Masterminds Blu-ray Review
The story of the releasing of MASTERMINDS might have overshadowed the film’s actual release, given the drama surrounding the film’s release date. Originally slated to open in the summer of 2015, it was pushed back to the fall of 2015. But Relativity filed for bankruptcy and the film’s release was scrapped altogether. It sat on the shelf for a year before finally being dumped at the end of the summer of 2016. And when it finally did hit, it was clear no one was interested anymore (as evidenced by the poor marketing campaign) and so the film came and went with barely a thud. I wasn’t expecting much and I ended up being pleasantly surprised at how funny it was. The fact it’s based on a true story makes it even more interesting.
David (Galifianakis) is a lowly security guard, driving armored trucks for Loomis. He’s unhappy with his life, his fiancee Jandie (Kate McKinnon) and his job. But his life gets turned upside down when he’s paired up with Kelly (Wiig), who he immediately falls in love with. After Kelly leaves Loomis, she meets up with Steve (Wilson), who convinces her to manipulate David into stealing $17 million from Loomis. Once the heist is pulled off, Steve and Kelly send David to Mexico, where he has to escape the authorities and the bumbling assassin Mike (Jason Sudeikis).
I’m not Zach Galifianakis’s biggest fan and usually when I review a movie of his, I spend most of my time complaining about him not being able to carry the movie. But he does well here as a dopey security guard and is responsible for a lot of laughs thanks to some good physical humor. He’s helped greatly by the talented cast around him, most notably the always great Kristen Wiig. But Kate McKinnon and Jason Sudeikis steal the show in their smaller roles, with the funniest moments coming from McKinnon.
It’s easy to forget this is a true story, especially as things start unraveling for David. The screenwriters do a good job of adding in humor to compliment the story, but they are forced to tell the story as it happened. That means things start to turn serious and we start to feel sorry for David, which drags everything down. That said, the talented cast has enough natural comedic talents to keep things moving while reality takes over.
MASTERMINDS is not a great comedy, but it deserved a much better reception than what it received. It has a few A-list stars, a funny premise and plenty of laughs. It’s funnier than a lot of the more successful comedies over the last few years and I can’t help but think if Relativity hadn’t hit financial trouble when they did, MASTERMINDS might have made more money. But as it is, fans will have to catch it on home video.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: MASTERMINDS looks surprisingly good on Blu-ray.
Audio: The audio is fine.
The Imperfect Crime (16:30): The real David Ghantt and the actual FBI agents that tracked him down show up to run us through the robbery, the escape and some of the liberties the movie took with the story. It turns out that aside from the ending, the movie didn’t have to embellish on much, which kind of makes everything a little funnier.