The Postcard Killings is a movie that I would’ve lost any interest in if not for a respectable cast, led way by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and the film at least did have a couple twists, though the final act it does lose quite a bit of steam.
The Postcard Killings
(2020)
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller, Drama, Crime
RLJ Entertainment | NR – 104 min. – $29.97 | May 19, 2020
Date Published: 05/19/2020 | Author: The Movieman
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RLJ Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2.75/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: NY Detective Jacob Kanon’s (JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN) world is destroyed when his daughter and son-in-law are brutally murdered in London. Unable to sit idly by and do nothing, Jacob travels to London to get the answers he needs. As he learns of similar heinous murders happening across Europe – each preceded by a postcard sent to a local journalist – Jacob is in a race against time to stop the killings, with the help of reporter Dessie Lombard (CUSH JUMBO), to stop the killings and find justice for his daughter. Review: Generally I find these sort of crime-dramas to be quite entertaining. Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Se7en, Zodiac, etc are some of my favorites and even in college read plenty of the Lucas Davenport novels by John Sandford, whose work is the same vein as James Patterson, for which The Postcard Killings is based on his novel, co-written (probably mostly written by to be honest) by Liza Marklund. The Postcard Killings is hardly a terrible movie and it does offer at least a couple okay twists, one quite effective, but sadly that came probably a little over the halfway point, the rest plays out like any cat-and-mouse thriller that honestly even the charismatic Jeffrey Dean Morgan, whose participation probably is the reason why I was interested, couldn’t help. Morgan for his part does well playing a grieving father trying to track down the next set of victims across Europe. Famke Janssen gets second billing though doesn’t do a whole lot and really, her scenes could’ve been played by anyone else and it wouldn’t have mattered. And Cush Jumbo (Dakota Fanning was originally cast before dropping out) reminded me somewhat of Marion Cottilard, she has an interesting look but her acting in English isn’t very good, Jumbo seemed to struggle at times. Bosnian-born Danis Tanovic directed The Postcard Killings, managing at least to give this a global feel, trotting from London to Stockholm to Norway. There’s nothing particularly noteworthy about the direction, or even cinematography, I will say it is a step up from made-for-television quality. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.75/5 |
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This release comes with a matted, title-embossed, slip cover. Features are on the light side with Making-of (9:55) featurette and a Photo Gallery. |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| RLJ Entertainment releases The Postcard Killings onto Blu-ray shown with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. The picture here isn’t anything special but does have sharp detail on close-ups which somewhat degrades the further out. Given the tone and grisly nature of the film, colors tended to be tamped down, however some does crop up, most notably any daylight scenes. |
AUDIO – 3.75/5 |
| The movie comes with a standard DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is adequate enough, dialogue comes through the center channel with good clarity although this is not all that depth-full, there is some minor ambient noises from the front and rear speakers, however the LFE I felt was a tad weak. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Overall, The Postcard Killings is a movie that I would’ve lost any interest in if not for a respectable cast, led way by Jeffrey Dean Morgan and the film at least did have a couple twists, though the final act it does lose quite a bit of steam |