In defiance on the Elder Lords, the evil Outworkers are back to wreak hell on Earth. Led by the mighty Shao Kahn, their gruesome goal is humanity's complete and utter extinction. Earth's last and only hope is the mighty martial arts warrior Liu Kang and his ferocious fighting friends. They're all that stand between life and 'annihilation'.

This New Line Cinema DVD is an excellent martial arts action flick, althought I'm not an overly keen martial arts movie fan I throughly enjoyed this film. It has some of the best fight scenes ever for this type of flick and is full of great action stunts.

The transfer of this film is very good, alot of dark action and night scenes are present and the transfer holds a good black level and shadow detail. Colours are well saturated and again flesh tones are natural. Although I would'nt say the transfer was demo quality I was still impressed and could find no fault in the transfer in terms of any digital/compression artifacts. Overall another quality image by New Line. The movie is shown in the letterboxed aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and has a Pan & Scan version on the opposite side.

Okay the sound, I reckon the soundtrack alone makes this movie a worthwhile purchase, it absolutely rocks! The Dolby Digital Soundtrack kicks arse so to speak and is excellent, the film is full of kicks, punches, explosions etc etc and they are all superbly portrayed. The bass is awesome and will really shake the timbers, this audio has everything thrown in at the same time, excellent and almost constant use of the surround speakers throughout the entire movie, superb channel seperation, clear dialogue and a very well balanced soundstage. The movie's soundtrack also has some excellent background music that really sets the pace during the fight scenes. As you can see it really impressed me!

Extra features are also excellent with an animated menu screen, Kombatant biographies, 3-D computer models, Character Sketches, Set Designs, a Special 'Jump to a Fight' menu which is cool, you can easily jump to your favourite fight scenes anywhere in the movie and it also contains the original theatrical trailer.

So if you're looking for a beat em up type martial arts movie to watch from time to time then this is the one, with a great picture and an even greater sound you can't pass this one up. Highly Recommended.

Review Equipment:

Yamaha RXV992 AC3 Receiver, Polk Audio CS275 centre speaker, Polk Audio RT7's mains, Polk Audio RT3's surrounds, M&K V125 Subwoofer and Panasonic 68cm TV.