The Movie:

Even though it doesn't really bring anything new to the table in narrative or aesthetic terms, Son of a Gun is an efficient heist/action flick that doesn't condescend to its audience. Instead of trying to cover for the lack of a coherent and interesting story with over-stylization and flashy action sequences, it constructs a satisfactory genre film while keeping the criminal characters and the violence fairly grounded.

The story begins like an unofficial remake of the excellent French prison drama A Prophet, as a hardened criminal named Brendan (Ewan McGregor) takes a young but smart new inmate, JR (Brenton Thwaites), under his wing in an Australian prison. When a group of prisoners akin to The Sisters in The Shawshank Redemption lose a kid they rape daily to a suicide, they take a liking to the young and pretty JR. Fortunately, before JR can lose his prison virginity, Brendan steps in and protects him. Unfortunately for JR, the protection means that he is now indebted to Brendan, which means that he has to pull off an insane prison break to get Brendan out.

The prison break sequence, which involves a clever use of one of those sight-seeing helicopters tourists rent, is handled with enough over-the-top excitement without staying out its welcome or going completely overboard. The escape itself should be practically impossible in real life, but writer/director Julius Avery hangs on to a consistent tone of levelheadedness, even while the huge guns are going off as they rattle your sound system.

After the first act, the film seamlessly switches to a gritty heist flick, as Brendan hooks up with a criminal kingpin named Sam (Jacek Koman) for a lucrative job stealing gold from a mine and brings JR along as a son figure. Even though a father-son-like dynamic is nothing original in crime films, Avery manages to create enough credibility with the two characters to sell this theme. It's understandable that JR, as an orphan, gravitates towards Brendan as a father figure. The problem is whether or not Brendan sees him as an adopted son, or is just using him to get the job done.

The matters become even more complicated when JR falls in love with Tasha (Alicia Vikander), a sultry yet strong-willed waitress, who Sam flaunts around like a prop to impress others, even though she supposedly refuses to sleep with him. As the aftermath of the heist becomes complicated thanks to many back stabbings that come natural to the genre, JR finds himself having to make a choice between attempting a normal life with Tasha, or becoming a lone criminal on the run, the way Brendan taught him to be.

Ewan McGregor is supposed to be portraying a hardened criminal, but it's hard to sell him as a scary and despicable character, even with the late-Star-Wars-prequels grizzled facial hair he sports. As a consummate professional (Everyone who gave a halfway respectable performance in the Star Wars prequels, what with the writing, the overuse of green screen, and Lucas asleep at the wheel, should be considered a consummate professional), he obviously gave this part all that he could, but the casting decision is wrong. However, it's hard to blame the casting that much either, since it's highly possible that such a relatively low budget project was happy to bag a star like McGregor. Perhaps rewriting the character to fit the casting could have helped.

The Blu-Ray:

Video:

The 1080p presentation is very clean without any obvious video noise. Son of a Gun doesn't really sport a very flashy cinematography, regardless of its genre, and the production design is kept pretty simple, perhaps to focus on a more gritty execution.

Audio:

When it comes to the many gunfights in the film, the DTS-HD 5.1 presentation really comes through. This isn't Hollywood blockbuster level sound design that one would use as a demo disc to show off a home theatre, but the attention to detail on the sound mix and the way it envelops every channel is commendable. The dialogue scenes can be heard clearly.

Extras:

Making-Of Son of a Gun: A fairly typical 12-minute EPK that shows more clips from the film than interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.

Audio Commentary with Julius Avery: The writer/director gives a relaxed and informative commentary on the inception and production of the project. Be warned, there are some long quiet spots during the commentary.

We also get a Trailer.

Final Thoughts:

Son of a Gun is far from perfect. Perhaps recognizing the star power they had, the filmmakers try a bit to hard to keep McGregor's character from being too despicable, having him beat up a child rapist and refusing to kill his victims. This gives up a bit of the film's possible edge. Also, the ending is wrapped up a bit too conveniently. However, it should be a satisfactory rental for fans of crime/action flicks.

Oktay Ege Kozak is a film critic and screenwriter based in Portland, Oregon. He also writes for The Playlist, The Oregon Herald, and Beyazperde.com