Far, far too often, we find ourselves discussing two issues -- 1) there are too many remakes and reboots, and 2) there are no original ideas left in Hollywood. The first is regrettably true and the second is an overstatement, but they are both things which effect the way movies are made and the movies which the public gets. Would I like to see every movie be a completely new and original idea? Yes, of course, but this isn't going to happen. However, instead of seeing remake after remake, I would like to see writers take an old or an old movie and add a new wrinkle to it which takes it off into a totally different direction. This is what was done with The Aggression Scale.

Mob boss Bellavance (Ray Wise) is out of jail on bond, but he is facing a very long prison sentence. To make matters worse, someone stole a great deal of his money. His plan is to get the money back and then flee the country. He instructs Lloyd (Dana Ashbrook), Chissolm (Derek Mears) and two other men to track down anyone who could have taken the money, kill them in a brutal fashion, and then document it. Meanwhile, Bill (Boyd Kestner) and his new wife Maggie (Lisa Rotondi) are moving to the new home in the country with children in tow -- Bill's son, Owen (Ryan Hartwig) and Maggie's daughter, Lauren (Fabianne Therese). Lauren is a typical teenaged girl who hates the idea of living in the middle of nowhere. Owen...well, Owen doesn't talk, but he seems to be very bright. The happiness of the new home is shattered with Lloyd and his men come calling. These criminals are used to intimidating their victims and getting their way, but little do they know that Owen isn't going to let anyone hurt his family.

When I first read the description for The Aggression Scale, I assumed that Owen was an older teen, maybe 17 or 18. I never expected him to be around 12 at the most. This was certainly a surprise when he was introduced and it raises, this question, "When you watched Home Alone, did you think, 'Instead of using paint cans on the bad guys, I wish that the kid would kill them.'?" Well, that's the approach taken by this movie. Once we get the central premise with Bellavance and Lloyd and then meet Bill and his family, we know what is going to happen next -- there's no doubt that Lloyd and his crew are going to come a calling. But, what happens after that is fairly surprising and intriguing. First, there are some shocking deaths and then Owen jumps into action with Lauren in tow. The movie then turns into a game of cat and mouse, as the bad guys and Owen square off.

The Aggression Scale offers the most heavy-handed maze ever seen in a movie on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 2.35:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 25 Mbps. The movie was shot on HD equipment, so we get an image with no discernible grain and no defects from the source material. The colors look good, most notably the green grass and the red blood, and the image is never overly dark or bright. Much of the film takes place during the day (how's that for a change?) and the image shows a nice depth. The level of detail is fairly good as well, although the picture is a bit soft at times. The Disc carries a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 3.0 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. From the first scene, we learn that the shotgun blasts pack a punch in the subwoofer. Once the action starts in the house, we get some nicely done stereo and surround effects, which help to illustrate where the action is happening. Some of these effects are highly detailed and the separation between speakers is impressive.

The Aggression Scale Blu-ray Disc contains only one special feature. "The Making of The Aggression Scale" (15 minutes) is a combination of "fly on the wall" on-set footage, combined with interviews with the filmmakers and the cast. This gives us some insight into the production and the approach to the movie.