DVD Corner

By The Gun Blu-ray Review

“By The Gun” is a familiar, but watchable mafia story.

In this story about honor and manhood, a young criminal (Nick Tortano) working for a mob boss (Sal) gets a chance to become a made man. While he is initially excited by the prospect, is this promotion what he really wants?

While the sometimes meandering “By The Gun” tends to borrow from mob movie classics such as “Goodfellas,” the distinct dark tone of this film sets itself apart from others in the mafia film genre. Truth be told, it’s actually quite a downer of a movie as we see Nick’s life fall apart over the course of 110 minute runtime. Granted, the character is largely a jackass who causes all sorts of problems, but it’s still gut wrenching to see the innocent people around him being punished for his screw-ups.

On the subject of the violence, “By The Gun” deserves credit for not glorifying violence like so many films do these days. The world in this film always feels like a dangerous, unpleasant, and brutal place.

As for the cast, there’s a lot of solid performances here by the likes of Ben Barnes, Toby Jones, Harvey Keitel, and Leighton Meester. Really, the only out of place actor here is Ritchie Coster who seems to be channeling Robert DeNiro to a cringe worthy degree as the loud mouth Tony.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 16:9 1080p. How does it look? “By The Gun” has been given a crisp hi-def transfer.

Audio Track: Dolby TrueHD 5.1. How does it sound? The TrueHD track does the job.

Extras include: Millennium Entertainment trailers, 8 deleted scenes, and a self congratulatory commentary by Ben Barnes, James Mottern, and Emilio Mauro.

Overall Thoughts: It may not break any new ground, but “By The Gun” is worth a watch for fans of the mob movie genre.

January 12, 2015 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | By The Gun Blu-ray Review, Harvey Keitel, Leighton Meester, Toby Jones