Stay Alive - The Director's Cut DVD: Review By jimmykeown

Is it just me, or do movies and video games just not mix well? It seems that after every movie I see based on or around a video game, I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe the blending of entertainment genres is playing a trick on the mind. The problem lies in the reality that you can't play the movie, and the main purpose of video games is to play them. But still, some video game movies have some entertaining visuals, and for the horror/suspense genre, some scary aspects, but "Stay Alive" has none. There wasn't one point in the viewing of this film that I was scared, at all. Even when creatures popped out in an effort for cheap thrills, I didn't flinch.

So what does this experience and review offer to Hollywood execs shelling out millions of dollars for such movies? Absolutely nothing, because as long as video games sell, the movie industry is going to try to soak every last penny of a dried up genre. With more than a few anticipated video game movies in the future, we're going to have to wait till some smart studio decides "wait...this just doesn't work." But until then, I guess we'll only pray for that miracle movie that makes the video game world happy.

"Stay Alive" is the story of a group of friends brought together by the mysterious and intriguing world of video games. Led by Hutch O'Neill(John Foster), the group must figure out the meaning behind the shocking death of one of their friends. The only clue to the mystery is a game called "Stay Alive" that was left at the death scene. The group, including familiar faces Frankie Muniz, Adam Goldberg, Sophia Bush, Samaire Armstrong, and Jimmi Simpson begin to uncover the startling reality of the hellish game. But as soon as they begin to get closer to the truth, abstruse deaths begin to take the group one by one. Realizing that death in the game translates to death in real life, the crew must uncover the history of the game and defeat the Blood Countess not for fun, but for survival.

The special feature are the one aspect of this movie that may make it worth checking out. A visual effects real featurette is a modified music video with pieces from the video game. The featurette has a catchy song and some interesting gallery-worthy drawings. The DVD also contains the typical audio commentary, which is really actually worth watching/listening. The audio track is worth a few laughs, but the special feature that really stands out is the interactive menu. Probably containing the most interesting part of the DVD, the menu is a simple mix and match game with characters and their costumes/weapons. If you choose wrong a scary image pops up, but if you choose right, then a new menu appears that is formatted to the character you've completed.

The picture quality of the DVD isn't that great. The lighting is poor at times and some shots are kind of hazy. The film is shown in (2.35:1), which is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.

The DVD features 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Soundtrack speaking, the movie is extremely lacking. They could have atleast used an interesting soundtrack that maybe would have added to the creep-factor.

Basic DVD case with a stamped "Unrated Director's Cut."

"Stay Alive" offers nothing new to a mostly dead genre. The only audience I can see that will even slightly enjoy this movie will be geeky horror video game fans. In all reality, the movie should have been released as an bonus feature in a new Resident Evil or Silent Hill game.