Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

Matt Damon can't help but be a good guy. After all, he's Will Hunting, Jason Bourne and Jimmy Kimmel's punching bag all rolled into one pretty darn good actor. That said, Promised Land doesn't have him playing nice at all -- at first. However, he's willing to be he bad guy briefly, if it means reteaming with Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant.

Damon plays Steve Butler, who travels from one dumpy town to another with his partner Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand). The duo work for a big, pushy natural gas company and need to convince poor farmers to sign away drilling rights to get those ground-based goodies. It all sounds fine and dandy until local coot Frank (Hal Holbrook) informs the people about the process of "fracking." Shortly after, activist Dustin Noble (John Krasinski) shows up and well, that's when the movie sort of goes downhill.

No offense to Krasinski -- or maybe there's a little. After all, he and Damon wrote this corny script in the first place. See, those apologies and awards to Ben Affleck for Argo were justified in more ways than one. How do you like them apples?

Want to go drilling for a little extra info about this movie? Check out Lexi Feinberg's theatrical review of Promised Land.

The Picture

The movie is sort of inconsistent, but this 1.85:1 image is solid throughout. It's not exactly eye-popping, but the colors here are very natural and there's a good amount detail present, whether it's in the lush farmland, the raindrops, or the many faces of the townspeople.

The Sound

Like the image, this release's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is a nice surprise, but it certainly won't make any "best" lists. The dialogue is always clear and centered, but the track has a surprising amount of ambient noise when the action is outdoors or during some of the crowd scenes. It's also worth noting that super-composer Danny Elfman scored this one, which is always a nice treat.

The Extras

I live in New England, so when this movie first hit theaters, local boys Matt Damon and John Krasinski were on every channel talking up this movie. However, none of that footage or anything else all that interesting is included in this 2-disc set. There's no commentary, nothing about Damon reteaming with Van Sant, and nothing about the subject matter. Instead, there's about 10 minutes of "making-of" footage and one extended scene.

Final Thoughts

Promised Land starts off promising, but sort of loses its way around the halfway mark. At least it's got a good AV presentation and an extremely likeable cast. Frankly, you can throw Frances McDormand into any movie, and I'm there. That said, this one is a rental at best.

Product Details

• Actors: Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lucas Black, Hal Holbrook
• Director: Gus Van Sant
• Audio/Languages: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (English), DTS 5.1 (Spanish)
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Rating: R
• Studio: Universal
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: April 23, 2013
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• List Price: $34.98
• Extras:
  • Extended Scene
  • The Making of Promised Land
• BD-Live
• Standard-Def DVD
• Digital Copy
• UltraViolet Digital Copy