Author: Robert Greenberger

The notion of placing Batman in other times and places seems so obvious now, but when Brian Augustyn first hatched the notion with Mark Waid, it was radical. As Augustyn recounts on the 21 minute Caped Fear: The First Elseworld featurette, it was immediately embraced. So enticing was the concept that when artist Mike Mignola first heard about it, he kept saying he had no time but then kept contributing ideas that it was clear he’d make the time.

Gotham by Gaslight pitted an 1889 Dark Knight against Jack the Ripper, come to Gotham City. It was moody, atmospheric, and somber, a perfect Victorian take on the crimefighter. As a result, it ignited imitators, prompting DC Comics to finally invent the Elseworlds imprint and inspired Augustyn to write a sequel, Master of the Future, set three years later as Gotham hosted the American Discovery Exposition.

It was only a matter of time before Warner Animation tried their hands at the Elseworlds and no title was more fitting to kick it off than this one. The direct-to-video release is out this week and it’s pretty entertaining stuff.

Visually, the color palette is muted and does a fine job evoking the grittier environment from fashion to architecture. It is still too bright compared with Mignola and P. Craig Russell’s art (a shame Russell is never mentioned on camera). Director Sam Liu clearly had a good time exploring the action set pieces in fresh environs so the confrontations are pretty nifty.

Jim Krieg’s adaptation, though, is far from perfect. He can’t resist transplanting modern Bat-mythos figures to the past – a comics trope Augustyn wisely avoid. So, in addition to Batman (Bruce Greenwood) and Alfred (Anthony Head) we have Commissioner Gordon (Scott Patterson), Harvey Bullock (John DiMaggio), Harvey Dent (Yuri Lowenthal)Poison Ivy (Kari Wuhrer), Selina Kyle (Jennifer Carpenter), Leslie Thompkins (Grey Griffin), Hugo Strange (William Salyers) and others. A few would have been fine, but it started to feel like one of those television episodes where the main character merely dreams his contemporaries in new roles rather than a fresher take.

He also melded elements from Master of the Future, notably the exposition but doesn’t sand off the edges. The sequel was more about changing eras and the need for a Batman which is sadly missing here. What Krieg does get right, though, is treating Dick Grayson (Lincoln Melcher), Jason Todd, and Tim Drake (Tara strong) as a trio of street urchins in needs of Bruce Wayne’s protection, or more accurately, Alfred’s involvement.

The nicest addition he makes is a genuine romance with Selina that feels mature and right for the time. By expanding the 48-page comic into a 78-minute feature, Krieg also plays around with the identity of the Ripper – totally changing Augustyn’s story. It’s twisted stuff but veers into melodrama as we build towards the fiery climax.

Others have raved about this one, but I prefer the source material, and think they’ve done better adaptations. You can make up your mind by checking it out on streaming video or buy the combo pack which comes with a 4K Ultra HD, Blu-Ray, and Digital HD code.

Beyond the featurette, we get the usual preview of the next offering, April’s Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay, which reimagines the team as a 1970’s grindhouse production. From what’s shown here, it wants to be Tarantino and falls far short.

Finally, there are two classic episodes from the vault: “Showdown” from Batman: The Animated Series and “Trials of the Demon!” from Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Milestone Media’s best-known character, Static, is back in the third volume of his animated adventures after the release of the first two seasons last year. Static Shock was somewhat revolutionary back in the day, featuring an African-American teen super-hero who juggled classes, girls, villains, and parents, not all that dissimilar to a certain wall-crawler. The comic was long gone, but he left a mark.

Virgil Hawkins (Phil LaMarr) arrived for the Static Shock the Complete Third Season sporting a brand new costume and during the season, his BFF Richie (Jason Marsden) gained powers, taking on the name Gear. Throughout the thirteen episodes comprising the series, which aired in the Kids’ WB, he left the confines of Dakota and journeyed to Africa and even partnered with Superman after fighting alongside the Justice League.

It helped that there were strong scripts from Milestone co-founder Dwayne McDuffie, backed by Paul Dini, Len Uhley, Ernie Altbacker, John Semper, Courtney Lilly and Adam Beechen. John Ridley, who wrote 12 Years a Slave and is about to write for DC Comics, penned the story for the Superman meeting, which was them scripted by Semper. They were backed with the usual strong vocal cast we have come to expect from Warner Animation.

The season opened strong with a return visit to Gotham City where he partnered with Batman (Kevin Conroy) to take on Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin) and Poison Ivy.

