Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Men at Work Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman August 9, 2020

Note: 'Men at Work' is currently only available in a two-film bundle with 'Easy Money.'

It's always interesting when movies take audiences into worlds that aren't everyday accessible or that exist on opposite ends of the spectrum. In Men at Work, Writer/Director/Actor Emilio Estevez (The Public) plays alongside his real-life brother Charlie Sheen as garbage men who wind up in possession of a whistleblowing politician's dead body. The film blends high stakes white collar murder and political drama with blue collar trash slinging in mix-and-match entertainment that is not without potential but that can never quite break free of Estevez's wishy-washy script which blends a couple of interesting ideas that ultimately converge into fairly generic material.

Corrupt businessman Maxwell Potterdam (John Getz) is polluting Las Playas’ waters with toxic waste. City Councilman and mayoral hopeful Jack Berger (Darrell Larson) has long been in on the scheme but he’s finally had enough. He refuses more payoff money and secretly records his conversation with Potterdam. He’s set to publicly set the record straight, but when the recording becomes mixed up with a song his campaign manager Susan Wilkins (Leslie Hope) wants to use in advertisements, the chase is on to track it down while two of Potterdam’s henchmen hunt Berger down with orders to kill. And kill him they do. Meanwhile, a couple of rulebriaking garbage men, Carl Taylor (Sheen) and James St. James (Estevez), along with their boss’ brother-in-law Louis Fedders (Keith David), stumble across Berger’s body along their route. That sets Carl into a panic because just the night before he shot Berger in the rear end with a pellet gun when it appeared that he was attempting to take advantage of Susan, which Carl and James witnessed from across the way. Now, the men find themselves in the middle of a deadly, high stakes game of cat-and-mouse and murder against a determined, and far wealthier and better prepared, adversary.

The plot is a bit convoluted but it plays out more organically in the film, with more time to breathe and explore its characters and story beats than is possible in a single written paragraph. Yet no matter how coherent the story may be, there's little draw into it. The movie is actually more interesting when it follows Carl and James' exploits slinging trash, dealing with a couple of snotty beat cops (John Putch and Tommy Hinkley), and living the high life on the low end of the totem pole, not bogged down in a more mundane murder mystery and chase film. The laughs are unfortunately few and the larger story just isn't creative enough to carry the film to any kind of real success. It's a serviceable time waster as it is, and there's good character chemistry between Carl and James, but wasted potential is the order of the day.

Men at Work Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Men at Work's 1080p Blu-ray presentation begins inauspiciously with some opening title wobble but the image actually proves fairly steady and pleasing to the eye for the duration beyond. It displays a natural grain structure that shows no signs of unwarranted scrubbing. Rather than rob the image of its innate textural qualities, the grain accentuates the finer point elements, including the trash truck and the guys' ragged clothes in addition to other external city elements that reveal complex components with ease. Colors are neutral, certainly not featuring any kind of razzle-dazzle, even with the film's most would-be intensive tones. There's good essential tonal variance to trash and trash cans, city accents, and clothes of all varieties. Black levels show good balance and flesh tones appear true to actor complexion. The image does show the random splotch and speckle but no serious encode issues are apparent. This is a good looking catalogue transfer.

Men at Work Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The two-channel lossless soundtrack delivers the film's modest sonic assets with good essential detail. The track is adequately spacious and produces good results to music, which plays with quality front end width and commendable clarity. There are a few good directional effects when Carl and James sling some trash across the front at a few points, as well as during a few of the more aggressive action-type scenes. Dialogue propels most of the track, though, and it images well to the center while producing good basic clarity. All of that said, a couple of minor issues are apparent. At reference volume the track is a bit shallow and quiet and there are a couple of brief lip sync issues, the most prominent of which occurs at the 15-minute mark.

Men at Work Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As it ships as part of the double feature with Easy Money, Men at Work contains only the film's Trailer (1080i, 1:45).

Men at Work Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Men at Work is a workmanlike film that flashes humorous potential in the area of trash collection but gets bogged down in an otherwise routine murder-chase component. The film is an agreeable escape but can't live up to what Estevez obviously saw in his own script. Shout! Factory's Blu-ray, as it ships one the same disc with Easy Money, delivers very good 1080p picture and more than adequate two-channel lossless audio. The only supplement is the film's trailer. Worth a look and recommended for fans.