The Mule‘s a dark comedy based on a true story that should keep you engrossed from its fragile beginning to the brutal ending. Now on Blu-ray the movie gets very tricky with some unexpected twists that should keep you rooting for the mule for all the wrong reasons. The Blu-ray includes bonus behind the scenes features and deleted scenes.
The film opens in 1983 Australia where Ray Jenkins (Angus Sampson) has just been made Football Club Man of the Year by sponsor Pat Shepherd (John Noble). Thrilled, the clueless Ray feels honored by the award, but his football captain Gavin Ellis (Leigh Whannell) has another surprise. He’s been asked by Shepherd to recruit Ray to help him carry a kilo of heroin from Thailand back to Australia for a huge sum of money.
Bewildered by the offer and not very enthusiastic Ray refuses. After getting bossed around at his humdrum job and lot of ‘coaching’ by Gavin however, Ray decides to take the trip to Thailand. There he swallows a half kilo of heroin in condoms and sets out for the airport. On his return however, Ray gets stopped by customs and gets turned over to Tom (Hugo Weaving) and Les (Elwin Leslie) of the Australian Police. He refuses to get x-rayed so the only option is for the police to wait out Ray’s ability to keep from defecating the evidence.
The film goes on with some very hilarious scenes. Directors Angus Sampson and Tony Mahony do a fine job of moving the film along. The scenes get more and more compelling as Ray’s intestines back up to nearing the breaking point. The detectives won’t give in, even with Jasmine (Georgina Haig) a lawyer entering the picture to defend Ray.
Acting by Angus Sampson as Ray gets totally off the wall with the audience knowing what is going on inside him and his expressions tell all. He’s a master at deadpan humor and gives a terrific performance in The Mule. Not only did Sampson co-write the film, but he also co-directed as well. He has a wide range of talents and he uses each one incredibly good.
The film has some nice features on the Blu-ray disc including deleted scenes and four behind the scenes featurettes.
BONUS FEATURES
“Deleted Scenes” Actually some of the scenes could have stayed in the film, but it looks like the editors thought the film was too long. The one scene called Ray Swallows Single Take gets even grosser than in the movie itself.
“Featurettes” Instead of doing a commentary when you replay the film like in most films, the actors, directors, and writers break down the most interesting segments into four featurettes on the making of The Mule. I like it this way as you don’t have to watch the whole film to get all the info on the flick.
The video quality of the film is extremely good played on my HD 16×9 television. I’m not a big fan of the letterbox viewing, but there would have been loss of some of the widescreen theatrical feature. The film comes across bright and clear without any distortion that I could find.
The sound quality is very good played through my HD Television speakers and even better with my upgraded sound system. The Dolby Digital 5.1 is enough to catch all the dialogue and sound effects.
The Mule has not been rated by the MPAA, but contains violence, language, drug use and brief male nudity. This is not a film for immature teens.
Specifications and additional video information:
Cast: Hugo Weaving, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Ewen Leslie. Georgina Haig and John Noble
Director: Angus Sampson and Tony Mahony
MPAA Rating: Unrated, contains Violence, Language, Drugs
Genre: Crime, Drama, Dark Comedy
Running Time: 1 hr 42 min
Video Release Date: January 20, 2015
Original Film Release Date: November 21, 2014
Language: English/Australian
Format: Blu-ray
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Widescreen Aspect Ratio 2.35:1
Subtitles: English SDH
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: XLrator Media
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
