The Con Is On Blu-ray Review + Screen Caps

THE MOVIE — 0.5/5

Often times I wonder how a terrible movie manages to sign talented actors. The Con Is On is a film that was completed back in 2015 and it’s not hard to see why producers had difficulties finding a distributor. If not for the awful Cook Off “comedy”, another one that shelved before being released years later, The Con Is On would be the worst movie of 2018.

Harriet and Peter Fox (UMA THURMAN, TIM ROTH) are a pair of married, and hapless, con artists who blow through money belonging to a ruthless gangster Irina (MAGGIE Q) and flee to Los Angeles. There, they make contact with Sidney (STEPHEN FRY) to get some spending cash and do a job in order to pay back Irinia, who has followed them to L.A., though not just for the money but in pursuit of Harriet whom she had a relationship with years earlier.

In the meantime, really getting sleepy just recounting the “plot”, the Fox’s stumble upon a new con: nab a $5 million ring from Peter’s ex, Jackie (ALICE EVE), who is dating an obnoxious filmmaker (CRISPIN GLOVER), and this guy has his own plethora of oddballs in his atmosphere, including a personal assistant (PARKER POSEY) madly in love with him. Or something.

Okay, I’m done. I have no clue who The Con Is On was aimed at but the story was in shambles and was barely coherent, any comedic aspects fell utterly flat and even the con parts were, at best, haphazardly slapped together. Not sure when the film went wrong as it wouldn’t surprise me if it was sliced up by Grindstone Entertainment (see Exposed and Dying of the Light) but even so, what is left over is really awful.

However, even choppy and sloppy editing can’t explain some of the cheaper elements. For instance, we get to see an awards ceremony merely called “Awards” (Academy Awards is copyrighted) and the filmmakers utilize cringe-worthy green screen along the lines of The Room and later, during the finale, poor looking day-for-night shots, I guess they couldn’t afford to rent the appropriate lights and/or hire a crew to actually shot at night.

Not even a relatively talented cast couldn’t hold my interest: Uma Thurman and Tim Roth have been wonderful in other projects but here they were absolutely obnoxious, though I’m wondering if the drugs and alcohol Roth’s character consumed (he’s snorting to drinking in just about every scene) might not have been fake… The rest of the cast pretty much are window dressing. Maggie Q as the villainous was fine but not much more; Sofia Vergara only has about 5-minutes of screen time playing an actress having an affair; and Alice Eve as a ditz added little and zero laughs. Won’t even bother with Parker Posey or Crispin Glover, both roles could’ve been cut anyway and the story tightened just to have a plot about the Fox’s trying to steal the ring.

The Con Is On was directed by James Haslam (aka James Oakley) who only helmed one other movie, something called The Devil You Know starring Rosamund Pike back in 2013 but has nothing else on this resume since (remember, this movie was completed back in 2015). I seriously don’t think I’ve seen a worse crime-comedy before and really wonder how the producers managed to get these actors. Don’t even bother with this turkey.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 0.5/5

This release comes with a title-embossed slip cover and inside a redemption code for the Digital HD copy. The only feature is the film’s trailer (2:11; HD).

Previews – Bent, Overboard, She’s Funny That Way, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Casual Encounters

VIDEO – 3.75/5, AUDIO – 3.5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is pretty standard outputting good detail throughout but minimal depth, even during any scenes with gunfire.

OVERALL – 1.0/5

Overall, The Con Is On took 3 years to find distribution but it should have stayed in what vault it was found in as it was just an all around awful crime-comedy, failing in both respects, which is a shame as it is a respectable ensemble cast. The Blu-ray release offers okay video/audio transfers and thankfully basically no features.