted purchase. Why anyone would want to watch this disc is beyond me, because Hijacked is complete trash from head to toe.

This review is based on a copy of the Blu-Ray that we received for reviewing purposes.