Black Gunn Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Black Gunn Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 1, 2019

Mill Creek has released Director Robert Hartford-Davis' 'Black Gunn,' starring Jim Brown, to Blu-ray as part of a double feature with 'The Take.' The A/V presentation is solid but no extras are included. Read on below for a brief review.

B.A.G. (Black Action Group) is a radical organization that pulls off an armed robbery of an underground mafia gambling ring. The takedown is not without bloodshed, though, and with the spotlight on the organization its leader, a Vietnam veteran named Scott Gunn (Herbert Jefferson Jr.), seeks refuge with his brother (NFL star Jim Brown). Meanwhile, a mob boss (Martin Landau) who is fearful of the repercussions of the robbery on his organization and himself sets his guns on the Gunns.

Black Gunn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For whatever reason, Mill Creek has encoded Black Gunn at 1080i. It shares a disc with The Take (linked above), which is presented on the same disc at 1080p. It's ironic because Black Gunn looks a whole lot better than The Take. The image is impressively filmic, maintaining an even, attractive grain structure. Textures are sharp and revealing throughout the film, whether considering faces, period clothes, or the movie's environmental grit, which is complimented by the very firmly defined filmic texturing. Colors are nicely saturated with a mild faded appearance perhaps but finding good foundational depth and vibrance, again within the movie's darker tonal construct. The rare pop and speckle are present but no serious encode flaws are apparent. This is a very nice looking and seemingly healthy transfer from Mill Creek, even at 1080i.

Black Gunn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Black Gunn's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack compliments the movie well enough. Overall clarity and elemental finesse are unsurprisingly not highlights, but the track handles basics -- music, environmental notes, some action, and dialogue -- with satisfactory levels of essential detail. Placement is not particularly varied. There's a distinct lack of spacing along the front, with everything imaging towards a center location. That's fine for dialogue -- which is clear in delivery -- but leaves world detail and music wanting more spread and stage saturation. Overall, this is a perfectly acceptable track. It's nothing special, but it will get listeners through the movie with few, if any, glaring weaknesses.

Black Gunn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Black Gunn contains no supplemental content.

Black Gunn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Black Gunn is modestly entertaining and its Blu-ray is fairly strong in terms of its audio and video presentations. Neither are remarkable, but both are solid, particularly given the relative constraints -- 1080i video and two-channel lossless audio. No extras are included. Worth a look.