Mob Land - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Mob Land



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
John Travolta used to be one of the biggest leading men in the world of cinema. Back in the 70s and 80s he became a hunky heart throb over night, and pushed well into the 90s and early 2000s with hits like Face/Off, Be Cool, Bolt, and the remake of Taking Pelham 123. He had one final hurrah with 2010’s From Paris With Love before fading off into the world of never ending DTV films and side projects where he would ham it up to near Nicholas Cage levels. I’m not sure if he off the wrong people in Hollywood, or just was no longer getting those calls, but John Travolta the last 12 or 13 years has suffered in the miry swamp of direct to video hell, with only a few minor films that actually stand out as anything to take notice of. Luckily for us, Mob Land is one of those movies.

Now, before I get everyone hot and bothered thinking that Mob Land is some absolute hidden gem, let me temper your expectations by stating that this is a stand out film by direct to video standards. Bathed in southern gothic veneer, Mob Land is a paint by the numbers crime thriller that ends up being actually rather decent, rather than a complete train wreck like you would expect from Travolta’s recent career. The film opens with us being introduced to our poor protagonist Shelby Connors (Shiloh Fernandez), a man who is trying to keep his proverbial head above water. He’s pulling double shifts in order to get his family out of debt, but when he gets laid off his brother in law Trey (Kevin Dillon) offers him an easy way out. Rob the local pill mill doctor who has been selling Oxycodone to the locals for the tunes of several hundred thousand dollar. It’s an easy job, with a snatch and grab level of ease that should net the two a handy payday.

As you can guess, things go sideways fast, as Trey and Shelby’s easy job turns into a living nightmare. It seems that the pill mill doctor wasn’t just doing business by himself. He was instead being controlled by a big city mob boss with big connections. A mob boss that wants the two found and punished without mercy. And said punishment comes in the form of a cold hit man named Clayton Minor (Stephen Dorff) who hunts down Shelby and uses the poor kid’s wife and daughter as leverage to force him to drive the big city hit man around and mop up the remaining witnesses.

The story itself is pretty straight forward and simple. Guy gets in way over his head, big city hit man comes down and uses him ala Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx in Collateral, and death and mayhem ensue. John Travolta acts as the little southern town’s sheriff trying to untangle the mess of dead bodies and missing people showing up, and he actually does a pretty decent job. Ironically Travolta isn’t really THE main character (or second lead), but plays second fiddle to Shelby and Clayton, who take the bulk of the narrative dealing with the consequences of Shelby’s ill advised robbery. Travolta doesn’t chew the scenery too badly, but instead plays his character tough and dry, which keeps him from going full blown Battlefield Earth on us.

Shiloh and Clayton actually have a decent chemistry throughout the movie, with Shelby coming to grips with just how badly he messed up and how badly he’s going to pay, while Dorff rasps out his lines with a sense of brutal honesty and lack of any remorse. The two do well against each other, but the ending twist comes out of nowhere, and seems wildly inorganic if you’ve watched the hour and 35 minutes before it. I know what they were going for with said twist, but the story before it never laid any ground work for that particular avenue. It’s almost like they threw it in there because they HAD to, rather than any need for it (although the second twist at the final minutes was quite satisfying).




Rating:

Rated R for violence, and language throughout




Video:

Once more Lionsgate falls into what I call “the rule of 4”. And by that I simply mean that the video and the audio score will both be good enough to garner a 4/5 rating, but nothing more. The video is digitally shot (as guessed) and bathed in a heavy sepia tone that gives everything a ruddy gold tone. Fine details are generally good, but some scenes can literally suck all of the color out of the shot (such as the Sheriff sitting in his car at night) and give a murky sickly look to everything like the image was drenched in motor oil. The southern fried flick has problematic blacks that are overly murky, but daylight sequences tend to be leagues better in terms of quality with bright green foliage, sparkling red shirts, and various other nuances that make it stand out. Overall this is simply a good transfer, which should please most people outside of the overly heavy sepia tones chosen as an artistic aesthetic.









Audio:

The lone 5.1 DTS-HD MA track in English fares much the same fate. It’s a capable track that has great dialog up in the front of the room, with some minor spacial extension into the mains and surrounds with ambient chirping of crickets, buzzing of bugs, or the splash of twangy southern score that permeates the mood of the entire film. Bass is fairly limited, but it does come in nice and punchy with the big block cars that Shelby drives, as well as the thudding slam of a shotgun near the end. All in all, a good track that technically shows no major flaws, but doesn’t really push the envelope either.












Extras:

• Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Nicholas Maggio, Actor Shiloh Fernandez, and Cinematographer Nick Matthews
• Walking the Line: The Characters of Mob Land

Final Score:
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Is Mob Land a super great movie? No, it’s a straight forward DTV crime drama. But I have seen so much worse that simply seeing a competently done movie with a fairly straight forward plot makes it seem like The Godfather when compared to the rest of the DTV world. Simply put, Mob Land is a decently entertaining film that serves its purpose as a fun waste of two hours on a Saturday night. Plain and simple. The Blu-ray looks and sounds solid, but for some reason Lionsgate put the Blu-ray in a DVD case instead of a Blu-ray case this time around. A weird move, and supposedly something they’ve been doing more and more often with their lower priority films (probably a money saving technique). Decent low grade rental is what I’d categorize this one as.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: John Travolta, Steven Dorff, Kevin Dillon, Ashley Benson
Directed by: Nicholas Maggio
Written by: Nicholas Maggio
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 111 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 3rd, 2023

Recommendation: Decent Rental

 

[Jack1949]

We saw this last week and I think you summed it up perfectly: "Mob Land is a decently entertaining film that serves its purpose as a fun waste of two hours on a Saturday night."