It was anything but meet cute when Static and Gear continually confront a new superhero named She-Bang (Rosslynn Taylor Jordan). As it turns out, she’s a fellow classmate with dark secrets that require her to seek their help. She makes a welcome return later in the season.

“A League of Their Own” was a fine two-parter that saw Batman ask Static for help when the JLA Watchtower was compromised. However, it also meant Brainiac (Corey Burton) managed to infiltrate the headquarters so Static and Gear have to help the Dark Knight, Martian Manhunter (Carl Lumbly), Green Lantern (LaMarr), Hawkgirl (Maria Canals), and the Flash (Michael Rosenbaum). This and “Trouble Squared” show Virgil in his previous outfit, suggesting these were second season productions held over.

The final team-up was “Toys in the Hood” brings Toyman (Bud Cort) to Dakota with Superman (George Newbern) hot on his spring-heels. The story, in part, ties up loose ends from the Superman: The Animated Series episode “Obsession.”

Apart from the super-heroic geekiness of Static meeting the other heroes, the season’s most important episode was “Static in Africa”, which brought the Hawkins family to Ghana. Of course, danger followed the vacationers so Static teamed with a legendary African folk hero to combat a group of bandits. The cultural impact of the episodes still resonates.

The season nicely ends with “Flashback”, examining life in Dakota before the blackout the rise of super-powered beings. A new character, Time-Zone (Rachel MacFarlane), brings Virgil and Gear to the past allowing him to come face to face with his mother (Alfre Woodard), whose memory was beginning to fade form his mind. And then we have “Blast From the Past”, a passing-of-the-torch episode as Static teams with a sixties-era hero, Soul Power (Brock Peters) to close out a crimefighting career.

The two-disc DVD set from Warner Archive contains all thirteen episodes with the S:TAS episode “Obsession” as the only bonus feature.

Sequels are always an iffy proposition. There was a time that a hot film spawned an almost mirror-image sequel as a fast cash grab. After it was clear that was not what audiences wanted, sequels grew smarter and more sophisticated. In many cases, though, the first question asked is, “Does this really merit a sequel?” Sometimes, the creators have more they want to say or, after time has passed, feel there is something new to explore.

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner took Philip K. Dick’s prose work and envisioned a near future that was a darker reflection of 1982. We had gobs of atmosphere, some very restrained and impactful performances, and were left to wonder.  While talk of a sequel has bopped up every few years, everyone held out until now. Director Denis Villeneuve’s sequel, Blade Runner 2049, recruited many of the original cast and crew to take use a bit further into the future to see what has changed.

Judging from the box office, apparently the audience, which was wowed in 1982, has changed and shrugged at the sequel. That’s a shame, because the movie, out now on home video from Warner Home Entertainment, is well worth a look. Yes, it pales in comparison to the impact the original had, but so much has changed in filmmaking and society that it should be expected. A meditation on humanity and the decline of Western civilization is always a welcome subject, but this story left too many gaps, too much unexplained so ultimately proved a disappointing experience.

Screenwriter Hampton Fancher picks up thirty years later and Tyrell Corporation’s Nexus 8 is the cutting edge Replicant model, complete with an average human lifespan and finely tuned memories. We learn that Replicants have been invaluable in colonizing near-space, letting humanity escape the world they ruined. After a technology disaster in 2022 destroyed most of the world’s digital data, Los Angeles and other major cities are largely abandoned, sprawling slums.

No one machine is perfect and the imperfect 8’s get hunted down by blade runners and that’s where we meet “K” (Ryan Gosling), following commands from Lt. Joshi (Robin Wright). When he finishes his work, he returns to his tiny apartment and charming AI companion Joi (Ana de Armas). They have such an intimate connection that she later arranges to hire a hooker, Mariette (Mackenzie Davis), and seemingly merges with her to pleasure K in one of the film’s most visually compelling scenes.

His most recent case, dispatching an 8 (David Bautista in a small but fine part), sends him on a case that eventually leads him to Las Vegas, where Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), has been living in solitude. Visionary industrialist Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), who took over Tyrell, is blind and wants any hint of competition wiped out, issuing orders through his replicant assistant Luv (Sylvia Hoeks), contrasting with the K/Joi team.

There’s a hunt for K and Deckard, the revelation of an underground movement (isn’t there always?), and things blow up real well here and there.

