The Mule Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Mule Blu-ray Movie Review

You'll Be Writhing in Your Seat

Reviewed by Michael Reuben January 21, 2015

The 2004 film Maria Full of Grace told the story of a novice Colombian drug "mule" traveling to America after swallowing a bellyful of cocaine-filled condoms. The film drew intense drama from the routine mechanics of drug smuggling, and star Catalina Sandino Moreno was nominated for an Oscar for her affecting portrayal of the lead character. The Mule is an Australian film based on a similar plot, but it's sort of a comedy, the kind where some people get killed and others suffer a lot, notably the "mule" of the title. Viewers with any history of digestive distress may find The Mule tough going.

Purportedly based on a true story, The Mule was co-scripted by two of its stars, Angus Sampson and Leigh Whannell, both veterans of the Insidious  franchise, of which Whannell has written every installment (including the upcoming Insidious 3). Sampson co-directed the feature with Tony Mahony, a music video director. Premiering at Austin's South by Southwest, the film toured the festival circuit throughout 2014 until it was released on iTunes and other digital platforms in November. XLrator Media is releasing the Blu-ray.

The year is 1983, and every TV in Australia is tuned to the America's Cup yachting competition. After 132 years, the defending champion, the New York Yacht Club, is about to lose to a team from Australia in what will long be remembered as a proud national achievement. In Melbourne, at a meeting of the local West Sunshine Cats football club, the team is concluding another losing year, but it has cause to celebrate. Thanks to a major donation from Club President Pat Shepherd (Fringe's John Noble), owner of the Paradise Gardens Reception Centre, the team has raised enough money for its planned vacation trip to Bangkok. For the evening's final award, Ray Jenkins (Sampson) is named Clubman of the Year. He may not be any good as a player, but he shows up for every game.

But Shepherd has an ulterior motive for funding the team's trip, and also for ensuring that Ray is named Clubman of the Year. His real business is gambling, loan sharking and drug dealing, and he wants to use the baby-faced Ray to mule heroin from Thailand, where Shepherd's connection is an eccentric creature of indeterminate gender known as "Sonia" (Chor Huat 'Billy' Loh). Overseeing the transaction is Shepherd's underling, Gavin Ellis (Whannell), another member of the club and also Ray's friend from childhood. As leverage, Shepherd uses the fact that Ray's stepfather, John (Geoff Morrell), owes him money, and he sends a Lithuanian goon, Ziggy (Ilya Altman), to Ray's house to threaten both John and Ray's doting mum, Judi (Noni Hazlehurst). Ray, who is a true momma's boy, has no alternative but to take the mule job. His regular work as a TV repairman barely supports the family. Besides, Gavin assures him it'll be easy.

But just as Ray warned Gavin, he isn't cut out for mule work. After swallowing a dozen or so condoms filled with heroin, his nervous behavior gets him picked out at the airport by customs officials and turned over to a team of Australian federal police headed by a stereotypical bad cop and good cop, Dets. Tom Croft (Hugo Weaving) and Les Paris (Ewen Leslie). Skipping over the fine points, Australian law allows them to hold a suspected drug mule for seven days, while they wait for the evidence to "emerge". The central question of The Mule is whether Ray can hold out that long (or maybe the phrase should be "hold on").

Now, one might doubt whether there's much of a movie in scenes of Ray writhing and sweating in his heavily guarded hotel room, while various feds observe, mock and cajole him to empty his bowels. But The Mule surrounds this agonized sad sack with so much intrigue that the film hold your interest throughout its 103-minute running time. (It also lulls the viewer into a false sense of security, so that when the truly gross moments arrive, they land like a sucker punch.) Everyone in the story has an agenda, whether it's Ray's buddy Gavin, who plans to do some secret dealing on the side; or Shepherd, who's mostly interested in tying up loose ends; or Det. Croft, whose idea of interrogation comes from the brass knuckles school; or Det. Paris, who says he only wants the big fish but may be lying; or Ray's Legal Aid attorney (Georgina Haig), who seems more interested in principles than people; or Ray's determined, mum, who thinks she can solve everything by bringing her boy his favorite lamb cutlets dipped in laxative. And some people have more than one agenda; Ray isn't the only person who's good at holding things back.

The film's end is foreshadowed by the TV broadcasts. Just as in the 1983 America's Cup, it's the underdog who prevails. Just be prepared for surprises, casualties and messy moments along the way.

The Mule Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Mule was shot by Stefan Duscio (Any Questions for Ben? ) on the Arri Alexa and finished on a digital intermediate, which presumably provided the digital master for XLrator Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray. The instability of the opening titles may alarm some viewers, but it shortly becomes clear that they've been superimposed over a blow-up of archival NTSC broadcasts from the 1983 America's Cup coverage. Except for that footage, which appears throughout the film, the Blu-ray image looks like a good HDTV broadcast, with crisp detail, sharply defined objects and a generally realistic color palette that gets somewhat brighter and more saturated for the relatively brief Bangkok sequence. Nighttime blacks are solid, and shadow detail is visible where it needs to be; the latter is especially valuable in a key sequence set in the parking lot of the hotel where Ray is being held by the police.

With relatively brief extras, XLrator has opted for a BD-25, attaining an average bitrate of exactly 20 Mbps. This would be low for material originated on film, but for a digitally originated project without significant action, it's passable. In any case, I did not observe any artifacts.

The Mule Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Mule's 5.1 surround mix, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA, uses deep bass to emphasize the sounds of airplanes, boat motors and, naturally, the rumbling of Ray's digestive system as he and it do battle with each other. The soundtrack is especially (and disgustingly) vivid in reproducing flatulence, and it's equally vivid in recreating the sharp and sudden sounds of violence (henchman Ziggy's assault on a home with what looks like a pickaxe is particularly memorable). The Bangkok celebrations and Sonia's domain are suitably loud and boisterous. The Eighties-style score is credited to Cornel Wilzcek (These Final Hours ) and Mikey Young.

The Mule Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080i; 2.39:1; 10:02): A "play all" feature is included. The most interesting is "Where's John?", because it covers a plot point that the finished film leaves unaddressed. Once you've seen the film, you may feel no need to watch "Ray Swallow Single Take".


• Father's Appetite
• Routine Check
• White Ladies
• Tuna Mornay
• All Tired Mate
• Where's John?
• Ray Swallow Single Take



• Featurettes: These four brief featurettes are promotional in nature and feature excerpts from interviews with Sampson, Whannell, Weaving, Leslie, Morrell, Haig, Noble and others.


• Who. What. Where. When. (1080i; 1.78:1; 4:04): These interview excerpts focus on the film's plot and characters.


• Ego (1080i; 1.78:1; 2:42): The interview excerpts in this featurette focus on the common element(s) that motivate the characters.


• Ticking Time Bomb (1080i; 1.78:1; 1:11): This featurette outlines the film's central device.


• 1983 America's Cup (1080i; 1.78:1; 2:17): The participants discuss the role of the historic America's Cup competition in the film.



• Trailer (1080p; 2.39:1; 2:34): "In this town, in this room, in this man, is the one thing everyone wants."



• Additional Trailers: At startup the disc plays trailers for Poker Night, Housebound and The Machine, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

The Mule Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Do I recommend The Mule? Sure, why not. It's clever, it's funny and it's well-made. But if you happen to suffer from IBS, colitis or Crohn's disease, or if your physician has scheduled you for a colonoscopy, you may want to give it a miss. You won't sleep for a week.