King Ivory DVD Review (Sony Pictures)

King Ivory is a 2024 crime film written and directed by John Swab (Let Me Make You a Martyr, Long Gone Heroes, One Day as a Lion, Candy Land, Ida Red, Body Brokers, and Run with the Hunted). It was produced by Jeremy M. Rosen (I Am Fear, Unplugging, Little Dixie, Charlie Says, Dog Eat Dog, and Ida Red). It got a limited theatrical run and it grossed $154,681 worldwide. It follows the dangerous underworld of fentanyl cartels in middle America. Work hits too close to home for a drug cop Layne West (played by: James Badge Dale from The Departed, 24, Iron Man 3, 13 Hours, and World War Z) when his son Jack (played by: Jasper Jones from To Die For) becomes an addict. He makes it his mission to take down those responsible including Ramon Garza (played by: Michael Mando from Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Spider-Man franchise, The Colony, and Orphan Black) from the Mexican cartel, Holt Lightfeather (played by: Graham Greene from Dances with Wolves, Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Green Mile, Thunderheart, and Echo) from the Indian Brotherhood War Chief, and George “Smiley” Greene (played by: Ben Foster from Hell or High Water, 3:10 to Yuma, The Messenger, Hostiles, The Punisher, and X-Men: The Last Stand) with his mother Ginger (played by: Melissa Leo from Homicide: Life on the Street, Frozen River, The Fighter, Prisoners, Conviction, and The Equalizer franchise) from the local Irish Mob that are all corrupting the community with their destructive poison!!!! I never heard of King Ivory before it was announced for home video. Saban Films continues to pump quality independent and low budget productions over the years. They had a strong working relationship with both Paramount and Lionsgate for a long time, they mainly go through Well Go USA these days but the fact that Sony Pictures was involved with King Ivory grabbed my attention right away. This crime thriller feels a little bigger than most of the other recent Saban projects. It’s loaded with talent, it would have been pushed to the mainstream if it was made around 10 years ago to be honest. Director John Swab has done some solid crime and action features during his career but I think this might be his best work behind the camera so far. Lead actor James Badge Dale has always been underrated so it’s nice to see get a role like this. He takes things very personal when his own son gets hooked on drugs and he barely escapes with his own life during his addiction. He’s in charge of an elite drug police unit so he uses his pain as motivation to take them all down. Ben Foster is top notch as low level criminal George “Smiley” Greene. He is just released from prison, he owes some people for keeping him alive from when he was inside so he has to get his hands dirty again. Foster can do it all, he can be the lead or just a character actor. Regardless, he’s going to give the audience something new every time. Smiley has a thick accent and his voice box office was destroyed so his speaking voice is unique. The skilled Melissa Leo shows up as Ginger Greene. She’s the mother of George and she will do whatever it takes to protect her child. She’s more dangerous than you would expect. Michael Mando is Ramon Garza, he works for the cartel doing a variety of bad things. He is tasked with smuggling some illegal citizens to America. Things go terribly wrong and it brings out his morals. He puts himself at risk for standing up for what’s been done. The legendary Graham Greene plays the main villain Holt Lightfeather. He runs everything behind bars. He enjoys keeping favors over others and making them pay them off in vicious ways. He is usually known for being a good guy or hero, he kills it here going against typecasting. It’s one of his most impressive performances in a long time. The rest of the supporting cast includes Rory Cochrane (Dazed and Confused), Slaine (The Town), Ritchie Coster (The Dark Knight), Danny Boy O’Connor (House of Pain), Jasper Jones, Kaylee Curry, Sam Quartin (Candy Land), James Whitecloud (Tulsa King), Ben Hall (Killers of the Flower Moon), David Barcena (Raising Dion), Nikki Dixon (Longmire), Orlando Valentino (Tazmanian Devil), Dwayne Chamberlain (Tulsa King), and Brett Swab (Let Me Make You a Martyr). King Ivory kinda has Traffic and Crash vibe to it. There’s several smaller subplots where all these strangers interact somehow during all of this chaos. King Ivory is action packed, it keeps itself unpredictable and full of surprises. There’s a good amount of unlikable people here but it’s fun to see them bump into each other during these violent scenarios. There’s a variety of deadly drugs out there but King Ivory focuses on Fentanyl and it’s destruction on the streets. This puts gangsters, cops, teens, and ex-cons all trying to survive this war that’s brewing. It has a little bit of everything plus I like that it’s personal for the main character so he doesn’t give up on stopping this problem. It has a gritty atmosphere, it’s not afraid to push the boundaries. It’s a real shame that this flew under the radar, it deserves more attention and praise. This is one of the better independent features from 2025, it delivers on everything you would want from this crime thriller with plenty of violent action to entertain. RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation from Sony Pictures! This 1080p (1.78:1) looks bigger than it’s budget for an independent production. I love the first person shooter approach it has during some of the shootouts. It has creative production design, stylish cinematography, and a variety of colorful locations when it comes to the visuals. Personally, I think this should have gotten a Blu Ray home video release rather than DVD but hopefully it happens someday. This isn’t no cheap direct to video feature, it needs a HD upgrade especially with all the known talent involved. Regardless, it’s better than nothing and only available on streaming so I’ll take a DVD over that any time. It has an English: Dolby Digital 5.1 track on the disc. The audio sounds amazing for King Ivory, it’s full of gun play and violence. All of the dialogue is crisp, the thrills are elevated, and the music has a killer boost to it. It has English SDH and French subtitles. There’s no special features here. This is a professionally made on demand DVD-R home video release. It’s available everywhere right now including MovieZyng.com, CHECK IT OUT!!!!