A twist on the “mismatched partners” comedy, 2019’s Stuber shows Detectives Vic Manning (Dave Bautista) and Sara Morris (Karen Gillan) as they pursue drug trafficker Oka Teijo (Iko Uwais). This goes awry and Teijo kills Sara before he escapes.

Devastated by this, Vic goes on a relentless pursuit of Teijo, and he receives a tip that might lead to the cop killer. However, Vic doesn’t trust the other officers and he prefers to go it alone.

Laser eye surgery essentially leaves Vic blind, so he resorts to Uber as a method to track Teijo. Driver Stu Prasad (Kumail Nanjiani) receives this fateful job, one that leads him to become an unwitting partner in Vic’s violent activities.

Whether you call it a “buddy cop” flick or an “odd couple” tale, we’ve seen scores of this sort of comedy over the years. That doesn’t invalidate the genre, but a movie in this realm needs to find something new to bring to the table.

Which Stuber fails to do – at least beyond the involvement of Uber. That adds a minor spin, though not one that really accomplishes much more than a bit of a 21st century feel.

Otherwise, Stuber embraces every cinematic cliché it can muster. Not unlike The Other Guys, another tale in the same genre, Stuber spoofs cop flick tropes to a minor degree, but it mostly swallows them whole.

That becomes the biggest drag here. Stuber wouldn’t require much effort to create a moderately inventive story, but it barely attempts to separate itself from the pack.

Despite the stale nature of the narrative and characters, Stuber boasts more than a few laughs, mainly due to the cast. Neither Nanjiani nor Bautista break a sweat in their roles, but they show good chemistry and make the most of their odd couple circumstance.

While none of the other actors fizzle, they also fail to add a lot. Outside of the gimmicky reunion of Guardians of the Galaxy’s Drax and Nebula, the remaining performers seem fairly ordinary.

Still, the Nanjiani/Bautista partnership keeps us reasonably amused – for a while, at least. After the first act, the movie gets less interesting, perhaps because the novelty wears off and we realize we’re stuck with another cliché buddy cop film.

Ultimately all this means Stuber brings us a “C+” action comedy. Thanks to its leads, we never abandon it, but we remain disappointed that so much of it feels lazy and tiresome.

Stuber appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The transfer presented the film in an appealing manner.

Sharpness looked good. Some softness hit a few interior shots, but those instances remained mostly insubstantial, so the majority of the flick showed fine clarity and accuracy.

Shimmering failed to distract, and jaggies also stayed away from the image. Edge haloes remained absent, and the movie also lacked any source flaws.

In terms of colors, Stuber went with a pretty standard mix of orange and teal that emphasized the latter. Despite these predictable choices, the hues worked fine.

Blacks were pretty deep, and shadows were well-depicted. The image offered a solid “B+” presentation.

The movie’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack packed a pretty good sense of action, with active use of the various channels. Music filled the various channels in a satisfying manner, and effects fleshed out the spectrum in a logical way.

The film often focused on action-related material, elements that managed to add immersion to the tale. These worked for the story and added punch to the proceedings.

Audio quality pleased. Speech was concise and natural, while effects remained vivid and full-bodied.

In addition, music was vibrant and dynamic. The audio suited the story and brought power to the tale.

A few extras appear, and we get an audio commentary from director Michael Dowse and actor Kumail Nanjiani. Both sit together for a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, sets and locations, cast and performances, music, deleted and alternate scenes, and other production areas.

The commentary tends to break into three realms: praise for the film and those involved, joking around, and filmmaking details. The latter offer some value but the other two domains dominate and make this a fairly lackluster track.

Five Deleted Scenes fill a total of four minutes, 35 seconds. These offer minor character moments and a couple of small expository elements. Some amusement results, but the movie fares no worse for the loss of any.

We can watch the scenes with or without commentary from Nanjiani and Dowse. They tell us basics about the clips and why they got the boot, so expect a few useful notes.

A Gag Reel spans three minutes, one second and presents the usual goofs and giggles. Don’t expect anything memorable.

Under Joke-O-Rama, we get a five-minute, 14-second collection of alternate lines. Some of the material veers toward bloopers, but we get a few amusing bits.

A promo called Georgia Film Works fills three minutes, one second. It’s an animated reel that sells us on the use of Georgia for movie productions. It’s more clever than most, but it’s still an advertisement. I assume Georgia must require movie studios to run these clips to get their tax benefits.

Finally, a Gallery brings us 20 shots from the production. It’s decent but no better.

The disc opens with an ad for Booksmart. We also get the trailer for Stuber.

Thanks to the chemistry between its leads, Stuber provides decent entertainment. However, the whole package seems a bit trite and lazy, so it ends up as a fairly mediocre film. The Blu-ray brings very good picture and audio along with a mix of bonus materials. Stuber becomes a watchable flick but no better.