Thanks primarily a role in the TV series White Lotus, Walton Goggins became fairly famous in his 50s. Back in 2007, though, he was just a prematurely balding 36-year-old character actor when he appeared in Randy & the Mob.

Randy Pearson (Ray McKinnon) runs a number of businesses in Georgia. When he runs into financial trouble, he turns to loan sharks for assistance.

This just makes matters worse and eventually mob enforcer Tino Armani (Goggins) emerges to come after him. Randy finds himself forced to turn to his gay twin brother Cecil (Pearson again) to dig out of this hole.

It appears Mob never got a theatrical release. Without Goggins’ involvement, I suspect it would remain essentially forgotten since it didn’t find much of an audience back then.

Mob feels a bit like a vanity project given how many hats McKinnon wears. Not only does he play two roles but also he wrote and directed the film.

McKinnon only wrote and directed two features, with 2004’s Chrystal as his sole other credit in that domain. However, Billy Bob Thornton played the lead in that one and McKinnon appeared on-camera via a small part.

Thus my impression Mob exists as something of a vanity effort. With McKinnon as writer, director and actor in two separate parts, it feels like he meant it as a calling card.

Which apparently didn’t work since it represented the end of his career as “triple threat”. I can’t claim this comes as a loss because Mob becomes a misguided effort.

McKinnon desperately wants to make this a clever-clever tale in the Coen Brothers vein. He creates a tale with quirks galore and wacky twists.

Tino comes as the main curveball, as he becomes an Italian mob enforcer with a heavy Southern accent as well as a stiff social demeanor. Goggins makes Tino mechanical in a way that appears to imply he sits on the autism spectrum.

Goggins undeniably boasts talent, but he seems unimpressive as Tino. His attempts at the character’s unusual behavior don’t become anything more than cartoony.

McKinnon brings little personality to either of his roles, and his real-life wife Lisa Blount seems forgettable as Ray’s spouse Charlotte. An uncredited Burt Reynolds adds some zing to his small role but he can’t elevate the meandering narrative.

Ultimately, McKinnon bites off more than his talent can chew. His attempt to make a quirky comedy fizzles.

Randy & the Mob appears in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Though not a bad presentation, matters seemed inconsistent.

Sharpness became one of the up and down elements, as more than a few oddly soft shots occurred. Much of the film brought reasonable to good delineation, but these strangely ill-defined moments popped up too often.

At times Mob came with a somewhat “smoothed-out” impression at times that made me suspect some grain reduction. No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes, but print flaws manifested via occasional specks and blemishes.

The film’s palette leaned toward a dull blue or tan vibe, though other hues appeared as well. The colors seemed fairly lackluster.

Blacks seemed inky, and low-light shots felt a bit dull. This turned into a watchable image but not a strong one.

2007 seems awfully late in the game for a movie to come with nothing more complex than this one’s LPCM stereo soundtrack. However, despite that billing, the end result never offered an impression of dual-channel material.

If this track ever broadened to true stereo information, I couldn’t detect it. As far as I could tell, the film wound up with a firmly monaural soundscape.

Audio quality seemed fine, at least, with speech that felt concise and reasonably natural. While music didn’t dazzle, the score and songs brought fairly positive impact.

Effects lacked much to do in this chatty affair, but those elements appeared appropriately accurate. Ultimately, this seemed like a primitive mix for a movie from 2007.

I couldn’t help but wonder if Mob came with a true stereo mix originally but something went wrong with the Blu-ray. The 2001 Ray McKinnon short I will soon discuss came with actual two-channel audio so it makes no sense that its 2007 sibling boasted monaural materaial.

When we move to extras, the primary attraction comes from that 2001 short film called The Accountant (38:34). Like Mob, McKinnon wrote, directed and stars in Accountant, and Walton Goggins also plays a major role.

When Tommy (Goggins) and David (Eddie King) try to save their family farm from foreclosure, they consult a mysterious accountant (McKinnon). He uses unconventional methods to achieve this goal.

McKinnon won a Best Live Action Short Oscar for Accountant, one I can’t say it clearly deserved. Still, it brings a fairly engaging yarn, albeit another with clear Coen aspirations.

In terms of quality, Accountant came with visuals similar to that of Mob. At least its LPCM 2.0 audio actually included some stereo components unlike the apparently monaural Mob.

Along with the movie’s trailer, the disc concludes with The Making of Randy & the Mob. It spans 25 minutes, 22 seconds and brings notes from McKinnon, Goggins, actor/producer Lisa Blount, producer David Koplan, landfill operations manager Charles Gill, production designer Chris Jones, and actors Tim DeKay, Paul Ben-Victor, and Vic Polizos.

The featurette looks at the project’s origins and development, story/characters/inspirations, cast and performances, the complications of McKinnon acting and directing, the tight shoot and low budget, sets and locations. The reel comes with a fair amount of good notes but it also leans promotional too often.

Basically Ray McKinnon’s attempt to create his version of a Coen Brothers comedy, Randy & the Mob goes nowhere. It lacks wit or cleverness to wind up as a sluggish and unfunny dud. The Blu-ray brings surprisingly mediocre picture and audio but it comes with a few good bonus materials. Not much about this tedious flick works.