Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 6, 2020

With El Camino, it is not quite yet the end of the road for Breaking Bad, Vince Gilligan's instant classic television show about a science teacher and his pupil protégé who manufacture a methamphetamine empire. Though the series' final episodes wrapped up a number of crucial plot strings, there was more story to tell. Gilligan returns to write and direct El Camino, a two-hour follow-up film that resolves Jesse Pinkman's (Aaron Paul) story in narratively rich, visually adept, and emotionally satisfying construction.

El Camino nonlinearly tells Pinkman's story following the final events of Breaking Bad. He's a fugitive from the law, the subject of a massive manhunt. He's relentlessly pursued as he efforts to gather enough cash to approach Ed Galbraith (Robert Forster), a man who, given enough money and a motivated client, can relocate a person and make all of their problems go away. But for Jesse, that means reliving the trauma of his recent past, including captivity under Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) and Neil Kandy (Scott MacArthur). With nothing to lose, Jesse reenters his past hoping to fund the only possible future avenue open to him.

The picture exists in the Breaking Bad universe without hitch or fault. Even as it's a longer form (with a more cinematic bend) presentation compared to the more or less hour-long TV episodes, it shares a common narrative temperature, a familiar aesthetic (including a number of attractively artistic shots), and an effortless transition back into the world. Paul is terrific reprising the role, seamlessly returning to form with a screen command that reveals his true leading man potential and ability to precisely define the character and interact with the dark world that exists around him. It's good stuff and every Breaking Bad fan will find it not just a satisfying postscript to the series but an A-grade cinematic venture to boot.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The picture quality is striking. The opening scene featuring Jesse and Mike speaking lakeside offers exceptional facial detail in close-ups: fine lines, pores, and hairs are not just readily visible but intimately reproduced, allowing audiences access to the characters beyond the superficial. Such clarity remains throughout, with Pinkman's scars and shaved head stubble ranking highly amongst the standout visuals. Clarity never falters throughout. The movie is beyond tack-sharp with every item and environment enjoying exceptional visual richness, ranging from a vacuum shop to a welding company, from a comfortable home to a hellish concrete pit. Fabric textures are impeccably complex and revealing as well, allowing viewers the opportunity to study fine line definition and fabric density in every close-up. Colors are rich and robust, healthy and many. Daytime and well-lit scenes obviously enjoy the most color crispness and vitality but, to be sure, there's no shortage of enjoyable tones in every scene, all of them full, crisp, and effortlessly revealing and rich. Skin tones are excellent and black levels are impeccably deep and accurate. There is some mild noise in low light, such as a scene when Jesse acquires a couple of firearms at the 85-minute mark. There are no other source or encode shortcomings to note; this is a terrific presentation from Sony.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie pulls onto Blu-ray with a high end DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. While the sound elements are more frequently subtle and subdued than not, the track nevertheless makes full use of the sound design and expresses its content with purpose and precision. The soundtrack's most prominent feature, beyond dialogue (which is of a steadily excellent quality), is its music. It's very full, robust, and rich, expertly spaced with the bulk handled across the front but it's not without a well defined back channel component and a healthy and hearty and balanced low end output. There are a couple of action scenes of note, most prominently a shootout and a subsequent explosion towards film's end. The gunshots are convincing for detail and output depth, but the explosion does feel a little more unsubstantial than it should. Still, the net effect is positive enough. Atmospherics are well positioned and detailed, whether light city din or natural environmental detail in a couple of unique locations, particularly at film's end. In sum, this is a very well rounded soundtrack.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie contains several extras, including audio commentaries, a making-of, and deleted scenes. A DVD copy of the film is included with purchase. This release also ships in SteelBook packaging; there is currently no standard packaging release. See below for a brief overview of the SteelBook and please click the "packaging" tab above for a few photos.

• Making El Camino (1080p, 28:28): Discussions include project origins, the film's narrative construction, story details, returning cast, project secrecy, technical details, costumes and makeup, ditched concepts, sets, shooting locales, subtle digital effects, and much more.
• Deleted & Extended Scenes (1080p, 16:39 total runtime): Included are Get the Hell Off My Driveway, Gnome Man's Land, That Elco's the Tits, Out of Sight, Losing Blood, Pillow Talk, and Nice Suspension.
• Gag Reel (1080p, 6:18): Humorous moments from the shoot.
• Audio Commentary: Vince Gilligan and Aaron Paul talk returning to the universe and getting back into character, story details, shoot anecdotes, technical bits, and more. The track finds a perfect balance between insightful and meaty and light and jovial.
• Super-Commentary!: Jonathan Banks hosts a commentary in which a great number of participants offer unique, individualized, specific insights into the film.
• Storyboard Breakdowns (1080p, 22:48 total runtime): Gilligan opens by recalling his meticulous storyboarding. He shares several of examples, presenting the final scene juxtaposed against his notes. Included are Scene Study 1, Scene Study 107, and Scene Study 109.
• Promotional Materials (1080p, 11:16 total runtime): Included are Snow Globe: A 'Breaking Bad' Short, Skinny Pete on the Box, On the Radio, Rocker Salvage Commercial, Vamanos Pest Commercial, "Enchanted" by Chloe x Halle, and Theatrical Trailer.
• Rodeo FX (1080p): Mostly silent visual effect explorations. Included are VFX Breakdown (2:26) and Kandy Welding CGI (0:23).

The SteelBook is uniquely designed. The front and rear panels are smooth and glossy and will show handling fingerprints. The front panel features a straight line dividing the top and bottom halves, angled at about 45 degrees, though it does not connect corner to corner; it starts above the bottom left corner and ends below the top right corner. The bottom half is black. The top half shows the El Camino racing up the slope with the familiar green Breaking Bad mist trailing behind. A bronze "sky" background with a few clouds at the top fill the background. The rear panel simply displays the film's title, large in size, stamped center in white with the subtitle and a box around the title in a color similar to the sky on the front. It is horizontally oriented. It sits against a black background. The spine is entirely blank and black. Inside, the two discs, one Blu-ray and one DVD, are situated on the right in staggered-stacked formation. The inner print is simply a blank red metallic slate.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

El Camino reveals not only a postscript story to one of the best shows ever to grace television but it proves the viability of intermixing television and film within the same storyline. Gilligan and Paul both are in fine form, the former behind the writer's desk and the camera, the latter in front of the lens. The film is compelling, perfectly paced, and an excellent final touch on the Breaking Bad universe (nevertheless, one can only hope for more content to come). Sony's Blu-ray release of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie is in fine form top to bottom. First-class video and audio support a great film and a quality assortment of bonuses, as well as a unique SteelBook case, all making this a disc that is easy to highly recommend.