Visual futurist Syd Mead nicely extrapolates his future over three decades and you can’t question that the money went into the production. It’s rich and textured, the effects strong, and Dennis Gassner’s production design superb. But the overall effect leaves one cold, and the story’s flaws leaves too many unanswered questions to be truly successful. It certainly leaves you thinking, which is a cut above much of the genre fare we were offered in 2017.

The disc does a strong job transferring the film to 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray at the standard 2.40:1 width, with nary a hint of the material shot at 1.90:1 for IMAX. If anything, the Dolby Atmos soundtrack is better so you won’t miss a beat from the Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch score.

The film comes with complete with assortment of interesting special features. None are spectacular but given the look and feel of the future, makes for good watching. Perhaps the best is Designing the World of Blade Runner 2049 (21:55). There is also To Be Human: Casting Blade Runner 2049 (17:15); Prologues — 2022: Black Out (15:45), anime directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, 2036: Nexus Dawn (6:31), directed by Luke Scott, and 2048: Nowhere to Run (5:49), directed by Scott; Blade Runner 101 (11:22) — Blade Runners, The Replicant Revolution, The Rise of Wallace Corp., Welcome to 2049, Jois, and Within the Skies: Spinners, Pilotfish and Barracudas.

I wish I had a grandchild to enjoy Scooby-Doo! and Batman: The Brave and the Bold with since I am far from the target audience. I was outgrowing Saturday morning TV when Scooby and the gang debuted and never warmed up to them. Over time, the troublesome teens have encountered countless pop culture celebrities in their storied career but this, their fourth meeting with the Caped Crusader, is a record.

It makes perfect sense that the 1960s homage version of Batman (Diedrich Bader) is used here since it is stylistically appropriate for this sort of crossover. Paul Giacoppo acquits himself well with a breezy script that uses touchstone elements from both series so fans are satisfied. Comics aficionados will appreciate the use of the New Look era Mystery Analysts of Gotham, even though the novelists have been replaced by the more colorful Martian Manhunter (Nicholas Guest), Detective Chimp (Kevin Michael Richardson), the Black Canary (Grey Griffin), the Question (Jeffrey Coombs), and Plastic Man (Tom Kenny). It’s funny to see Aquaman (John DiMaggio) trying to be a member while the Scooby (Frank Welker) and the gang are tested for admittance.

Since these sorts of mashups require a major threat, it seemed right that Batman’s rogues cause the trouble so of course we get to see Catwoman (Nika Futterman), Riddler (John Michael Higgins), Penguin (Tom Kenny), Clayface (Kevin Michael Richardson), Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy (both by Tara Strong).

There’s action, humorous hijinks, Scooby snacks, familiar catch phrases, and more all nicely handled by director Jake Castorena, who graduates from numerous art director assignments (Batman: The Killing Joke, Justice League: Gods & Monsters, etc.) to his third directorial job, following directing episodes of Justice League Action and Batman Unlimited.

The 75 minutes definitely feels padded but that’s to be expected given the limited range of the Scooby half of the match. Thankfully, the disc is rounded out with two classic episode from the New Scooby-Doo Movies:  “The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair” and “The Caped Crusader Caper”.

Regardless of the subject matter, director Christopher Nolan remains an interesting, inventive director. It’s no surprise, then, that this summer’s Dunkirk was a sober look at war through the eyes of the participants. That it lacked a traditional story and characters was just par for the course.

The film, out ow on disc from Warner Home Entertainment, is 106 minutes looking at the first day of the British withdrawal from the shore while dodging German gunfire from the ground and the air. The film offers up a 360-degree view of the carnage and heroism from the point of view of enlisted men, officers, pilots, and civilians.

Beyond the slightly unorthodox storytelling, the film is a visual masterpiece, with Nolan relying on traditional special effects, eschewing CGI, which gives the story a gritty, raw feel. He shot it with director of photography Hoyte Van Hoytema, using IMAX 65 and Panavision 65 cameras, releasing the film in differing formats depending on the house. The commercial video push is for the 4K Ultra HD edition but the film looks pretty spectacular on Blu-ray although it is said to pale next to the 4K version.

The events of Dunkirk, rescuing more than 300,000 men over eight days, largely though civilian vessels, is a small item in the history of World War II and is often overlooked here, especially since we hadn’t entered the war yet. As a result, the story unfolds like something brand new in all its tension-filled glory. We are made to feel as if we were also on the beach, tired, hungry, soaked, and certain death was seconds away.

