For a satirical look at the ultra-wealthy, we go to 2019’s Greed. Born to modest circumstances, Richard McCreadle (Steve Coogan) builds a massive retail empire.

Now a knighted billionaire, Richard undergoes a government investigation that reveals some rot within his organization. This leaves Richard damaged in the public eye.

In an attempt to redeem his image, Richard plans a decadent 60th birthday party for himself. This may not work out as well as he hopes.

Although I refer to Greed as a satire, that doesn’t fully cover the film’s ambitions. At times it leans toward “mockumentary” parody, but the movie also aspires to broader goals.

On paper, that sounds like a good idea, as a film that attempts more than simple satirical comedy seems like one that could hit the spot. However, in this case, the end result becomes such a disjointed, inconsistent mess that I wish it would’ve focused in one area and one area alone.

And that area would be the comedic side of things. As seen in Stan & Ollie as well as other projects, Coogan boasts good dramatic chops, so he shouldn’t be limited solely to funny films.

In a better film – such as the charming Stan - Coogan can prosper dramatically, but in Greed, he finds himself stuck with a cliché role that goes nowhere. Despite the tendency toward parody, Greed doesn’t give Coogan the room to really exploit the comedy, and it also fails to find the dramatic side in a satisfying manner either.

Greed can never decide what it wants to be. Part Big Short, part Spinal Tap, part Wall Street, it makes a mess of its different genres and fails to coalesce.

It also doesn’t focus on characters like it should. While Richard should become the focal point, we lose him for extended periods of time to go off with roles who frankly seem irrelevant.

Whether comedic or dramatic, Greed would work better if it stuck with Richard the vast majority of the time and only branched away for other perspectives connected to him. Instead, we find ourselves forced to deal with superfluous personalities who add little.

Really, the film’s best scenes come from flashbacks to younger Richard (Jamie Blackley). When we see how the boy became the man, we get some intriguing material.

But then the movie abandons these threads and goes for more semi-coherent nonsense instead. All of this winds up with a social message that almost literally evolves out of nowhere – and an end credits sequence that lectures the audience.

I’m all for films that attempt to educate the audience, but Greed fails because it does so in the most trite, ham-fisted manner. Add to that the fact that these elements feel utterly superfluous most of the time and the social commentary flops.

As does most of Greed as a whole. Blessed with a mix of potential positives, the film misuses these to become a tedious, disjointed affair.

Footnote: 17 years before Greed, Shirley Henderson played 14-year-old “Moaning Myrtle” in the Harry Potter films and now she portrays the mother a 60-year-old man! Actually a month younger than Coogan, she also worked with him in Stan & Ollie as Oliver Hardy’s wife. Too bad she didn’t play Mrs. Laurel, as I’d like the Oedipal notion that she played both Coogan’s mother and wife.

Greed appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie offered a fine transfer.

Overall definition seemed positive. Only a smidgen of softness impacted some wider shots, as the majority of the flick felt accurate and well-rendered.

I noticed no signs of jaggies or edge enhancement, and shimmering was absent. The film lacked print flaws and seemed clean.

Expect a fairly subdued palette here, as the colors tended toward teal tones, with some amber along for the ride as well. These appeared fine within the film’s stylistic choices.

Blacks seemed dark and tight, and shadows demonstrated good clarity. This added up to a satisfying presentation.

Expect a mess when we head to the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, as it came with a major flaw: inaccurate channels. The mix heavily accentuated the right side of the spectrum in a manner that meant the left became a weak partner.

I suspect that the disc got encoded incorrectly and the right rear speaker received front audio instead. The center speaker seemed accurate, as it boasted dialogue, but when it came to music and effects, the right overwhelmed.

This became a major distraction. The movie remained watchable, mainly because the flick emphasized dialogue over music and effects, but the radical imbalance created obvious problems.

At least audio quality worked fine, as speech seemed natural and concise. Off-kilter as it was, music appeared full and rich.

Effects didn’t have a lot to do, but they came across as accurate and well-rendered. While the track sounded fine, the bizarre issues with speaker localization made it a badly flawed mix.

Only minor extras appear here, and a Behind the Scenes Vignette runs two minutes, 10 seconds. It includes comments from actor Steve Coogan as he discusses story, characters, and a few production elements. This becomes mainly a promotional affair.

One Deleted Scene come to us: “NHS Hospital”. It lasts four minutes, 56 seconds and shows a flashback to 2010 in which Richard becomes the government’s health czar.

We mainly see how Richard brings a businessman’s approach to the job. It comes with some black comedy but seems a little crass – and a little too on the nose as a reflection of the Trump era.

The disc opens with ads for The Last Vermeer, Charm City Kings, The Burnt Orange Heresy, The Traitor, Pain & Glory and The Climb. We also get the trailer for Greed.

Despite a good cast and some promising elements, Greed fails to find a groove. The movie can’t settle on a consistent tone and purpose, so it becomes a mess. The Blu-ray offers very good visuals but it suffers from badly flawed audio and it lacks notable bonus materials. Even if you like the film, you should avoid this defective Blu-ray.