Badland (Blu-ray Review)
Director
Francesco LucenteRelease Date(s)
2007 (June 23, 2026)Studio(s)
Badland Corporation/Ruby Max Entertainment (MVD Visual)- Film/Program Grade: D+
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B
Review
I’m all for dark and somewhat confrontational cinema, but good lord this film is really antagonistic. English actor Jamie Draven plays Jerry, an Army reservist who is back from Iraq with some serious PTSD and a bit of anger for taking the fall from the system for war crimes that has subsequently tarnished his image with the locals and his family. Barely living paycheck to paycheck, he learns that his wife (Vinessa Shaw) has been stealing from him and hording cash to assumedly run away. After a particular bad set of days, Jerry point blank shoots his wife in the face as she yells at him about his worthlessness. He then walks out the door of his trailer, shoots his two young sons and then grabs his daughter (Shazam and The Fall’s Grace Caroline (Fulton) Currey credited here as Grace Fulton) and attempts to shoot her but stops. He then goes on the run, taking her with him, stages a watery murder suicide and relocates in a small barren town where he reinvents himself waiting for the authorities to stop looking for him or talking about him in the paper. Joe Morton pops up as a sheriff, just back from his own reservist session, with worse PTSD and a liquor bottle ball and chain who slowly puts 2 and 4 together. It’s not a good movie, folks.
We’re meant to watch Jerry live his life and take care of his daughter. A daughter who believes her mother and brothers will come back. She’s also slowly screwing up their cover story by sneaking out while he works as a short order cook bringing unwanted attention to a school age child not being in school. Rooting for him is a bit much to ask for after watching him straight up murder his family. That’s bad enough, but tack on the fact that this film is over two hours and forty minutes long and it’s basically unwatchable... I take that back. I have to be fair and acknowledge that most of the acting is really good. Everyone listed above really gives it their all. Even if Draven’s accent slips a few times and it’s not clear if he’s from New York or the South, it’s still a good performance with a bad script. It’s also a beautiful looking film thanks to Carlo Varini’s cinematography and a beautiful sounding film thanks to Ludek Drizhal’s score. But that’s all the good I have to say. Reading about this film had me looking forward to it, but if not for the fact that I watch every movie beginning to end that I review, I would have turned this off halfway through without an ounce of care.
All that being said, this 2007 film, newly restored and mastered from the original 35mm negative, this film looks pretty great. Presented 1080p at 1.85:1 this new transfer serves Carlo Varini’s photography quite well. Loads of widescreen vistas and stark close-ups of sad faces. Color is natural, with strong detail and nice grain throughout. Sound is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0. It’s atmospheric and handles the dialogue quite well and serves the Ludek Drizhal score even better. Extras include that same score as a bonus CD, an audio commentary with director Francesco Lucente and Carlo Varini, two raw interviews with the stars Jamie Draven and Joe Morton, a video performance captured Live! @ME Studios (labeled as a music video) for the song Devils Lonely written and performed by Joe Morton, a making of and some b-roll footage from that making of, labelled as Cast and Crew EPK, a make-up effects featurette showcasing the work from Bleeding Art Industries, a poor looking music EPK, two deleted scenes, trailer and a slideshow. It’s a lot of value-added material to be sure, I just wish it was for a film that I could heartily recommend.
- Todd Doogan