Lionsgate’s 1080p Blu-ray transfer is generally impressive. The film was shot digitally and the resulting transfer is perfectly clean and very sharp. The only minor issue I had with it was a little too much loss of detail during dimly lit or nighttime scenes. Obviously it’s always going to be harder to see during such scenes, but detail tends to be significantly swallowed up by shadows. The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack is rock solid. Not only does it deliver resonant, centered dialogue, it makes effective use of all channels. The LFE channel isn’t heavily engaged, but it thumps nicely when needed (during shootouts and explosions). Rear speakers are almost constantly active, either with music or effects (or both).
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There’s a pretty substantial roster of special features included. Two commentary tracks provide more information than anyone really needs to know about Fire with Fire. There’s one with director David Barrett and cinematographer Christopher Probst. The other features actors Vincent D'Onofrio, along with bit players Eric Winter and James Lesure. A 10-minute promo featurette doesn’t add up to much, but the extended cast and crew interviews are far meatier. There’s nearly two hours of material here, with producers Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Randall Emmett, director Barrett, and others. I’m not sure why anyone would want to sit through all these, to be honest, but they’re available.
Fire with Fire is a relatively competent piece of formulaic action fluff. If you’re a true Bruce Willis junkie, I suppose it’s a must-see (simply because he’s in it, not because he does anything particularly interesting). There are far worse direct-to-video films out there (50 Cent has produced some of them), but with so many better choices overall it’s hard to justify spending 97 minutes with this.
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