Cut Throat City Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

Cut Throat City Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 19, 2020

According to several articles that have come across my news feed lately, a number of people have evidently “escaped” from the daily barrage of disturbing reports and screaming opinion on several of the cable news channels to the supposedly more peaceful climes of shows like baking competitions, history documentaries and the sort of renovation and real estate sale shows that are staples on networks like HGTV. In that regard, and with an unapologetic admission that I am among that particular demographic seeking just such an escape, there’s a relatively new show on HGTV which features New Orleans real estate, albeit typically very high priced mansions with luxe accommodations and price tags to match. Kind of weirdly, in the episodes I’ve personally caught, there really hasn’t been much mention of Hurricane Katrina and the havoc it wreaked on The Big Easy, perhaps because that kind of devastation doesn’t meld all that well with high rollers investing in properties that, if they were damaged during that particular or indeed any other hurricane, have been restored to complete elegance. There’s a pretty potent “flip side” to that wealthier depiction at hand in Cut Throat City, a film which uses Hurricane Katrina as a kind of McGuffin of sorts to provide background and context for what is in essence might seem to be a heist or caper film.

That "seem to be" above is relevant because, unlike many heist movies, this really isn't the sort of film that offer insanely picayune planning followed by a series as twists, as, for example, as elaborately deconstructed in an intentionally silly episode of the recently reviewed Rick and Morty: Season 4. Instead, while there is a casino robbery at hand, this is really more of a character study of several desperate characters coming to terms with lives that were already challenging, but which seem to have had a huge, hulking "Dead End" sign plopped down atop the detritus left in the piles of rubble Katrina precipitated (in both senses of that term).

There's a somewhat sprawling tale here that involves a kid named Blink (Shameik Moore), a bunch of his friends (who become his co-conspirators), and a number of pretty seedy characters in both official governmental roles as well as an outright criminal element. With so many characters and a plot that doesn't seem to always know exactly where it wants to head, Cut Throat City may be a prime example of a film's reach exceeding its grasp, but there's some really visceral content here, and the sense of hopelessness engendered not just by a weather calamity but by lives already tinged by misfortune is palpable.

Cut Throat City Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cut Throat City is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. According to the IMDb, this was shot with Arri Alexa Minis, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. This is a generally sharp and very well detailed looking presentation, though the prevalence of dimly lit interior scenes can sometimes slightly tamp down fine detail levels. While kind of appropriately blustery and stormy looking, and therefore with a frequent use of gray tones in outdoor scenes, the palette can pop quite agreeably at times, especially in terms of some of the brighter fabrics on clothing or upholstery and the like. While not consistently used, it looked to me like digital grain was added to give a bit more of a traditional cinematic appearance (see screenshot 5 for an example). There is some stock footage of the hurricane used, which understandably doesn't offer the same amounts of clarity and detail levels that the bulk of the feature can.

Cut Throat City Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cut Throat City features a nicely immersive and occasionally quite bombastic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The fact that the film was helmed by RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan may indicate the kind of thumping, driving music that often is utilized, and the source cues do provide a lot of good engagement of the side and rear channels, even when ostensibly being used as underscore. Crowd scenes offer spill of background clamor into the surround channels, and there is frequent discrete placement of individual effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free presentation. Optional English subtitles are available.

Cut Throat City Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (1080p; 8:58)


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 10:24)


• Teaser (1080p; 1:39)


• Trailer (1080p; 2:23)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the supplements have been authored to follow one another automatically (so that clicking on the Behind the Scenes featurette is essentially a Play All button). The Deleted Scenes have been authored with chapter stops between each individual scene, but after the last deleted scene plays, things move on to the next supplement automatically. After the Trailer for this film plays, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Cut Throat City Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I frankly think Cut Throat City could have worked just as well had it been divorced from the whole casino robbery aspect, but the film still manages to offer sometimes searing depictions of lives already in turmoil thrown for a further loop by a devastating hurricane and its aftermath. The film isn't consistent and probably tends to wander a bit too much, but there's a grittiness here that can't be denied, and the large cast is often quite compelling. Technical merits are solid, and with caveats noted, Cut Throat City comes Recommended.