With Bruce Willis formally retired from acting, it seems like time for John Travolta to throw his hat back into the ring to qualify as the King of the Direct-to-Video Movies. In this spirit comes 2023’s Mob Land.

Sheriff Bodie Davis (Travolta) sees how drug addiction creates havoc in his small Southern town. In the midst of this, debt-ridden Shelby Connors (Shiloh Fernandez) steals money from a “pill mill” along with his careless brother Trey (Kevin Dillon).

This escapade goes awry and becomes violent, a turn of events that sends New Orleans Mafia enforcer Clayton Minor (Stephen Dorff) to town. As events spiral, Sheriff Davis attempts to keep the peace while Shelby simply strives to keep his wife Caroline (Ashley Benson) and daughter Mila (Tia DiMartino) safe.

With Mob Land, we get the directorial debut of co-writer/director Nicholas Maggio. Formerly a photographer, does this flick make me eager to see where Maggio goes from here as a filmmaker?

Not really. While superior to the average direct-to-video thriller, Mob Land does little to stand out within its crowded genre.

On the positive side, Maggio brings his eye as a photographer to Mob Land. This results in a good-looking film with a fine sense of composition.

Maggio’s sense of visuals allows Mob Land to seem more sophisticated than most of its peers. Unfortunately, Maggio can’t find much else fresh to bring to the proceedings.

Maggio tends to wear his influences on his sleeve. This means a movie that comes across as a mix of Malick, Tarantino, film noir and Southern Gothic.

The story lacks creativity, and Maggio’s sense of style doesn’t compensate. We’ve seen plenty of movies that take on similar topics/characters, and we don’t locate anything fresh here.

In addition, Mob Land tells its narrative in an erratic manner. The tale lurches around in an unsteady manner that lacks clarity and obvious purpose.

A good cast does help sell the material. Travolta often snoozes through his roles, but he seems fairly invested here.

Dorff’s hitman feels like a complete film contrivance, but the actor creates an evocative character. Even as phony as the role seems, Dorff’s menacing performance allows him to add punch to the proceedings.

Again, Mob Land works better than I expected. Nonetheless, it winds up a bit too loose and unsure of itself to become a genuinely good movie.

Mob Land appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The transfer appeared to replicate the source material.

The majority of the movie appeared pretty concise and accurate. Some minor softness impacted the occasional wider shot, but most of the flick seemed accurate and well-defined.

No issues with shimmering or moiré effects appeared, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws failed to materialize.

In terms of palette, the film mainly opted for a standard mix of amber, orange and teal. It appeared that the disc presented these dominant tones as intended.

Blacks were dark and dense, and shadows showed good clarity. This was a largely satisfying presentation.

In addition, the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack proved more than adequate, though not stellar. Despite the emphasis on violent domains, the mix didn’t pack a whole lot of lively material.

Mob Land came with the occasional action scene, mostly on the road or when guns got involved. These offered good punch, and the rest of the mix brought out a nice sense of atmosphere.

Not a lot of created a dynamic soundscape, though. Music fleshed out the surroundings and turned this into an appropriate mix but not one that stood out as impressive.

Audio quality worked fine, with dialogue that appeared natural and concise. Music felt bright and brassy as well.

Effects seemed accurate and lively, with good clarity and punch. This became a perfectly acceptable mix for what the story wanted to do.

When we go to extras, we open with an audio commentary from writer/director Nicholas Maggio, actor Shiloh Fernandez and cinematographer Nicholas Matthews. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story/characters, sets and locations, cast and performances, visual design, vehicles, music, costumes, photography, stunts/action and other production domains.

While the commentary comes with a decent level of information, it also brings us plenty of happy talk as well as more than a few dead spots. These make it a moderately useful but erratic piece.

A featurette called Walking the Line spans 18 minutes, 17 seconds. It brings notes from Maggio, Matthews and Fernandez.

“Line” examines the project’s roots and development, story and characters, the Southern setting, cast and performances, vehicles, and general domains.

“Line” presents a moderate amount of crossover with the commentary, but it still brings a tidy summary. It would’ve been nice to get other cast/crew beyond the same three guys from the audio track, though.

With a solid cast and an appealing visual sensibility, Mob Land comes with positives. Unfortunately, the plot and characters feel trite and the movie fails to coalesce into an especially coherent affair. The Blu-ray comes with good picture and audio as well as a few supplements. Mob Land does enough to keep us with it but it never rises above that level.