Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		2.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

The Take Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 1, 2019

Mill Creek has released Director Robert Hartford-Davis' 'The Take,' starring Billy Dee Williams, to Blu-ray as part of a double feature with 'Black Gunn.' The A/V presentation is not particularly great and no extras are included. Read on below for a brief review.

Any Takers?

The Take stars Billy Dee Williams as a corrupt cop who relocates to New Mexico. He's not above taking envelopes full of cash, even from those bad guys he has in his crosshairs. He's flown into Paloma from San Francisco at the request of Chief Barrigan (Eddie Albert) with the task of taking down Manso (Vic Morrow), a notorious drug kingpin.

The Take concerns itself more with grit than a tight narrative. Shootouts, fistfights, envelopes full of cash, corruption, and all variety of content see characters scraping the bottom of the morality barrel, looking out for number one as a rule, their title, place, or position in the murky underworld be damned. It's hardly a captivating movie, and its narrative and character beats aren't really unique, but the cast does embrace the material, with Williams in particular seeming fairly enthusiastic about playing the part of a dirty cop.

The Take Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 1080p image, as it is reviewed herein, shares a disc with a second film, and the compression issues show. The picture is heavy on macroblcoking and digital processing. It's fuzzy, flat, and unable to find that desirable tightness to detail, that natural filmic presentation. While textures are decently reproduced -- the image suffers from no evidence of significant smoothing -- those compression and encode issues are a killer. Add in the random vertical line and stray speckle here and there, and one can see plenty of room for improvement. Things do not drastically improve in terms of the color palette. The film's 70s-inspired tones lack life. Colors are a bit flat and faded, with uninspiring contrast and dull, somewhat pasty flesh tones. The image is watchable but could have been so much better.

The Take Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Take's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack is unkempt but aggressive. The big shoot-out that begins near the 10-minute mark isn't wanting for more volume, but it's certainly crunchy, not entirely indistinct but wanting for significantly more detail and finesse. That basic breakdown follows for the entirety of the movie. When things get moving, the track gains significant aggression but, at the same time, seems less concerned for clarity. Music struggles to hold fine detail. Ambient supports are included, at times, but lack precision placement and clarity. Dialogue does image naturally to the center and vocal clarity isn't terrible.

The Take Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of The Take contains no supplemental content.

The Take Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The movie is decent and the Blu-ray a good bit below that. Video quality could stand a sizable boost and the audio a bit more finesse. No extras are included. Rent it.