She Rides Shotgun - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

She Rides Shotgun



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
I remember when I first saw the trailer for She Rides Shotgun, I wasn’t too impressed with what I saw. It looked like a generic low-budget gangster thriller, with an actor who was once a rising star, but is now doing the Sam Worthington/Jai Courtney DTV run after a string of fairly mediocre Hollywood misses. But hey, I requested it anyway, and after a couple of attempts to start the film, I finally buckled down and put it on for a complete watch. And frankly, I'm kind of embarrassed for not wanting to see it. While this won’t rival the likes of Road to Perdition (which this film sort of takes notes from), She Rides Shotgun is a gritty and enjoyable thriller with an ending that actually works. Not to mention a really good performance from Taron Egerton.

Our film starts out with a worried young girl named Polly (Ana Sophia Heger) waiting to be picked up from school by her mother, only to have her newly released ex-con father, Nate (Taron Egerton), come to pick her up. This has all the earmarks of a disgruntled father kidnapping his daughter, but it seems something even more sinister is afoot. It seems that poor Polly’s mother has been killed, and Nate is the prime suspect. But Nate assures her that he had nothing to do with it. But as our story unfolds, we see that while Nate didn’t do anything directly, he did get in enough hot water while on the inside to get a drug-running gang to put out a hit on his life, which resulted in not only the death of Polly’s mother, but an order to put a hit out on Polly herself. Now it’s up to Nate to keep what's left of his family alive, even if it means teaming up with a cop who wants to exploit the father to take down the drug runners once and for all.

As I said up above, I initially wasn’t too thrilled with the trailer, but still wanted to at least give the film a chance. And I’m actually really glad that I did, as this was an interesting romp. It may not be a legendary film, but there is a solid premise in the narrative, and both Taron and Sophia turn in amazing performances. I’d really say this was an amalgamation of films like The Road, Road to Perdition, or Badlands, where a criminal underbelly father is doing their best to forge a father/daughter relationship out on the run from even more ruthless men. And while the screenplay from John Harper (who wrote the novel this was penned from) may not exactly blow you out of the water, it is still a salient picture with good acting and a solid conclusion.

I will say this, though: I was not expecting John Carroll Lynch to pull off a bad guy this well. I’m so utterly used to him being the dopey brother of Drew Carey in The Drew Carey Show that seeing him with a skinhead mustache and gutting people with a Bowie knife was shocking to say the least. I clocked him the second I heard his voice, but my brain kept saying “nooooooooooooo, this is not the same guy who married Mimi!”. But hey, he pulled it off quite stupendously, I might add.




Rating:

Rated R for violence and language.




4K Video: Video:

I’ve not been able to dredge up any information on what type of cameras were used, or what the resolution of the Digital Intermediate was finished at, but from what I could glean online and in the credits, this is definitely a digital shoot. But whether this is a 2K DI upscaled to 4K, or a 4K native master, the end result is pretty spectacular. The image is very gritty and grim, with heavy brown and sepia tones replicating the desert landscape around them. Primary colors, such as Polly’s pink suitcase or the bright red of Nate’s car, stand out nicely with plenty of pop. Sadly, no Dolby Vision here, but the HDR10 does do a nice job with strong black levels and a richness to the colors that isn’t there in the included Blu-ray (thank you, Lionsgate, for still doing Combo Packs). Fine details are excellent, showing everything from tears on a younggirl'ss face to the streaks of dirt and grime mixed with blood while Nate hangs from a hook in a trailer. All said and done, this is a great-looking transfer with a specific look meant to give it a very gritty and weathered look.








Audio:

Both the Blu-ray and the 4K UHD disc sport the same 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix, and it’s a very solid performer all the way around. The open nature of the film as Nate and Polly trek cross-country allows for a wide and sweeping use of the surrounds and main channels, and also a good bit of LFE during the gun battles that ensue (though I AM glad that they tamped down pistols from sounding like howitzers, but instead gave them the “popping” sound that you actually hear from a sidearm). Dialog is clean and clearly replicated up front, and the synth score blends in seamlessly with the rest of the mix.

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Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

She Rides Shotgun is a fun watch. It gives us a gritty and textured look at the “father/daughter on the run relationship, as well as giving us a deliciously brutal ending that just works, despite feeling a little bit cliched. At the end of the day, I’m not going to give this a standing ovation, but I was genuinely very pleasantly surprised when I finished my viewing. All-around good performances and a dark and nasty tale of deceit, brutality, and doing what it takes to make sure your child survives make this one of the better watches I’ve had this month. The 4K UHD looks and sounds great, but the lack of extras IS a bit frustrating. Especially since we had the author of the book penning the script, and a commentary with him would have been fantastic. But don’t let that keep you from watching an enjoyable film. Definitely recommended.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ana Sophia Heger, Taron Egerton, Rob Yang, John Carroll Lynch
Directed by: Nick Rowland
Written by: Ben Collins, Jordan Harper, Luke Piotrowski
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 120 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 25th, 2026

Recommendation: Good Watch