Lifelong friends Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher, two comedians famous for pranking local news stations on live television as the fake strongman duo ‘Chop & Steele,’ find themselves in federal court with a vengeful media conglomerate after their latest morning show stunt goes viral.

For thoughts on Chop & Steele, please check out my colleague Mike Vaughn’s review from its original theatrical release here.

Video Quality

Chop & Steele comes to MOD Blu-Ray in its original aspect ratio from a really nice high definition master. The film is composed of new footage with excerpts from various broadcasts and personal archival footage interspersed for context. The footage of the older videotape material is inconsistent, yet it seems to be the strongest version that you could expect from old home movies or random appearances on various caliber of shows. The newly filmed interview footage looks as crisp and clear as you would expect modern interviews to look in a stable location.

The colors captured on film are natural and vibrant as they provide a nice visual pop on screen. Interview segments are replete with natural skin tones and detailed facial features. Black levels are sufficiently deep and allow for a nice amount of detail in any shadowy moments. The transfer appears to have plenty of room to breathe as there are no issues with compression artifacts, banding or other digital nuisances. Drafthouse Films has given this one a fine presentation which should garner zero complaints from fans.

Audio Quality

This Blu-Ray comes with a great DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that presents the content exceedingly well. The music is utilized well as it permeates the room with graceful fidelity. Dialogue is the main focus of the film, and it is never overshadowed by competing elements. While the quality of some archival pieces is not always the most ideal, the track never lacks when it comes to clarity. The occasional nuances of the locations they chose to film in provides a nice baseline texture to the proceedings with ambient sounds placed carefully in the rear channels. The audio track is not pushed to its limit with this content, but it always delivers the information exactly as desired. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided on this disc.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Directors Ben Steinbauer & Berndt Mader and stars Joe Pickett & Nick Prueher provide a lively commentary track in which they discuss settling on a framework for the film, the stressful details behind many of the event on film, background details of their lives, fun anecdotes, their reaction to the film and more.
Trailer: The two-minute trailer is provided here.

Final Thoughts

Chop & Steele is a raucous and immensely enjoyable documentary that puts a spotlight on a friendship that has provided laughs and more than a little bit of chaos. The construction of this tale is lean and packed with interesting developments and compelling interviews. While we love an exploration of a deeply serious topic, sometimes it is nice to sit back and go on a wild journey with some very funny personalities. Drafthouse Films has released a new MOD Blu-Ray that features a very impressive A/V presentation and a worthwhile commentary track. This is an experience that deserves your attention. Recommended

Chop & Steele can be purchased on Blu-Ray directly through MovieZyng or various other online retailers.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Drafthouse Films has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.