While the cast is filled with familiar faces – Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy among them – every performance is unstated, the dialogue kept to a bare minimum. The role with the mot lines is like that of the civilian fisherman, Mark Rylance, an actor known for his subtle, quiet work. Most of his work is with his character’s son, Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney), and their friend, George (Barry Keoghan), both reacting differently to getting this close to the war. The first man they rescue is a shell-shocked soldier (Cillian Murphy), a stark reminder of wounds that go deep.

You have to pay attention while getting caught up in the story since there are three main storylines and each unfolds at different speeds.

The Blu-ray was overseen by Nolan, color correcting and pushing the 1080p, AVC-encoded transfer to its limits. Similarly, Nolan eschewed Dolby Atmos for a lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio track. It is a perfect complement so no one should feel there was loss.

Nolan also insisted the Special Features be packed on a separate Blu-ray disc. The strong Behind the Scenes material is organized into five chapters with a “play all” function. There are sub-chapters as well.

Recreating the look and feel of the 1940 setting takes up much of the material in these diverting featurettes:

• Creation (22:19)
  • Revisiting the Miracle
  • Dunkurque
  • Expanding the Frame
  • The In Camera Approach
• Land (16:39)
  • Rebuilding the Mole
  • The Army on the Beach
  • Uniform Approach
• Air (18:30)
  • Taking to the Air
  • Inside the Cockpit
• Sea (36:57)
  • Assembling the Naval Fleet
  • Launching the Moonstone
  • Taking to the Sea
  • Sinking the Ships
  • The Little Ships
• Conclusion (1519)
  • Turning Up the Tension
  • The Dunkirk Spirit

Additionally, there is a featurette about the U.S. Coast Guard (2:02).

With the comic book-based movie ascendant, other genres have worn out their welcome with audiences, largely given to them being played out mines of creativity. One such casualty of staleness was the romcom; I would argue we haven’t had a good one of those in at least a decade. It makes sense, therefore, that the next generation of filmmaker tries the genre. You can’t have a better pedigree for this than Writer/Director Hallie Meyers-Shyer, who with parents Nancy Meyers (The Holiday) and Charles Shyer, were the last interesting purveyors in this field.

The trailers for Universal’s Home Again certainly looked promising with a look at 40-year old single mom Alice Kinney (Reese Witherspoon) raising her two daughters Isabel (Lola Flanery) and Rose (Eden Grace Redfield) in the house her now deceased father owned. He was a legendary director who married his last major star, Lillian (Candice Bergen), who remains a cheerful nudge. Alice is separated from her husband, music producer Austen (Michael Sheen) who can’t seem to make time for his family.

While out getting hammered in celebration of turning 40, Alice and her pals encounter fledgling filmmakers Harry (Pico Alexander), Teddy (Nat Wolff), and George (Jon Rudnitsky), in town to work on turning their short film into a feature. For some reason, none of them have money, but Harry has plenty of chemist with Alice, resulting in the three crashing at her house. Lillian invites them to stay in the guest house our back and so begins the romcom.

The three keep telling us how in awe they are with how well Alice is handling the single mom thing but Meyers-Shyer keeps forgetting to show evidence of this. Instead, these three are like elves who cook, shop, and chauffeur while also working on their careers, collectively and increasingly individually.

All the elements are here for a fun exploration of romance and parenthood in the 21^st century but instead, everything is under-baked. The age difference between 20-something Harry and Alice is never an issue, the men’s fraying relationship is more contrivance than character-based dilemma, and the ultimate arrival of Austen in the mix goes along predictable lines. In fact, the further into the film we go, the more predictable the plot points get, robbing the film of being truly engaging.

The film is out now on a Combo Pack from Universal Home Entertainment so you get a fine high definition transfer, a DVD, and Digital HD code. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is equally competent.

Despite middling to positive reviews, the movie underwhelmed at the box office, which may explain why the sole special feature is an audio commentary with Meyers-Shyer and mama Meyers.

With the news this week that the eighth and final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones won’t air until 2019 comes just as Games of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season arrives on disc tomorrow. The digital editions have been out for some time and if any season bears repeat watching it is this one.

One advantage to the bloodshed and character demises over the last few seasons has meant that the survivors all get larger roles, meatier scenes, and characters we’ve longed to see together actually share the screen. The episodes are longer, but there are fewer of them to enjoy. Perhaps the biggest downside to this is that events have had to be telescoped, stretching and then breaking the show’s internal logic.

No matter how the producers spin it, there was really no way for episode six to work once the White Walkers surrounded our hardy band of warriors. Of course we knew what was coming, we knew that Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) would arrive on her dragon to rescue them in the greatest arrival of the cavalry moment in years.

