A psychological thriller set during war, 2017’s Mine takes us to the Middle East. There we meet Marine Sgt. Mike Stevens (Armie Hammer), a military sniper.

After a job goes awry, Mike flees to the desert. There he finds himself amid a minefield – and indeed gets stuck with one foot on top of an explosive device. Without the ability to move from that spot, Mike needs to use all his training to survive.

That side of things gives Mine a definite twist. Going into the movie, one might expect it to follow the American Sniper vibe, but instead, it goes down a path closer to that of 127 Hours.

Or it would, if 127 Hours was a cheesy B-movie that constantly stretches credulity. Actually, “constantly” exaggerates the situation, as once we find Mike stuck on that landmine, the movie settles into a somewhat more engaging feel.

However, we find ourselves lost among clichés and hokey elements until this occurs, and those factors make Mine tough to swallow. With a loud, “TV movie” score, the music of Mine telegraphs every emotion far in advance, and the characters tend to be thin at best.

Seriously – does anyone believe Mike’s partner Tommy (Tom Cullen) won’t be dead before the first act ends? I didn’t even bother to mention him in my synopsis because he follows such a trite path, and much of the film follows suit.

At its heart, Mine wants to offer a psychological journey, and it teases with a Cast Away vibe for a while. However, the introduction of a semi-helpful Berber character (Clint Dyer) messes with the one-man-show side of the film and takes the ridiculousness to an even higher level.

Every once in a while, Mine threatens to become a decent “man against nature” tale, but the movie piles on so much cheap psychoanalyzing and silliness that it collapses under the weight of its own pretensions. When it sends Mike on a semi-spiritual path, it feels dopey and gimmicky, so those elements don’t connect to any higher sense of depth or meaning.

Instead, Mine tends to consist of one cheap metaphor after another, all in search of a compelling character journey. Hammer does well enough in the lead, but he can’t make this plodding, leaden tale good.

Mine appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.40:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a solid transfer.

Overall definition appeared excellent. Virtually no soft shots materialized, so the movie appeared accurate and well-defined. No jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes or print flaws.

Given the setting, a sandy palette dominated, though we got a little teal and orange as well. The Blu-ray replicated these tones appropriately. Blacks were deep and dark, and shadows looked fine. As a package, the image worked nicely.

As for the movie’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it opened up well, largely because it incorporated action elements. Not surprisingly, the mix came to life best during these combat sequences. Bullets, explosions and vehicles zipped around us and made sure that we felt like we were part of the action.

Even during more passive sequences, the film offered a good soundscape. Music showed nice stereo presence, while environmental elements popped up in logical, natural locations. Although the mix only soared on occasion, it still formed a solid sense of atmosphere.

From start to finish, the flick boasted excellent audio quality. Speech was crisp and concise, with good intelligibility and no edginess.

Music sounded bright and dynamic, and effects were very strong. They demonstrated fine clarity and accuracy, and the mix also featured positive bass response. This was a consistently fine track.

The Making of Mine goes for 13 minutes, nine seconds, as it presents comments from actor Armie Hammer. He chats about what drew him to the project, story/character areas, his performance, sets/locations, and related areas. Hammer gives us a decent overview of the project, though the program lacks much real depth.

Two more featurettes follow. We get Storyboards (4:45) and VFX (5:01). Both offer footage without interviews or comments. This means the former shows storyboard/film comparisons, while the latter gives us before/after shots of visual effects. Both offer some good material, though I’d like “VFX” better if someone talked us through the work on display.

Four Deleted Scenes appear: “Power Positive Thinking” (1:55), “Commitment” (2:22), “Confrontation” (10:23) and “Quicksand” (1:36). The three shorter ones tend to expand character bits in a fairly minor manner and don’t really add much.

As for “Confrontation”, it adds more to the discussion between Mike and the Berber. It’s more of an extended scene than a new one, and it also fails to deliver anything memorable. We already get an awful lot of these semi-philosophical chats, so more isn’t better.

The disc opens with ads for Buster’s Mal Heart, Greater, and Cardboard Boxer. We also get a trailer for Mine.

A second disc provides a DVD copy of Mine. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

At its best, Mine offers a moderately compelling survival story, but too little of the movie achieves its goals. Instead, most of the film comes across as cheesy and ham-fisted. The Blu-ray offers strong picture and audio as well as a few decent supplements. This isn’t a terrible film but it’s not a very good one either.