Golden Job Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Golden Job Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 11, 2019

As tends to be the case with many Blu-ray releases on Well Go USA, there are several kind of short supplements on this particular release, all authored to follow one another automatically, so that there’s kind of a smorgasbord of brief supplements that play out in tandem (in a manner of speaking), many of them containing interviews with the same people. In this array of fleeting extras a number of people associated with Golden Job talk about this film being some kind of a “big reunion”, without ever mentioning what got all of them together in the first place. I'm assuming then that the referenced “first go ‘round” for at least some of the people collaborating on Golden Job was 1996’s Young and Dangerous, a franchise which seems to have almost immediately engendered a slew of sequels, with Young and Dangerous 5 from 1998 and Born to Be King from 2000 looking like the most “recent” installments (according to our database, anyway), all of which feature various aggregations of participants in this film. And perhaps without being too cheeky about it, Golden Job might have just as easily been titled A Little Older and Dangerous, since it posits a motley crew of mercenaries who are attempting to be 21st century Robin Hoods, helping to deliver much needed medical supplies to an isolated (female) field doctor working at a refugee camp, but who end up with a cache of gold bullion by "mistake".

Golden Job begins with one of those almost patented at this point hyperbolic action sequences in an Asian film where some kind of caper is being pulled off, but you’re not quite sure what’s going on. In a really cool looking high tech desert “tent city”, a crew of people is engaging in a whole host of finely orchestrated activities, though why they’re so intent on taking part in some kind of presentation by some kind of superbillionaire pharmaceutical executive isn’t clear. The fact that this whole opening gambit has next to nothing to do with the actual plot, other than that it introduces several characters, is perhaps the first clue that Golden Job often has set pieces rather than character development on its mind.

The “on scene” head of the mercenaries (there’s another guy pulling strings behind the scenes, of course) is Lion (Ekin Cheng), who is the main squeeze of that aforementioned isolated female doctor, Zoe Chow (Charmaine Chow). Segueing forward several years from the opening caper (whatever it was), the film documents Lion delivering much needed drugs to Zoe, though they’re also perilously close to being expired. That sets up the central caper of the film, a plot to steal a stash of medicine in a kind of armored truck, which the assembled crew does manage to accomplish, only to discover they’ve actually stolen a bunch of gold. Now, some inquiring minds might immediately wonder why these smarter than average types don’t just sell the gold for the medicine they originally were in search of, but of course there are the “rightful owners” of the gold hot on their tails.

My hunch is Golden Job is going to have a built in nostalgia factor for those who may have been fans of the Young and Dangerous films, much in the same way that action adventure junkies loved the “mash up” sensibility of seeing a bunch of their favorite genre stars appearing together in The Expendables Trilogy . Dividends may be more fleeting for those without this particular personal history. The film coasts on a decent amount of adrenaline courtesy of big set pieces like a manic car chase (which includes a little “tour” through a shopping mall), but everything has a kind of rote, “given” quality to it where there are very few if any surprises. It’s brisk and often noisy, but there is very little emotional impact, despite the use of lots of cute little children supposedly on the verge of perishing if they don’t quickly get innoculated.

Golden Job Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Golden Job is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Digitally captured with a variety of Arri Alexa products and finished at a 2K DI, Golden Job has a routinely excellent presentation that offers some superb fine detail levels in close-ups (see screenshot 1 for one example). Some scenic locations in exotic places like Montenegro and Hungary also help to establish a "globe trotting" atmosphere, and in some of the admittedly brief establishing shots, depth of field is great. While a few interior moments look like they've been slightly graded toward cool blues, this film has a kind of refreshingly "unfettered with" palette, one which offers a substantial amount of warmth and an overall natural appearance. I'm assuming a couple of effects sequences were green screened, and there's a slightly artificial and relatively soft look to a few of these moments.

Golden Job Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Golden Job has a typically boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track in Cantonese. Right from the get go, with an opening sequence that features a peripatetic camera whooshing through all kinds of variant environments, there's excellent engagement of the side and rear channels for ambient environmental effects, and once that sequence ends with several things going boom in the night (or at least the darkened theater), LFE makes its first of several entrances. There are some very fun effects, including some naturalistic panning, in a big car chase sequence, and overall the track offers fairly consistent immersion. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Golden Job Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes

  Action (1080i; 2:24)

  
  

  About the Characters (1080i; 2:32)

  
  

  Location (1080i; 2:23)

• Action and Location Featurette (1080p; 2:26)


• Brotherhood Featurette (1080i; 3:03)


• Animated Poster (1080p; 00:14)


• Golden Job Music Video (1080p; 3:20)


• Brothers for Life Music Video (1080p; 2:39)


• Teaser (1080p; 1:36)


• Trailer (1080p; 1:46)

Note: As mentioned above in the main body of the review, this is the typical Well Go USA release on Blu-ray where all of the supplements have been authored to follow one another automatically. After the Trailer for this film plays, the disc then moves on automatically to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Golden Job Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you were a fan of any of the Young and Dangerous films, I can't imagine you not wanting to check out this "family reunion", even if the film kind of unapologetically relies on those very memories as a foundational element. Golden Job has some okay set pieces, but dramatically the film is kind of inert, never really offering much in the way of emotional engagement. Technical merits are first rate for those considering a purchase.