The shorter season also cost some characters a chance to breathe before they shuffled off stage, notably the sand snakes (Indira Varma and her daughters). Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) and his visions also gets short-shrift but that is more than made up for by the arc involving his sisters, Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Arya (Maisie Williams), especially as they are manipulated by Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish (Aidan Gillen). Some of their exchanges caused much chuckling.

Everyone has been moved around Westeros as the true threat has finally been exposed. And yet, there remain schemes within schemes, wheels turning as we see Cersei (Lena Headey) cutting deals with the Iron Bank and overseas alliances in anticipation of life after the White Walkers’ defeat. While it makes sense to be prepared, she may also be underestimating the size of the threat coming from the North.

As secrets have been revealed to the audience, but not yet the characters themselves, we also see the inevitable consummation of lust between Danerys and Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) leading some in the audience to go, “ick”.

After the men have brooded, slashed, and hacked their way into this mess, the tide has turned and it has pretty much fallen to the women to clean up their mess. The fun of the final season should be the culmination of the moves made during this rather satisfying seventh with Cersei, Danerys, and Sansa all in positions of power with vastly different objectives and alliances. It’s a shame Lady Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) won’t be around to see it after her incredibly dignified death in episode two.

We’re in uncharted here since the television series is far past where the events of the source material, George R.R. Martin’s stalled Song of Fire and Ice novel series, left readers. As a result, we have no way of determining how much of this is Martin’s original scheme and how much a product of the producers. They have certainly maintained the flawed characters and expansive world but as they are left to their own devices, there are far fewer surprises than earlier seasons.

The episodes come in a variety of packages with our reviewing the four-disc DVD edition. The transfer for audio and video is superb and will reward viewers.

The most welcome extra is the separate disc packaged apart from the season set (for a limited time): Conquest & Rebellion: An Animated History of the Seven Kingdoms. This is an animated history of the Seven Kingdoms with voices provided by Pilou Asbæk (Euron Greyjoy), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister),Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger), Conleth Hill (Varys), Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen) and Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark). The focus is on Aegon Targaryen’s attempts to conquer the Seven Kingdoms and was written by show writer Dave Hill. Essentially, this is a 45-minute expanded version of the Histories and Lore shorts, found in the box set.

The extras contained within the box set include: From Imagination to Reality: Inside the Art Department, a two-part featurette (46:25) that concentrates its attention the new sets, including Dragonstone, Casterly Rock, Highgarden, and the Dragonpit.

Fire & Steel: Creating the Invasion of Westeros (30:02) has the cast and crew talking about creating this sequence.

There are Audio Commentaries for every episode with cast and crew including producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Jacob Anderson, Gwendoline Christie, Liam Cunningham, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, and others.

Histories and Lore are seven animated shorts that provide the history and background for storylines including The Dragonpit, Highgarden, Prophecies of the Known World, the Rains of Castamere and more all narrated by cast members.

In-Episode Guides-In-feature resource that provides background information about on-screen characters and locations.

For those who buy the series digitally, available through iTunes and UltraViolet, there’s one more bonus: “Creating the North and Beyond” looking at Jon Snow’s trek north.

I was only vaguely aware of the French graphic novels featuring Valérian and Laureline, created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières. The albums ran from 1967 through 2010 and well incredibly well-received, leading first to an animated series before Luc Besson bought the rights for a feature film in 2012.

Well, five years later, he delivered Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, out now from Lionsgate Home Entertainment, and he lavished so much of the $200 million budget on spectacular visuals, he seemingly did not have enough left for a good script. The movie looked promising with its trailers, but it was all gloss, covering up a compelling story or well-delineated characters.

Despite loving the series as a youngster, Besson lost the charm of the series, ignoring Laureline’s origins as a peasant from the 11^th century who encountered Valérian on a time travel trip and convinced him to bring her back to his era. In the film, they are seen as equals, partners, and friends as played by Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne respectively.

The film starts promisingly with a montage of first contacts through the ages that helps explore the origins of the city of a thousand planets but once we get to the 28^th century, the story ignites into frenetic chaos and not much plot. No single character is well defined and the dialogue more perfunctory than revelatory. Basically, the plot involves the pair being sent by their commander, Arün Filitt (Clive Owen), to the fabled city of Alpha to determine what mystery lay in the center, which is connected to a world that has seen its share of misery. This beatific world has its share of interesting visuals and a pretty princess and her pet, called a Convertor for its ability to, well, convert materials.

