Reach Me - Stop at Nothing - DVD

Movie: The book is the sensation par excellence: the guidebook Reach Me advances to the bestseller and inspires the most different people in the whole country, from a rapper (Nelly), who dreams of a new beginning over a trigger-happy cop (Thomas Jane) up to a woman just released from prison (Kyra Sedgwick), who sees a soul mate in the author. But who is the man who wrote this self-help guidebook and who, despite its success, stays completely out of the public eye? That's what Gerald (Sylvester Stallone) is determined to find out for his online news site. He hires his best journalist Roger (Kevin Connolly) to track down the mysterious Teddy Raymonds (Tom Berenger). The search for the ex-football coach holds many a surprise for the disillusioned Roger. And when he actually finds Raymonds, events come crashing down...

Reach Me - Stop at Nothing is a top-notch ensemble drama that starts from an interesting premise. The search for the author of a book by which the lives of various people have been greatly affected holds a lot of potential for suspense and entertainment. Also, the idea of showing how such a guidebook can give new direction to many a life that has gone off the rails is a very involving basis in itself. When a top-class ensemble of cinema, TV and music stars can be engaged for it, nothing should go wrong.

But unfortunately, director and screenwriter John Herzfeld (2 Days in L.A., 15 Minutes of Fame) has only really exploited the full potential of the story in a few of the numerous plot lines. Too much of the rest of the film meanders indecisively back and forth between drama and satire and rarely really manages to captivate. There are actually some very strong moments, but in too many scenes the script gets lost in irrelevant dialogues, delivered by characters that are drawn too cliché-like, for the audience to really get carried away. The many prominent faces don't help much either.

Another problem doesn't necessarily concern the film itself, but the German dubbing. For this - as for the film itself - there was apparently only a very low budget, so that the usual speakers of the actors had to be dispensed with. Especially with Sylvester Stallone this is extremely negative. All in all, the dubbing comes across as somewhat loveless and amateurish, which then naturally carries over to the film itself. Therefore, the choice of the English soundtrack is clearly preferable. The overall impression is then also much more positive.

Reach Me - Stop at Nothing is an ambitious film, in which all participants have not worked for the money. That definitely stands out as a positive. But the weak script and somewhat unbalanced staging rob the indie drama of much of its impact. If you like American actor cinema and ensemble dramas, you can definitely give this one a look. But if you're hoping for a really deep plot and a fast-paced production, you'll surely be disappointed, especially considering the many good actors. For this there is then also only one: with deductions worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The visual realization on the DVD is not spectacular, but absolutely satisfactory. The picture is clean, the color scheme is coherent and the sharpness of detail is also at a good level, especially in the bright moments. As for the sound, for a quiet film like this, you can't expect a big sound firework. However, the good mixing of the dialogue and the occasionally audible ambient noises make for a positive overall impression. Good!

Extras: Unfortunately, the DVD has no bonus material to offer.

Conclusion:Reach Me is an ambitious ensemble film that features many great actors and a story that is quite interesting at its core. The implementation, however, is a bit half-baked and offers, in addition to some successful moments, unfortunately also some triviality. The German dubbing seems a bit uninspired and lacks the usual German voices, especially for the more famous actors. Technically, the DVD conversion can convince, but there is unfortunately no bonus material. As an indie drama and American actor cinema certainly interesting, but not necessarily something for the broad mainstream taste.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp