Probably best known as the main character on TV’s Blindspot, Jaimie Alexander’s primary cinematic claim to fame likely comes as Sif in the Thor movies. With 2022’s The Minute You Wake Up Dead, Alexander gets her shot at a film lead.

After some bad financial advice loses a lot of folks money, stockbroker Russ Potter (Cole Hauser) deals with chilling threats. In the midst off this, someone murders Carol Moore (David Dahlgren), the father of Russ’s old high school classmate – and new girlfriend - Delaine Moore (Alexander).

Russ suspects that the killer actually intended to come after him instead. As Sheriff Thurmond Fowler (Morgan Freeman) investigates, a series of complications arise.

Dead falls into the well-populated film noir genre. With a mix of twists, it becomes somewhat hard to detail the story due to potential spoilers.

A major twist occurs one-third of the way into the film. Unfortunately, this becomes the moment at which Dead starts to derail.

Though not memorable, the first act offers a sturdy framework for a thriller. We get a semi-intriguing premise and a reasonable mystery about the culprit(s).

Once the major twist arises, though, matters start to go kablooey. The narrative becomes more and more ludicrous and creates more eye-rolls than investment.

In addition to the increasingly silly plot points, the script ladles out clunky dialogue, and the actors can’t save it. With “name” actors like Alexander, Freeman and Hauser, the film boasts a reasonable cast.

However, all involved seem to understand they signed on to a movie without much promise, so most feel detached. Indeed, Hauser and Freeman virtually sleepwalk through the proceedings.

Alexander threatens to show a pulse, at least. She can’t redeem the project, but at least she gives it a shot.

Too bad Alexander wastes her time with a messy, meandering and often absurd narrative. While Dead comes with the bones of a decent noir flick, the end result sputters.

The Minute You Wake Up Dead appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into a largely appealing presentation.

Sharpness usually satisfied, with only a smattering of soft shots in a few interiors. Instead, most of the movie seemed accurate and well-defined.

The image lacked shimmering or jaggies, and it also demonstrated no edge haloes. Print flaws remained absent as well.

In terms of palette, Dead emphasized a mix of light teal and amber. These hues didn’t dazzle but they felt appropriate for the story at hand.

Blacks looked dark and dense, while shadows could be a bit dense. Most low light shots came across with reasonable delineation, though. With only a few exceptions, I thought we got a well-rendered transfer.

A dialogue-heavy affair, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Dead lacked much breadth to its soundscape. Music showed good stereo presence and some scenes boasted a bit of involvement, but not a lot added to the sonic experience. A few “action” elements brought brief moments of impact as well.

Audio quality satisfied, with dialogue that came across as natural and concise. Music showed nice range and warmth.

Effects didn’t have much to do, but they stayed accurate and lacked distortion. Again, this wasn’t a dynamic mix, but I thought it suited the story.

The disc includes a trailer but it lacks any other extras.

An update on the film noir formula, The Minute You Wake Up Dead feels workable for its first half hour or so. After that, however, the story becomes increasingly silly and loses most of its potential positives. The Blu-ray comes with generally positive picture and audio but it lacks bonus materials. This turns into a limp neo noir.