Review of Thicker Than Blood

Introduction

Another day . . . another Odyssey true story release. This time around it`s the Larry McLinden story, a father`s desperate attempt to win custody of his son from his unstable mother.

Rather than attempt to regurgitate the back of the DVD box I`ll just say that it is pretty much as you would expect. Child is born, parents split up, father wants custody but faces an uphill struggle against the law and the mother. Throw in a few bombshells that you could see coming a mile away and that`s about it.

Video

The full frame 4:3 picture lacks any of the qualities you`d associate with DVD and is best likened to the kind of picture that you would expect to see if you were watching this on VHS. The picture lacks any sharpness of detail, looking hazy in places, whilst the colours are largely soft and uninspiring with all detail being lost in any area of darkness.

Audio

The audio is Dolby Stereo and is completely unremarkable. You wouldn`t expect allot from a movie heavily biased towards dialogue but what is here is largely flat and makes little effort to create a front soundstage let alone use the rear channels. The sound is also not the clearest you`ll hear.

Features

Hold me back, some trailers and screens of text!

Conclusion

I`ve always thought of the Odyssey true story movies as unchallenging mush perfectly suited to falling asleep in front of, and this DVD has done nothing to change my mind.

The tale itself is pretty standard stuff that we`ve seen countless times before. True story or not this is a dull tale and rates as one of the more mediocre basis for an Odyssey release. Nothing about the story raises the interest level as the film progresses.

Allot more could have been done with the characters to liven things up however as it`s full of performances that are quite frankly unengaging. A bit more artistic license would have done this movie the world of good.

I`m not the world`s biggest true story/Odyssey fan however I have been known to reluctantly get swept up in the odd tale, sadly not this one however. So overall a poor movie and a poor disc, one to avoid.