Mule, The (2018) (Blu-ray)

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General		Extras
Category	Crime Drama	Featurette-Making Of Music Video
Rating
Year Of Production	2018
Running Time	116:27
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Clint Eastwood
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Clint Eastwood Bradley Cooper Michael Pena Lawrence Fishburne Andy Garcia Dianne Wiest
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 French Dolby Digital 5.1 German Dolby Digital 5.1 Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired French German Italian Spanish Dutch Danish Finnish Greek Norwegian Swedish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Clint Eastwood, iconic action star and now director of 38 feature films is a legend of the film industry who turns 90 next year but is still going strong. He has won 4 Oscars, one for directing, one for acting, one for Best Picture and a lifetime achievement award. His latest directorial and starring project has now been released on Blu-ray and DVD, The Mule, made in 2018. It was originally slated to also be released on 4K UHD as it has been in other regions but Roadshow must have changed their mind on this one. The Mule is another quality production in a long line of them from Clint, this time based on a true story, written for the screen by Nick Schenk, who also wrote one of Clint's previous projects, Gran Torino. The film did quite well at the worldwide box office taking $170 million on a $50 million production budget.

    The story here concerns Earl Stone (Eastwood) an old man, Korean War veteran, who has spent his life focused on his passion, daylilies and the horticulture circuit, neglecting his family in the process. When his lily farm is foreclosed on by the bank, he puts his meagre possessions in the back of his dilapidated truck and turns up at his granddaughters place just in time for a pre-wedding event. He is not well received by his daughter (Clint's real-life daughter, Alison Eastwood) and ex-wife, Mary (Dianne Wiest) but as he is leaving, a young Mexican man at the party tells him that he has friends who will pay him to just drive across the USA. Soon, he is a mule for the Mexican cartel. Earl establishes himself as a trusted delivery driver, bringing large cargoes of cocaine to major cities, getting paid wads of cash for it. He winds up working for a big time cartel boss, Laton (Andy Garcia) although some members of the cartel think his willful ways should not be tolerated. Soon the DEA are after him, focused on the drugs he is bringing to Chicago. The investigation is led by Special Agent Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper), his boss (Lawrence Fishburne) and his offsider, Agent Trevino (Michael Pena). Will Earl evade the authorities and avoid getting caught up in an internal cartel war?

   On the surface you might think this story would be a violent, gritty thriller like the Soldado films, however in the hands of someone like Clint Eastwood, this story is a restrained character drama with humour and heart. His performance is excellent as the strong, unafraid Earl who according to the extras he had to play older physically despite being the same age as the protagonist. The film takes him on a journey of self-discovery as he works out a way to get back to his family, assisted in someways by his unlawful activities. Bradley Cooper is excellent in the other major role, with the rest of the cast providing solid support. The two hour runtime does not feel long and the story is well told, bringing the audience in as you would expect from a Clint film. It feels authentic and seems to be closely based on the real story of Leo Sharp, a World War II vet who became a mule for the cartel in the 1980s.

    Recommended.

Video

    The feature is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio in 1080p. The film was shot digitally and looks quite good, with good colour and sufficient detail. There are no issue to report but it certainly doesn't pop from the screen either. As it is based on a 2K digital intermediate, I would assume that a 4K version would increase detail and texture and maybe some colour refinements but would not make for reference quality 4K material either. This is certainly the opinion of overseas reviewers where a 4K version was released.

    There are subtitles available in English for the Hearing Impaired which are clear and easy to read. There are also many European languages available as subtitles plus captioning for the languages which have an audio track.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    This disc contains an English soundtrack in DTS HD-MA 5.1 and a descriptive audio track in Dolby Digital 5.1. There are also Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in French, German, Italian and Spanish. Similar to the video there is nothing about this soundtrack that makes it stand out but it does a good job with the material. The music sounds nice and full, the dialogue is clear throughout. There are some mild uses of the surround speakers for crowd, shooting and street scenes but that is all you can really expect from this style of film.

    The subwoofer did a good job supporting the music and mild action without really being overly noticeable.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu is still and includes the theme music.

The Making of The Mule : Nobody Runs Forever (10:59)

    Short making of featurette which is better than the average of these things. Would have been good to have a longer one but it includes interviews with cast and crew including Eastwood and Brad Cooper plus discussion of production details, locations, sets and the story it is based on. Worthwhile.

Music Video - 'Don't Let the Old Man In' by Toby Keith (2:54)

    Scenes from the movie set to the song, not really a music video.

    The US release of this film has the same technical specifications and extras. Draw.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall