Gringo - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Gringo

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
The days of typical funding sources for films has long since gone by the wayside. We’re now living in an era where Netflix is producing their own content like a cable TV station, Amazon is doing the same, and they’re even doing $50-$100 million movies as well. Gringo is the latest in this trend, coming from Amazon Productions, and stars a bevy of Hollywood A and B lister’s in its casting. Surprisingly, the production company really isn’t a draw anymore, but rather the stars, and the tightly knit group of businesses OUTSIDE of Hollywood central are doing a good job at creating quality entertainment (although, just about as hit or miss as any Hollywood studio).

Gringo focuses on a single American who loses control of his life, but then has to go through increasingly dark and bleakly comedic situations to try and SOMEHOW regain control of his life. A life which continually seems to be spinning down the drain. Directed by Nash Edgerton (the brother of actor Joel Edgerton, and the actual stunt double for Ewan MaGregor in the Star Wars prequels), this dark comedy never really is dark enough, nor edgy enough to really pull off what it’s trying to get across. The movie tries decently hard be funny and edgy, but we have to settle for little glimpses of hilarity mixed in with mediocrity, leaving the audience feeling like they were underfed at the buffet.

Harold (David Oyelowo) is a dutiful employee at Promethium Pharmaceuticals under the tutelage of his philandering boss Richard Rusk (Joel Edgerton). A boss who loves to let his zipper fall down a tad too often, especially when it comes to his second in command, Elaine (Charlize Theron), who’s not afraid to flaunt her goods around to get what she wants either (a situation Richard Rusk is MORE than happy to take advantage of). However, Harold’s life is a ruins and his job is all that he’s got left. His wife has cheated on him, spent all his money, left him in debt, and this career is his tether to sanity. When He, Richard and Elaine go down to Mexico to take care of business, Harold finds out that it’s actually a job involving the Mexican drug cartels. With his life in ruin, his faith in his bosses shot, and nothing left to live for, the frustrated man decides to fake his own kidnapping so that he can get a little bit of ransom dinero out of it.

Rick and Elaine really don’t give two hoots about Harold, but his “kidnapping” sends them into a tizzy as they think that their life of crime has caught up to them and the cartels are exacting some sort of revenge. This causes the two rich nutsos to create their rescue attempt, which quickly spirals out of control as the trio are put into REAL danger, involving assassins, drugs and nerdowells of all sorts.

Gringo spirals out of control about as quickly as the lives of its main characters. There’s a few short (and darkly comedic) quips here and there, but after the initial kidnapping the movie just devolves into sheer lunacy without purpose. The biggest failure comes from the fact that Nash Edgerton really fails to create any real humor out of the situation, being more content to just interject a few funny moments midst the short and herky jerky changes from one scenario to the next. The tones from scene to scene feel completely different, and Edgerton just can’t seem to stitch them together with any sort of consistency or tonal balance.

The huge disappointment stems from the fact that we have a whole lineup of great actors (or at least mostly great, some like Seyfried are just gooooooood). Amanda Seyfried, Joel Edgerton, Charlize Theron, Thankie Newton, David Oyelowo etc etc. All of them known for turning in great performances. But without a good script and proper direction, these great actors are left to meander about in the dark and squander their talents when it could have been much different.




Rating:

Rated R for language throughout, violence and sexual content




Video:

Shot digitally (surprise! Surprise!), Gringo looks quite fetching in 1080p with a rather flat encode that doesn’t really pop and shine in that department. The colors are warm and fetching, but the saturation levels are a bit light and the yellowish color grading keep it from being neutral looking. The detail levels are more than appealing, with great close ups in Mexcian hotel rooms, shiny offices, and the well groomed suits of all involved show exquisite detail levels. There’s some mild softness in some shots, and the black levels can look a bit milky as a result of the color grading, but otherwise this is an exemplary release that really does look quite fetching.






Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio track, on the other hand, is amazing. The film opens up quite quickly with Harold rapping along in his car, as the track provide thunderous low end and a warm engaging sound field for the music. The vocals and dialog throughout the film are well balanced with the more action oriented scenes, and perfectly intelligible. at all times. The dynamic range is a bit wider than I was expecting, but still within reason as gunshots rocket out with resounding authority, and a whispered conversation between Harold and Richard is razor sharp. LFE is pounding and heavy during the action scenes, but can also fade into the background when the more dialog intensive moments are in the forefront. Several discrete moments, like a helicopter thudding overhead, permeate the surround channels and the whole experience puts you right into the center of the film without being overbearing.




Extras:

• The Making of Gringo - Featurette
• Who is Harold? - Featurette
• The Stunts of Gringo - Featurette
• Filming Gringo in Mexico - Featurette

Final Score: ​

Gringo is a movie that looked like a lot of fun from the trailers, as the cast is solid and the premise goofy enough to work, but once everything got rolling it just kind of stumbled along. Nash Edgerton has a really hard time juggling the dueling tonality of the films comedic and darker sensibilities, and while the cast has some decent chemistry, they just can’t mesh enough really create a harmonious plot or character development. Universal’s Blu-ray looks and sounds great, but the extras are slim and the movie itself falls flat a majority of the time. It may work as a one time rental, but not for anything deeper than that.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Charlize Theron, Joel Edgerton, Thandie Newton, Amanda Seyfried
Directed by: Nash Edgerton
Written by: Anthony Tambakis, Matthew Stone
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Universal
Rated: R
Runtime: 111 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: June 5th, 2018

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Rental