Based on a famous kidnapping, 2017’s All the Money in the World takes us back to 1973. As he wanders the streets, American teenager John Paul Getty III (Charlie Plummer) gets kidnapped in Rome.

This becomes a major news item because the young man’s grandfather John Paul Getty (Christopher Plummer) stands as the world’s wealthiest man. Despite all those riches, the senior Getty refuses to pay a ransom, so III’s mother Gail (Michelle Williams) attempts to secure her boy’s freedom.

When movie buffs remember Money in years to come, they will probably do so because of controversy. Originally Kevin Spacey played the elder Getty, but weeks before the film’s release, he became ensnared in accusations of sexual misconduct.

Rather than bury the film – or endure a difficult publicity campaign that would revolve entirely around a disgraced actor – director Ridley Scott decided to recast the role. He got Christopher Plummer to play the elder Getty and rushed these replacement scenes into production to meet the movie’s December release date.

This led to a publicity campaign that still connected to Spacey – he remained the elephant in the room – but Scott managed to give the change a triumphant feel. Not only did the casting change allow the filmmakers to appear proactive and intolerant of Spacey’s alleged indiscretions, but also the remarkable speed with which Scott achieved the reshot movie’s completion offered a “feel good” tale.

To be honest, the backstory behind the creation of Money offers a lot more intrigue than the film itself. While Money comes with an inherently fascinating source story in its own right, Scott fails to bring it to the screen in an interesting manner.

Honestly, it can be tough to pinpoint what precisely goes wrong with Money, as it seems like it should click. In addition to the focus on a historical event packed with natural drama, it involves “A”-level cast and crew.

Despite all those positives, the end result never quite connects. Scott appears so concerned with his message about how wealth corrupts that he forgets to make an involving movie.

Money eschews a chronological orientation that opens in 1973 and then skips into prior years quite a few times. In theory, this works, but as executed, the movie feels jumbled when it leaves 1973. It offers this information to set up characters and motivations, but it feels less than concise in these explorations.

Because of this, we don’t ever really invest in the story or roles. Money lacks much spark as either a crime-related thriller or a character drama, so both sides tend to fall flat.

It doesn’t help that the movie runs too long. On the surface, 133 minutes doesn’t seem excessive for a story of this sort, but as executed, Money sags and drags. I was ready for it to end long before the credits rolled, as it lacked great forward momentum and could feel redundant.

I also must admit some of the movie's chronological goofs distracted me. For instance, the Playboy interview takes place in 1965, but the crew sport hair/clothes from the late 60s. We also hear a Zombies song from 1967 played in 1965 – and on a Capitol record although the song came out on CBS.

I don’t like to be “that guy” – you know, the one who hunts for mistakes to post on IMDB – but in this case, the errors nagged at me, mainly due to the historical nature of the material. If Money can’t get simple details like a record’s release date correct, why should I trust it with other facts?

Perhaps I would’ve focused less on these goofs if the movie worked for me. Unfortunately, Money left me fairly bored, as it never became an involving drama.

All the Money in the World appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie boasted a strong image.

Overall sharpness worked well. Virtually no instances of softness materialized, so this became a tight, accurate presentation.

I saw no shimmering or jaggies, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also failed to become an issue.

Even by modern standards, Money went a little crazy with its use of orange and teal, as those tones dominated the presentation. Predictable as the colors tended to be, the Blu-ray rendered them in an appropriate manner.

Blacks looked dark and deep, while shadows seemed smooth and concise. I felt pleased with this high-quality presentation.

Despite its status as a thriller, Inconceivable came with a moderately low-key DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. Most of the mix concentrated on environmental information, though the material sparked to life on occasion, mainly toward the end when some action elements occurred.

These added spark, but don’t expect a ton of pizzazz, as the film remained a character-oriented affair. Still, the general sense of place worked nicely and opened up the tale.

Audio quality worked well. Speech seemed concise and distinctive, while effects appeared accurate and natural.

Music was warm and full. All of this left us with a satisfactory “B” soundtrack.

Three featurettes appear, and we start with Crafting a Historical Thriller. It runs nine minutes, 11 seconds and provides comments from costume designer Janty Yates, director Ridley Scott, director of photography Dariusz Wolski, composer Daniel Pemberton, and actors Michelle Williams, Andrea Piedimonte, Christopher Plummer, Mark Wahlberg, Charlie Plummer, Timothy Hutton, and Nicolas Vaporidis.

“Thriller” looks at the project’s development as well as sets/locations, costumes and visual design, music and cinematography. This becomes a general but reasonably satisfying piece.

Hostages to Fortune fills nine minutes, 32 seconds and involves Charlie Plummer, Wahlberg, Christopher Plummer, Williams, Scott and actor Romain Duris. Here we learn about cast, characters and performances. “Hostages” offers another decent program, but not one with a ton of depth.

For the final featurette, we go to the four-minute, 554-second Recast, Reshot, Reclaimed. It brings us information from Scott, Wahlberg, Williams, Christopher Plummer, production designer Arthur Max, 1st AD UK Adam Somner, script supervisor Annie Penn, and producer Mark Huffam. “Reclaimed” examines the decision to cast Christopher Plummer as Getty and the reshoots.

While we get a passable take on the topic, “Reclaimed” plays it awfully safe, as it never names original actor Kevin Spacey and it dances around the reasons behind the reshoots. Don’t expect to see comparisons between Spacey’s Getty and Plummer’s, so this becomes a somewhat disappointing piece.

Eight Deleted Scenes occupy a total of six minutes, 52 seconds. These tend toward short bits of character material and/or exposition. They don’t add up to much, so they fail to provide information that expands the story in a memorable way.

Divorced from the scandal that nearly overshadowed its release, All the Money in the World doesn’t turn into an effective thriller. Despite an excellent cast and crew, the movie seems sluggish and rarely exploits its source to positive effect. The Blu-ray boasts terrific picture along with generally good audio and a few decent supplements. Money winds up as a lackluster disappointment.