The Last Stop in Yuma County - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Last Stop in Yuma County



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
While not nearly as large of a scale or budget, The Last Stop in Yuma County reminds me of a Coen Brothers twist on Bad Times at the El Royale, with a bunch of of different people congregating at a ramshackle diner out in the middle of nowhere (though it was a hotel in Bat Times) wherein chaos, murder and violence soon ensue. Character names are listed only as “The Knife Salesman” and “Radio Host”, and grittiness reins supreme.

Our film starts out with a mysterious (and slightly nervous) man simply listed as “The Knife Salesman” (Jim Cummings) sitting down at a Diner outside of Yuma Arizona after finding out the gas station portion of the diner is waiting for a fuel truck to come up and make a delivery. Waiting it out until the truck gets here, the Knife Salesman overhears talk about a bank robbery from a town over and soon the diner begins filling up with all sorts of people, any of which could be the pair. Like you guessed, the bank robbers are among the diner patrons, and soon a hostage filled situation occurs where the pair make sure everyone stays EXACTLY where they are until they can get out of Dodge (or Yuma really).

The restaurant is sort of hilariously over stuffed and being that it’s Arizona, EVERY turns out to have a weapon of some sort (as an Arizona native, I can verify that you’re more likely to run into someone who carries a side arm than someone who doesn’t, especially in the smaller towns like Yuma), and the film takes an almost hilarious (or tragic, depending on your point of view) where the inevitable showdown happens and everyone and their mother is having to throw down.

The film is part whimsical noir, part crime drama, and also part dry black humor. While the entire diner is being filled with miscreants and people of nefarious intent, the Sheriff husband of the Diner’s waitress is blissfully unaware of what’s happening as he and his dimwitted deputy go about trying to figure out where the robbers are, all the while not realizing he had dropped his wife off to work right where they’re at. The humor is biting, and the film careens around with a VERY Coen-esque style, taking bits of brutal violence and humor ala Fargo and infusing it with the more modern aspects of Bad Times at the El Royale. Violence may not be happening every second, but the film has several showdown moments in the film that really slam you back in your seat, as well as ending with the typical “Mexican Stand-off” ending that leaves nobody alive but the mice and rats under the Diner floor.




Rating:

Rated R for violence and language.




Video:

Shot digitally (almost certainly, as the extras showcase some Arri Alexa cameras if you look closely), The Last Stop in Yuma County is a great looking 2.39:1 AVC encoded image from Well Go USA. This is a very strong and sharp looking transfer, with a decidedly yellowed and brown tinged look that is indicative of the modern “noir” western look. Colors can be striking and bold (the red and yellow of the Ketchup and Mustard bottles, or the flush of red lipstick on a character), but otherwise the color grading is rather muted and dulled to look harsher and more gritty. There’s not a whole lot of false grain or digital noise, but I did notice a few spikes inside of the diner. Image clarity is excellent all the way across the board, excepting for a few instances where the yellowed look sort of creates a milky “hazy” look to interior shots and obscures a little bit of details. Black levels are strong and healthy, with only a few moments of banding to break it up. All around a great looking (and very stylistic) transfer.









Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track found on board is quite good, making good use of surrounds and bass, while never getting to that absolutely amazing level. The dialog is the front and center focus of the film’s mix, with quiet voices whispered across a diner table, and the surround usage pretty much exclusively coming from ambient environmental aspects in the film (both inside and outside the diner). Bass is strong and deep when called upon, but mostly is there to accentuate the cheeky score, although there are a few standout moments of action that really pull it out of the low end.












Extras: :

• Making Of
• Theatrical Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score:
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First time director Francis Gallupi creates a surprisingly entertaining film noir crime drama that pulls from much bigger and more successful directors, all the while still making something unique to him. There’s a few missteps along the way, and a few missed segues from one theme to the next, but overall it’s an intriguing flick. Most of Well Go USA’s non Asian indie flicks are a bit hit or miss, and this one hit WAY more often than it missed. This is going to appeal to those of us who like slow burn crime thrillers akin to the Coen brothers, although be warned it has a few more kinks than the above mentioned films. The Blu-ray looks great, has a good audio mix, but of course the very anemic extras we all come to expect from a Well Go USA release. All in all, a fun watch. Maybe not a blind buy, but certainly worth checking out.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jim Cummings, Faizon Love, Jocelin Donahue, Richard Brake
Directed by: Francis Galluppi
Written by: Francis Galluppi
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: R
Runtime: 90 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: July 16th, 2024

Recommendation: Interesting Watch