Today I'm stopping in with a look at Lions Gate's latest DVD release, The Psychic. This movie's your typical Drama/Action featuring a cop who's gone psychic. How's that for a twist? Now, don't let the overused and somewhat tired plotline ruin all the fun. Psychic wasn't all that bad if given a few allowances and admittedly was pretty easy on the eye, as well.

Jack Barnes is a cop who has found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Gamma Star Corporation has had some computer parts go missing and Jack and his nearly retired partner are heading back to the scene of the crime to follow up on some leads. What they didn't realize was that they'd be just in time to intersect a crime in progress. As they pull up to Gamma Star, several men in George Bush masks are trying to pull out. When they see they have witnesses they pull out high-powered automatic weapons and open fire while fleeing the scene. Jack gives chase and ends up in a car accident that kills his partner and nearly ends his life as well.

When Jack comes to in the hospital he finds out that the graffiti left by our assailants seem to be of an animal rights group. While inside the building they spray painted slogans and shot the people who tried to stop them with tranquilizer darts. They also shot workers with super soakers filled with chicken blood. No one was hurt. None of this made sense to Jack as the same people were shooting to kill by the time they got to them. His hunch was that the animal rights angle was a ruse to remove something more important from the building...but what?

Now that Jack's on the road to recovery, he's got a whole host of new problems to deal with. The FBI doesn't believe it's a coincidence that he was at Gamma Star, his wife and son are worried over his odd behavior of late, a mysterious guy with an accent is trying to kill him and most troubling of all he's started to see visions of disasters before they happen. The first is an earthquake that shakes the entire city. The second is a train derailing caused by the weakening of the city's structure. When he tries to warn people about the accident it makes him look more suspicious to the FBI and people are starting to talk terrorism. Jack finally meets yet another mysterious stranger who tells him he can help him unravel the visions he's having and draw useful information out of them. When the visions tell him the animal rights activists actual stole radioactive material for a bomb and have kidnapped his son, it's a race against time as the visions lead Jack to an explosive conclusion that could leave a city uninhabitable.

OK, I know what your thinking and you couldn't be more right. It's very predictable from the murdered partner to the kidnapped loved one. This particular variety of the Drama/Action genre almost always is. As always, there are exceptions but this isn't one of them. There wasn't a single part of this movie that wasn't predictable but then again, that doesn't mean it wasn't still a lot of fun. Presented presented in 16:9 widescreen the film looks sharp and the sound was presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital. It appears as if the filmmakers had a decent budget and I'd say that they used it well. For the lowest common denominator there were just enough explosions and plenty of gunfights and there was no lack of foot chases and/or car chases. The camera kept up with the action quite well and looked really sharp through out the whole movie. The sound was really built for the action onscreen although levels dropped when it came to dramatic and soft-spoken scenes so keep the remote on hand and you'll do just fine. The story moved along at a brisk pace and there weren't really any spots that drug on and took you out of the story. No special features on the disc.

Like I said this movie was really formulaic. The trick is not to over think the movie to death. I know that's difficult for some of us movie geeks. I am often guilty of over thinking my entertainment. This isn't a good movie if you're looking for something deep and meaningful but it's great fun after a long week of work. So just sit back and relax. Enjoy watching things blow up just because you can.