Overall, this is a pretty movie with many interesting ideas thrown here and there like a Pollock painting, but there’s no heart or soul, no worldbuilding to sustain the ideas. As a result, it’s mildly entertaining but leaves you hugely dissatisfied.

The Blu-ray is an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1, nicely capturing the colorful visuals. (Note: There is no home video version of the theatrical 3-D release.) The Dolby Atmos track is equally a match for the video.

The Blu-ray offers up a Valerian: Enhancement Mode, letting the viewer branching to a number of supplemental featurettes. Among the Enhancement Pods (35:58) are: Alpha Introduction, Princess Liho-Minaa, Empress Aloi, Destruction of Mui, Igon Siruss, Motion Capture Cameras, Kris Wu Set Tour, Melo the Convertor, Pearl Guns, Kris Wu 4D Scan, Paradise Alley, Boulan Bathor Emperor, Emperor Haban-Limai, and K-Trons. There is also the interesting Citizens of Imagination: Creating the Universe of Valerian (59:04) properly focused on bringing the graphic novels to visual life.

Finally, there is The Art of Valerian still gallery and pair of trailers.

After James Bond and Jason Bourne, the bar has been raised high for espionage films that mingle international intrigue with edge-of-the-seat action. Many have tried and failed to reach the upper echelon of the genre and none have featured a female lead. Atomic Blonde, starring Charlize Theron, is pretty close and if she returns for a sequel, just might find a place in the pantheon.

The summer film was based on The Coldest City graphic novel from Antony Johnston and Sam Hart and was chosen for development prior to publication by Theron, then looking at properties for her production company. She brought on Kurt Johnstad to adapt the story which was fine given his previous work adapting 300 from comic to screen. He also wrote an Aquaman script losing last year’s bake-off to Will Beall.

Set in the waning days of Cold War Berlin, an MI6 agent is shot, the microfilm he was carrying stolen, and the hunt is on for his killer and the list of field agents in the USSR. Lorraine Broughton is set on the hunt and from there, the pace rarely lessens. We start with the end, seeing a naked, battered and bruised Lorraine soaking in a bathtub full of ice then reporting to her superior Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and his CIA counterpart Emmett Kurzfield (John Goodman). During her recounting of the actions, we gain an increasing sense of unease; someone is a mole, endangering the mission. The audience is left wondering who it might be starting with David Percival (James McAvoy), the Berlin station chief who may or may not have gone native.

Complicating her mission is Delphine (Sofia Boutella), a rookie French agent posing as a local, who gets too close to Lorraine. She’s a Bond girl but her affair with Lorraine packs more emotional heart than most similar heterosexual encounters.

That action was hyped during the trailers but what you don’t appreciate until you see the film is how much director David Leitch, pushed the action. He made a name for himself with uncredited work on John Wick and was coaxed away from the sequel to this film and he made Theron work hard and its pays off in some of the freshest fighting sequences captured on film in years.

He nicely integrates mostly familiar 1980s music to the film, helping ground it. Director of Photography Jonathan Sela does a nice job maintaining a gritty, run down look and feel to East Berlin, contrasting it with its Western twin.

There’s a relentlessness to the pace which nicely matches the ticking clock as the Wall crumbles and the microfilm is out to auction. By the end, everything is neatly tied up and I’ll admit to being surprised as to who was the mole.

The film, out now in a variety of formats from Universal Home Entertainment has a fine, not exceptional, high definition transfer with a solid DTS:X Master Audio soundtrack.

The 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs contain an assortment of interesting special features starting with Deleted/Extended Scenes (7:23), six sequences, two of which focus on Delphine and would have been nice to have in the main feature. Welcome to Berlin (4:33) is a cursory look at the city along with shooting locations and production design. Blondes Have More Gun (7:01) focuses on Theron with a nice look at the intensive training that went into readying her for the action sequences where she did the vast majority of her own stunts. Spymaster (4:18) lets Leith talk about what drew him to this project. The best feature is Anatomy of a Fight Scene (7:52), focusing on the protracted fight sequence inside an apartment building before spilling into the streets. There some nice picture-in-picture director commentary along with split screen behind the scenes footage.

Finally, there’s Story in Motion, animated storyboards for two scenes: Agent Broughton (2:16) and The Chase (1:38), each offer optional Leitch commentary.

The Audio Commentary: Director David Leitch and Editor Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir is interesting and informative so if you enjoy the film, you’ll learn plenty from a second pass with this option.