Marauders Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

Marauders Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 6, 2016

It may just be “Jaded Reviewer Syndrome” kicking in, but it’s getting to the point that if I see Bruce Willis or Nicolas Cage on the cover of a new Blu- ray release, especially one whose actual title doesn’t really ring a bell, that I can almost bet what kind of film it’s going to be. There will typically be a crime element, with a dash of a thriller ambience thrown in, and whoever is providing the “marquee value” (such as it is) will often have a focal role that nonetheless looks like it could have been shot in just a few days. It’s certainly no crime (no pun intended) for an actor past his matinee idol prime to pick up easy paychecks along the way, but in Willis’ case especially, a lot of his choices seem designed to perhaps offer him a paid vacation of sorts with pretty minimal requirements in the acting department. (The fact that Marauders takes place in Cincinnati may indicate that Willis’ location needs aren’t especially ambitious, either.) In this particular case Willis portrays entrepreneur Jeffrey Hubert, a gazillionaire mover and shaker who nonetheless suffers a loss in the opening sequence when a bunch of masked invaders breaks into a bank he owns and relieves a number of tellers' drawers of their contents. This opening sequence is both derivative (the robbers are all decked out in what amount to outlandish Halloween costumes) and kind of innovative (they utilize a Siri-esque voice which emanates from a little Bluetooth speaker pod to deliver their instructions to the frightened bank denizens), but it’s obvious from the get go that Marauders is probably going to be up to its eyeballs in shaky cam theatrics and the kind of hyperbolic plot shenanigans that announce to the world that the screenwriters have succumbed to another syndrome, namely M. Night Shyamalan Disease, with a series of supposedly shocking third act revelations that are ostensibly there to amaze the audience, but which end up playing as a ludicrous series of “Moishe the Explainer” moments. Speaking of the iconic Moishe the Explainer, as my colleague Brian Orndorf mentioned his review of Marauders (during its very brief theatrical window), this film is about as stuffed with exposition as possible, with various characters stopping an already lurching plot cold as they deliver explicatory monologues that ironically only serve to further muddy already roiling waters.

With the bank robbery leaving a dead manager in its wake, there’s a bit of a turf war that is just one of Marauders’s many (as in many) competing subplots as the film opens. FBI Agent Jonathan Montgomery (Christopher Meloni) arrives at the crime scene to find out a key piece of evidence has already been bagged by local cop Mims (Johnathan Schaech). That turns out to be a bit of an intentional red herring placed on the part of the perpetrators, but the fact that Mims arrived first at the bank and took it upon himself to collect evidence is met with withering pushback from Montgomery. Without getting too far into material that some might consider spoiler territory, both Mims and Montgomery have extremely convoluted back stories that ultimately play into what’s going on.

Meanwhile, once Montgomery makes it clear that Special Agent in Charge (his title) means that he’s, you know, in charge, his team begins trying to figure out why this crime seemed so “personal”, including the execution of the bank manager. A number of frankly confounding other back stories, including a completely odd one for Hubert, start unfolding, but instead of everything feeling woven together organically, Marauders instead often feels like a patchwork quilt, and a pretty old and frayed one at that. In other words, nothing ever really holds together very well here, and once the fast and furious “twists” start accruing, things make even less sense.

There are a number of interesting elements in Marauders, but they’re inartfully presented and too often are buried under the onslaught of a plot that wants to be everything from a political screed to a kind of modern day Robin Hood story to a tale of police corruption to the melodramatic saga of a desperate father with a mortally ill child. There’s simply too much here, and Marauders’ screenplay doesn’t seem to know how to knit things together in a meaningful way. Willis coasts through this role with his smug mug intact, and Meloni manages to invest pretty underwritten scenes with a fair amount of intensity. The supporting cast has a number of good actors doing decent work, but this is one ensemble that has to struggle pretty mightily to overcome deficits in the writing department.

Marauders Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Marauders is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists this as having been digitally shot with Red Epic cameras at a native 5K capture (there's no info on the DI resolution, but I assume it was 2K). Whatever the dramatic deficits of this film are, its video presentation is typically quite impressive, despite some fairly aggressive color grading, often in the ever popular blue and slate gray tones that seem to be a requirement for "gritty" thrillers like this one. As some of the supplements detail, director Steven C. Silver wanted the film to be awash in rain, and a wet, gray, dreary ambience overhangs much, maybe even most, of this film. Despite the depressive context, detail levels are typically very strong, especially in close-ups. Occasional light dustings of noise intrude on a couple of very dark scenes, but otherwise this a great looking presentation.

Marauders Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Marauders's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is perhaps not quite as bombastic as some might expect (or at least hope), but it delivers bursts of energy, including forceful LFE in moments like when the bank manager's shooting sends him catapulting through a glass door (subtlety is not this film's hallmark). Because a lot of the film tends to focus on procedural elements, there's less of a "slam bang" sound design than some other thrillers offer, but there's nice immersion in the repeated use of torrential rain surrounding the characters, as well as some other sounds of the urban environment. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and is generally well prioritized.

Marauders Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Steven C. Miller and Cinematographer Brandon Cox


• The Making of Marauders (1080p; 13:17)


• Deleted/Extended Scenes (1080p; 7:21)


• Cast/Crew Interviews (1080p; 32:11)


• Marauders Trailer (1080p; 2:14)

Marauders Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If Marauders had jettisoned any number of its tangential plot elements, it might have ended up having more impact. There's some decent material here, at least in dribs and drabs, but it's presented in such a haphazard manner that my hunch is few will be willing to sit through that very presentation in order to get to it. Technical merits are strong for those considering a purchase.