Disturbing the Peace Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Disturbing the Peace Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 29, 2020

Disturbing the Peace aspires to High Noon but can't even match The Last Stand. Director York Alec Shackleton (211), working from Chuck Hustmyre's script, stumbles through cliché and puts together a completely subpar movie experience that has released without working out any of the kinks. It's tedious, laborious, choppy, and uneventful. The movie demonstrates no rhythm and no command of choreography, editing, or acting. It's certainly adequate, a step above the DTV dreck that floods today's marketplace, but it's a poor substitute for a polished, professional picture.

Years ago Jim Dillon (Guy Pearce) accidentally shot his partner in the Marshall service during a tense and dangerous hostage standoff. He survived in a comatose state for a decade but has died just this past week. Jim has not carried a gun since, but he’s going to have to take up arms when his small town becomes the center of a big, brazen robbery. When a band of bilkers rolls into town, they cause trouble at a local diner. One is taken into custody, the others ordered to leave. It’s the first part of a comprehensive plan to rob the local bank and steal millions from an armored truck. What would have been a complex but smooth operation is upset when Dillon suspects something's up, upends protocol for prisoner transport, and remains behind, sending his lone deputy (Michael Sirow) on the mission instead. Now, the group’s leader, Diablo (Devon Sawa), is forced to improvise and shed more blood than originally intended. With the odds stacked against him, Jim must muster up the courage to use whatever resources he can, and what few firearms are available to him, to put an end to the bloodiest day in his town’s history.

Guy Pearce sleepwalks through the role, content to simply flow with the mediocrity born of absentee drama and flat characterization. The film paints its characters in broad strokes, saddling them with generic hangups and motivations. When Pearce's Jim Dillon finally comes to the realization that he'll have to take up arms and break out the only gun he has -- a commemorative Old West style six-shooter he keeps in a display box in his drawer -- there wants to be a sweeping emotional response but the characterization is theretofore so flat and bereft of feel that the scene just sort of plays without the dramatic might and majesty the writers and filmmakers obviously intended. Die Hard made use of the same "officer put his gun away for good after a bad shooting years ago" angle for one of its secondary characters and managed to make it much more impactful for the audience as both drama and point of action at film's end. Here, it's just a stale dramatic staple that leaves the audience uninterested and uninvolved.

The movie’s production values are subpar, too, and combined with shoddy editing, challenged choreography, midlevel-to-poor acting, and a general feel for structural haphazardness and inadequacy it’s often hard to watch and take seriously. Sharp-eyed audiences will note some superficial silliness that just can’t help but to stand out when production flubs are only amplified by the abounding shoddy craftsmanship, like a scope that is clearly very loosely attached to a rifle in the 57 minute mark or some obviously fake, nonfunctional guns seen in close-up throughout. It’s a cheap production that has taken too many shortcuts, leaving everything exposed for scrutiny.

Disturbing the Peace Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Disturbing the Peace at least translates nicely enough to Blu-ray. The image presents with a satisfying textural output, offering clearly defined details across the board, including, obviously, forefront elements like faces and clothes but also things like small town storefront façades, grasses, pavement, and the like. Close-ups shine, showing pores, freckles, and sweat with precision. There are plenty of richly realized elements in play throughout, and even the more modestly budgeted production elements manage to find a pleasing appearance. It's a nicely filmic image in total and a shame it's wasted on a lousy movie. Color reproduction is fine, too, enjoying neutral contrast that yields fully flush and accurate tones. Those same small town storefronts offer plenty of tonal diversity considering signage and the like, while scattered attire and natural greenery also bear good color fruit. Skin tones are dialed in just about right and while there aren't any real intensely dark low light scenes of note, black leather jackets do hold up nice and deep. There are no significant source or encode issues to report. Truthfully, praising on the transfer borders on grasping at straws and trying to find a positive with this release. It looks just fine to be sure, but don't imagine some world-class presentation. It's solid and the format handles it nicely, nothing more and nothing less.

Disturbing the Peace Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Disturbing the Peace doesn't disturb sound systems with its paltry and puny DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. From the outset the track's limitations are apparent. The bikers arrive not with a roar but rather with a whimper. There's no oomph or growl to the sounds, just a flat, though at least readily identifiable, signature. The same is true for gunshots, whether pistols or high caliber rifles. Even an explosion around the one-hour mark, try as it might, cannot muster up much energy or room-filling positioning. There's just nothing here of any interest whatsoever. Even music lacks punch and the subwoofer really never delivers anything of note. Spread across the front is fine but there's no serious surround engagement, not with music and certainly not with action effects. Ambient details around town are minimal and limited to the front side. Dialogue is at least clear, centered, and well prioritized, not like there's much in the way of competing elements in play, anyway. Honestly, if this read as a two-channel track most listeners wouldn't be any the wiser. It's a disappointment, but given the quality of the movie it's no big surprise and no big loss.

Disturbing the Peace Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Disturbing the Peace contains one extra. The Making of 'Disturbing the Peace' (1080p, 10:58) is a run-of-the-mill exploration of the production's history, cast and characters, story specifics, and the like, told thorough cast and crew interviews and film clips. No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does ship with a non-embossed slipcover.

Disturbing the Peace Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Disturbing the Peace is a disturbingly empty, flat, cut-rate movie that aspires to something better but can't approach anything resembling more than B-grade quality. It's choppy, flat, uninspired, and clearly suffers from both budgetary and technical know-how limitations. Even Pearce, an otherwise quality actor, simply moves through the movie with no aim other than getting the job done. Universal's Blu-ray is likewise mundane, delivering solid enough video but a relatively bland soundtrack and no meaty extras. Buyers don't even get a digital code. Skip it.