DVD Review: The Colony

By Brad Henderson

Whenever I see a newer flick that has gone DTV with a then or now major star on the cover, I will admit I usually pass. I know that might be wrong but most of those flicks are the same: Big time actor dies within the first five minutes. Done. Rest of the flick blows.

The other day I saw a cover for The Colony and noticed Bill Paxton and Laurence Fishburne on the cover. It looked like a sequel to The Day After Tomorrow. I put it back down and decided to watch something else in my pile. I really couldn’t decide on anything and since I love Paxton and Fishburne, I went against my better judgment and put it in my player.

First let me start off by saying The Colony isn’t a wonderful flick, but Holy Crap it is a ton of fun. Now I wasn’t sure if it was because of my very low expectations or it was a decent flick so I decided to show it to a group of friends and they enjoyed it immensely as well.

The Colony is a dystopian-esque End Of Days flick where the earth has frozen over. A colony of people are fighting off the common cold, which is the main killer of all of mankind. Fishburne and Paxton lead a group of people with a fully operational bunker equipped with everything they need in order to survive. The only thing they don’t have is sunlight.

After trying to communicate with another nearby colony, they are worried because they cannot get in touch with the others. A group is put together to go find out what happened to their friends and our story begins. Please go into this movie without knowing anything. It is so much more fun doing that than watching the trailer or even reading this review. That is why I’m staying away from any more about the plot because I think not knowing is half of the fun.

Did I mention Kevin Zegers plays a “lead” in this film? I was surprised by as much screen time has in the film but he really pulled it off. I know you are probably thinking, “Who the hell is Kevin Zegers?” but you will probably recognize him once you see him.

The picture quality is excellent and the film does not have that much CGI, which is what I was worried about. For the most part everything looks pretty good but the high point of the film and Blu-Ray is the sound.

Also: This film is nothing like The Day After Tomorrow; it is nothing like you would expect.

The Colony was released on DVD October 15 through Image Entertainment.