Dead Wrong Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Dead Wrong Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 14, 2024

There’s a very real sense of Dead Wrong’s story being ripped right out of the headlines. It would be pushing too far into spoiler territory to spell the story out blow-by-blow, but ask yourself after watching the movie if you would be at all surprised to read about the plot’s initial dynamics in the paper one week and a week later read how it all unraveled, how nothing about it was really as it seemed, and how deeply the web of depravity and horror behind it was spun. It would seem that headline-grabbing reality, with a healthy dose of Hollywood make-believe, was at the heart of Writer/Director Rick Bieber’s film. It is not a particularly noteworthy film, but between decent performances, decent craftsmanship, and a decent narrative, it is, well, a decent film that is perfectly suited to a casual watch but for the vast majority of audiences it will be best categorized in the ever-sprawling watch-and-forget milieu of motion pictures.

Billy (Derek Smith) and his wife Barbara (Katrina Bowden) desperately want a child. Or, at least, she desperately wants a child. Billy is too self absorbed in his pursuit of a big payday and in his pursuit of Barbara's sister Wendy (Chelsea Debo). He sets a plan in motion that will give both parties what they desperately want, though the scheme may mean that while dreams are fulfilled, they are also short lived. The scheme also involves a heartbroken motherless woman named Sarah (Rosalie Ward) and her husband Jacob (Blake Shields) who has recently been released from prison; a low rent lawyer (Rob Schneider); a couple of dangerous criminals (Chet Hanks and Joshua Bitton); and a shady detective (Cress Williams). As the plan is set in motion, greed and violence overwhelm the best laid plans, placing all in both grave emotional turmoil and mortal danger.

The film offers two main draws: one is the build-up, the process of introducing characters and plot dynamics, and then seeing them push towards the train wreck-like final act where everything deteriorates, and quickly, as nerves are frayed and blood is shed. The film offers nothing that is really new. These sorts of "intertwined character" crime films are something of a dime a dozen, both in the landscape of the bigger and more polished studio film realm and especially in the DTV arena where they are probably more like a nickel a dozen. The film seems to aim for something of a Guy Ritchie vibe. It's less vulgar and violent but the structure is similar, even if the plot is a little easier to comprehend and the accents aren't too thick. But that is clearly an inspiration here for Writer/Director Bieber, who has certainly made a very serviceable, though also ultimately forgettable, watch and forget sort of time killer of a movie.

The cast is very serviceable, too, with nobody delivering a bad performance. On the other hand, nobody delivers a truly good performance. But that's approaching best case scenario for a movie of this sort: a clear lack of polish but just enough of a sheen to get by. The film is populated with second-rate actors who give their best to the material, offering sound physical and verbal efforts that capture the essential narrative advancements and core character details. They are all very thin and one dimensional, which is how one of these ensemble movies tend to work. But the actors manage to run with the light beats and basic cadences that define their work, and the movie plays a bit better thanks to their overall good work. That includes a fun effort from Rob Schneider who is clearly cast against type as a slimly low rent lawyer who finds himself forced into servitude under murderous mafioso sorts. His character is sharp but he's also meek, and Schneider plays the part with an impressive sense of the character's place in the narrative, especially when he takes a turn later in the film. He lends not just a name but a stability to the film, and the work is good enough that he's not just "Rob Schneider" when he is on the screen but rather his character.

Dead Wrong Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Mill Creek releases Dead Wrong to Blu-ray with a good-not good 1080p transfer. The good, first, is the rather clear and dramatically well detailed digital imagery that captures every skin bump, pore, and hair with expert clarity and razor definition. Viewers will certainly not be wanting for anything more from this transfer in terms of overall clarity and razor sharpness, pushing the source about as far as the 1080p resolution allows. This also extends to environments and support details as well. Colors are nice and full with enough richness and vividness to satisfy. Certainly, the film is not abundantly colorful or dazzlingly saturated, but with neutral contrast and temperature there's enough accuracy and fullness to please. Black levels are good, white balance satisfies, and skin tones look healthy and accurate enough. The "not good" part of the transfer comes in the fairly copious amounts of banding and macroblocking that are in evidence throughout. I had a few early timestamps noted, but they're really not worth sharing because the bulk of the transfer shows these issues to some degree or another. Certainly, there are times of heightened awareness of these issues, but the image is plagued by them. They're not often so egregious as to ruin the image, but the transfer can lay them on thick, at times. This is very watchable, but a little more care could have gone a long way into making it much better.

Dead Wrong Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Each cut of the film features a different soundtrack. The director's cut includes a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack. I watched the director's cut first, so I'll cover that one first. The 2.0 track is very full and efficient and offers near best-case scenario for a modern track (albeit one of fairly meager origins) with a fullness and clarity that makes it sound bigger than it is. There are a few decent discrete and directional effects as far as the 2.0 configuration allows. Gunshots are relatively puny. A few gunshots at the 27-minute mark, which take place inside, sound barely more powerful than a cap gun. Even a couple of shotgun blasts fail to offer much depth. That changes a little with the 5.1 offering, which is of course fuller and a little richer. The subwoofer channel is not used extensively, but it does manage to present a little more depth to effects and music alike. Spacing is not dramatically different. There are not a ton of plainly discrete surround elements at work, but the sense of fuller musical spacing and environmental fill is fairly tangible, if only in a modest sort of way. In both tracks dialogue is clear, and in the two-channel offering it images perfectly to the center, so much so that listeners might very well be fooled into believing that the center channel is actually active.

Dead Wrong Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Dead Wrong contains no bonus features in the traditional sense -- commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, a gag reel, or even a trailer -- but it does offer viewers two cuts of the film: the original cut (1:50:46) and the director's cut (1:44:26), both of which are accessible from the main menu screen. The main menu screen is otherwise static with the same image from the Blu-ray box art, and there is no music. There is also an option to toggle the optional subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

Dead Wrong Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dead Wrong is certainly not dead on arrival. It's a solid enough film within its genre, and due to oversaturation, a small-ish budget, and not much novelty, it's destined to fall into the "forgettable" category, but genre fans will find enough to like here, including a few good character moments and a couple of decent ideas. The Blu-ray is featureless but does offer two different cuts of the film. Video is acceptable if not still problematic, while the audio is decent enough. Worth a look.