Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil (Well Go USA) Blu-ray Review

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil (Well Go USA) Blu-ray Review



    Released by: Well Go USA
    Released on: October 1st, 2019.
    Director: Lee Won-Tae
    Cast: Don Lee, Kim Mu-yeol, Kim Sung-kyu
    Year: 2019
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil - Movie Review:

    In Won-tae Lee's 2019 film The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil a man named Jang Dong-soo (Ma Dong-seok, a.k.a. Don Lee) is the gangster, Jung Tae-suk (Kim Mu-yeol) is the cop (a homicide detective, specifically) and K (Kim Sung-kyu) is the devil - except he's not really a devil in the literal sense, he's a serial killer.

    K has an interesting, and admittedly clever, strategy that he employs while going about his business. He follows people in his car until they're out in the middle of nowhere and rear-ends them. This gets them to stop and get out of their vehicle, at which point, he stabs them. Without going too far into the plot points that make up the bulk of the narrative, after Jang is attacked and he Jung wind up forming an uneasy alliance and working together to bring K to justice and put a stop to his killing spree. Jang needs to do this not just because he wants revenge, but to keep up his status as a bad ass mobster not to be messed with.

    Does it go as planned? Of course not. But it does get interesting and occasionally quite humorous as Jung and Jang use their respective resources and tactics, which are of course very different from one another, to hunt down K - but what will they do once they catch him? They agree that whoever catches him keeps him, but it can't be that simple.

    At the same time, The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil is quite a tense picture. Director Lee Won-tae, who also penned the screenplay, does a great job of pacing the picture and of staging some impressive action set pieces. The story owes a bit of a debt to Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad And The Ugly but while that influence may be clear, it definitely goes into enough unique directions on its own to stop short of qualifying as a remake.

    The movie also looks very good. The gritty cinematography does a nice job of capturing the locations and while the scene where K goes after Jang on a dark and stormy night may seem like a serial killer movie cliché, it's well-shot and quite gripping. There's good use of shadow and light in this sequence, with K hidden beneath a rain slick and looking quite ominous despite the fact that he's quite a bit smaller in stature than his would-be victim.

    The performances in the film are very strong across the board. Kim Sung-kyu is effectively creepy as K. He's a smaller guy but he moves fast and comes across as very clever, possibly smarter than the two men after him. Kim Mu-yeol plays the no-nonsense homicide cop really well. He's an intense guy, hell-bent on getting his man and doing his job. It's Don Lee, however, who really steals the show. If you enjoyed his work in Train To Busan and The Good, The Bad, The Weird you'll enjoy his work here too as he brings that same level of intensity to the role. If he's a bull in a china shop, so be it, he's a blast to watch and the best part of a generally very solid movie.

    The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil - Blu-ray Review:

    The AVC encoded 2.39.1 widescreen 1080p high definition picture on this 25GB disc is excellent. Detail is strong and colors are reproduced beautifully, although the color scheme does definitely lean towards the darker side of things. Black levels are nice and deep throughout the presentation. Generally speaking, the transfer excels in areas of both detail and texture. There are no issues at all with dirt, debris or visual detriments of any kind and the disc is well authored, showing no noise reduction or heavy edge enhancement. Outside of some slight shimmer here and there, the movie looks excellent in high definition.

    The main audio option on the disc is a Korean language track provided in DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio with removable subtitles available in English only. The lossless track here is a good one, with a lot of impressive channel separation throughout the movie. The score is spread around perfectly with some nice pans thrown in for dramatic effect while bass response is consistent tight and strong. All in all, this is a nice, well directed mix that does a fine job with the movie. A Korean language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix is also included.

    Extras are pretty slim. We do get a quick three-and-a-half-minute making of featurette that is over before you know it and a two-minute piece called The Characters that just kind of explains who the characters in the movie. Aside from that, there's a teaser trailer and a theatrical trailer for the feature included here and, before the main menus load, trailers for a few other Well Go USA properties.

    The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil - The Final Word:

    The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil is a better than average thriller with some nice tension and decent action scenes. The cast elevates this one and the film's sense of humor is strong. While Well Go USA's Blu-ray is light on extra features, you can't knock the audio or video presentation. Recommended.

    Click on the images below for full sized The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil Blu-ray screen caps!





























      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    • Nemesis (MVD Rewind Collection) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: MVD Rewind Collection
      Released on: January 8th, 2019.
      Director: Albert Pyun
      Cast: Olivier Gruner, Jennifer Gatti, Tim Thomerson
      Year: 1992
      Purchase From Amazon

      Nemesis – Movie Review:

      Albert Pyun's 1992 film Nemesis takes place in the future of 2027. Here it's common for criminals and cops alike to ‘upgrade' themselves using cybernetic bits and pieces in an effort to make themselves more than human. In this world
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:22 AM
    • Bloodmoon (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: February 1st, 2024.
      Director: Alec Mills
      Cast: Leon Lissek, Christine Amor, Helen Thomson, Ian Williams
      Year: 1990
      Purchase From Amazon

      Bloodmoon – Movie Review:

      The directorial debut of Alec Mills, the cinematographer on such films as Polanski’s MacBeth and Return Of The Jedi, 1990’s Bloodmoon, a later period slasher film, is set around St. Elizabeth’s, an all-girls Catholic School
      ...
      03-07-2024, 03:55 PM
    • The Shining (Scream Factory) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Scream Factory
      Released on: March 12th, 2024.
      Director: Mick Garris
      Cast: Steven Weber, Rebecca De Mornay, Melvin Van Peebles, Courtland Mead
      Year: 1997
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Shining – Movie Review:

      Stephen King somewhat famously didn’t like Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his novel, The Shining, so he signed on to work with Director Mick Garris on this three-part TV mini-series take which hit the airwaves
      ...
      03-07-2024, 03:50 PM
    • Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny (Shout! Factory) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Shout! Factory
      Released on: February 13th, 2024.
      Director: Liam Lynch
      Cast: Jack Black, Kyle Gass
      Year: 2006
      Purchase From Amazon

      Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny – Movie Review:

      Tenacious D In The Pick Of Destiny opens with a prologue where we meet a young man named Jables (JB, played by Jack Black) who, despite his strict religious upbringing, only wants to rock n roll. When his father tears down all of his posters
      ...
      02-29-2024, 06:17 PM
    Working...
    X