While never an actual “A-list” director, Rob Cohen earned status as “B-plus-list” for a while there. With fairly successful flicks like the original Fast and the Furious and xXx, he established a decent commercial filmography.

And then Cohen directed 2008’s mega-budget box office disappointment Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and his career appeared to go downhill. With a worldwide gross of $403 million, it probably broke even, but it ended the Mummy franchise and appeared to show that Cohen might not be the guy to make $145 million fantasy flicks.

Three years before Tomb, Cohen directed Stealth, a movie that truly bombed. With a $135 million budget, Stealth pulled in a mere $79 million worldwide.

This means Stealth bled massive amounts of red ink. And then Cohen got the gig for the third Mummy flick? Odd.

When the US Navy develops a fighter jet that flies solo via artificial intelligence, they realize the craft needs to learn techniques from humans before it can go into operation. As such, three pilots get chosen to “educate” the AI.

However, this goes awry when the plane begins to function autonomously and ignore orders. The human pilots need to stop the jet and prevent a potential outbreak of war.

That doesn’t sound like a bad plot for a movie, but unfortunately, Stealth finds nothing interesting or exciting to do with the material. Loud and obnoxious, the film becomes a chore to watch.

This occurs largely due to Cohen’s directorial style. Perhaps because of a lack of confidence in the script, Cohen tells Stealth in a manner so hyperactive even Michael Bay would blush.

Cohen rarely lets the image rest for a second. Instead, the camera jiggles and jerks and swirls, as the flick comes with a relentless and dizzying style that makes it both tough to follow as well as headache inducing.

I know that some filmmakers believe constant camera movement creates a sense of urgency and excitement, but I usually disagree. Actually, if doled out in small doses, these techniques could succeed, but when used relentlessly, they damage the product.

When a director treats every scene like a Major Climax, then none of them possess an impact. Because Cohen follows this path, he inadvertently sabotages any potential drama or thrills we might find here.

As noted, at its core, Stealth seems like a decent idea for an action flick. Sure, it essentially creates Top Gun updated for 2005 with elements of Terminator 2, but we can find much worse notions for films than that.

Unfortunately, Stealth lacks intelligence, a coherent story, interesting characters and involving combat scenes. It feels like it goes out of its way to cripple the story’s basic potential.

We do get a few shots of Jessica Biel in a bikini, so I view that as a positive. Otherwise, Stealth turns into a headache-causing waste of time.

Footnote: a tag scene after the end credits teases a sequel that will never come.

Stealth appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. A release from the format’s very early days, Stealth showed its age.

This impacted sharpness, as the movie exhibited erratic definition. Not that the movie felt terribly soft, but it also failed to present particularly concise delineation.

That left the image as more than watchable but spotty. While much of the movie brought out adequate sharpness, too much of it felt tentative and mushy.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, but I saw light edge haloes. Some digital artifacts left a mildly messy impression, and I also detected noise reduction, part of the reason for the smeared look.

Though Stealth went with chilly blue a lot of the time, the palette also broadened to a mix of reds, purples and other tones. These seemed acceptable, though they lacked much vivacity.

Blacks came across as a bit inky, while shadows felt somewhat heavy and dense. This remained an adequate representation of the source – and the movie’s hyperactive editing meant so many short shots that its sins became less evident – but the movie could definitely use a remaster.

On the other hand, I felt impressed with the high-octane uncompressed PCM 5.1 soundtrack of Stealth, as it fired on all cylinders. With all its aircraft and battle elements, the soundfield boasted many opportunities for good usage, and it took advantage of them.

The action scenes utilized the soundscape in an engrossing manner, so we got planes that zoomed around the room and combat sequences with a great sense of involvement and place. The track kicked to life frequently and delivered a consistently winning piece.

Audio quality pleased. Speech was concise and natural, without edginess or other issues.

Music showed good range and vivacity, while effects worked nicely. Those elements came across as accurate and full, with solid low-end response and positive definition. This was an excellent track.

Only one extra appears here: an Introduction to the Blu-ray. In this three-minute, 56-second clip, director Rob Cohen welcomes us to the disc and then we see essentially a music video of footage from the shoot accompanied by some songs. It becomes a complete waste of time.

An expensive action flick, Stealth bombed with audiences, and it deserved this failure. Nothing more than a loud, trite collection of obnoxious action scenes, the movie goes nowhere. The Blu-ray boasts excellent audio but visuals seem dated and we get no real bonus materials. This turns into a weak release for a bad film.