Author: Robert Greenberger

The Justice League and the Huntsmen are back in Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two, to conclude the underwhelming story from April’s part one. Other than commercial considerations, there is no real reason for the two teams to be paired together; no real character and dramatic opportunities are present, which may be why the story doesn’t really work.

We force the JL heroes to be transformed into teen versions of themselves and brought to the Huntsmen’s world, working across Remnant’s four kingdoms of Vale, Mistral, Atlas, and Vacuo to fight the good fight. Superman, Wonder Woman (Laura Bailey), Batman (Troy Barker), and The Flash (David Dastmalchian) are teamed with Ruby (Lindsay Jones), Weiss (Kara Eberle), Blake (Arryn Zech), and Yang (Barbara Dunkelman) to fight the Grimms and save the world. As part two opens, we continue with the cliffhanger, the revelation that Flash foe Kilg%re (Tru Valentino) trapped the heroes in a computer simulation. Now, the adult and more familiar Justice Leaguers are working with the altered Huntsmen, complete with freshened uniforms.

There’s plenty of action to amuse the core audience, but it comes at the expense of letting the revised RWBY heroes explore their new forms. Characterization is always sacrificed for action; storytelling be damned. The overall conclusion works, but overall, you are left wondering why did they bother with this.

Warner Home Entertainment has released this in all the usual formats, including the 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray/Digital Code combo pack. Rooster Teeth’s attempt to animate their 3D look works for the most part and the 2160p and 1080p high-definition transfers work for the most part, maintaining a smooth look. The colors are well-preserved and the action is clear. The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is actually somewhat better, and an improvement over Part One.

The Special Features are fine with a perfunctory feel to them. These include I’ve Got Your Back: The Bond Between Justice League and RWBY (6:45) and You Look… Different: RWBY on Earth (7:12).

Overall, if you are a RWBY fan, this is must-see viewing, while JL fans can use this to pass the time until 2024’s more substantial offerings.

The live-action Titans series had tremendous potential, from its source material to the pedigrees of the talent bringing the heroes to television. Titans failed to work from the first episode to the last. As a television series, it needed a bigger budget for better effects, and the caliber of actors needed to be stronger to pull off these larger-than-life personalities.

Most of the storylines were drawn from Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s seminal run from the early 1980s or the early issues from Geoff Johns and Mike McKone’s run in the 2000s. Both required a consistent tonality along with a budget to make the scope of the stories work.

In the fourth and final series, out now on disc from Warner Home Entertainment, the series tackled both Lex Luthor and Brother Blood. Either one could easily have been the Big Bad for these last dozen episodes, but they split the focus and, therefore, the team. The series never found its footing, either on the DC Universe service or its final home at HBO Max.

One of the things both runs celebrated was the group’s camaraderie, and the series split them up far too often and for far too long, robbing viewers of the very thing that worked in print. Add in the villain Jinx (Lisa Ambalavanar), now a former lover of Nightwing (Brenton Thwaites), and Bernard (James Scully), the wrong-headed lover to Tim Drake(Jay Lycurgo), (carrying over an egregious bit of pandering from the print side), and things were diluted, and the real sense of danger was mainly missing.

Wolfman carefully created a team that had someone for every genre, letting him and Pérez tell science fiction, occult, mystery, myth, and superhero stories. We’ve seen some of that, and the producers settled on magic to run through the final season, but then don’t do enough with it, Brother Blood (Joseph Morgan), or Mother Mayhem (Franka Potente). The other story, the growing connection between Luthor (Titus Welliver), and Conner Kent (Joshua Orpin), was an interesting story that needed more subtlety (and Krypto).

The strongest actors and characters in the show—Wonder Girl, Hawk, Dove—are long gone by now and are much missed. Instead, we waste time and space on threads that never quit epayoff, the worst being “Dude, Where’s My Gar?”, which is the obligatory multiverse episode using archival footage from The Flash, Swamp Thing, Shazam, Teen Titans Go!, Harley Quinn, The Joker, Batman (1966 and 1989), Superman the Movie, and a cameo from the much-missed Brec Bessinger’s Stargirl.

The final, “Titans Forever”, crams in too much to tie things up, suggesting things were not well plotted out in the Writers’ Room. And rather than Titans Together it’s Titans Apart, ending on a sad note.

The Blu-ray discs have a fine 1080p transfer in its original aspect ratio of 2.00:1 so visually it’s lovely to watch.  It’s well paired with the excellent DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track.

Special Features include “Welcome to Metropolis” (5:00), “Baptism of Blood” (3:00), and “Mystical Women” (4:00). None are particularly enmlightening.

Let’s get this out of the way. Yes, Jennifer Lawrence is fully, frontally, nude for a few minutes of this rom-com. It’s in character and far from salacious, merely adding to the humor and delineating her character.

That said, the R-rated rom-com No Hard Feelings out now from Sony Home Entertainment, is disappointingly predictable, using the nudity to break the typical pattern, adding little to the genre, which needs some fresh life.

Lawrence’s Maddie Barker is in dire need of a new car after the one she used for her Uber gig got repossessed to pay tax debts. She’s 32, barely hanging on, and in need of a lifeline.

Said lifeline comes in the form of the Beckers (Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick) who want their son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) to gain some confidence and maybe some sexual experience before heading off to Princeton in the fall.

While twice the kid’s age, she agrees and they meet and things don’t go well until they do. The end.

There are some themes here, mostly about taking control of one’s destiny, being true to one’s self, and the endurance of true friendship. Lawrence’s Maddie has to address the nearly generational gap between her and her charge and it shows she needs to accept adulthood. But, the comedy isn’t very fresh and the circumstances feel contrived by the numbers, so the script from John Phillips and Gene Stupnitsky, who also directed, needed work. Lawrence is a producer here and if she is to be believed, had a blast making this film, which is certainly a change of pace from her more recent work.

Lawrence is rarely bad on film and gives it her best here, making the most of soft material. She and Feldman, best known for Broadway’s Catch me if You Can, are fine together but it just doesn’t work as well as it could have. They get fine supporting performances but again, from people who have given stronger performances elsewhere.

The movie, out only on Blu-ray and Digital HD, seems fine in its 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer.  The daytime and nighttime sequences are equally clear with good color. It pairs well with the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Neither is top of the line but perfectly serves this film.

There are a handful of Special Features, none particularly special. We have A Little Wrong: Making No Hard Feelings (6:00), A Motley Crew: Meet the Characters (7:00); and Outtakes & Bloopers (4:00).

The Flash arrived on the CW as an antidote to the heavy, bleak world of Arrow. Our Scarlet Speedster was going to be a bright, upbeat superhero series and it was—at first. With each successive season, it grew bleaker and more chaotic as an overstuffed cast all demanded screentime and the writing staff never seemed to grasp that there were other villains than those connected to the Speed Force.

The 2022-23 television season brought us The Flash’s ninth and final season, providing a chance to give closure to the core characters. Tomorrow, Warner Home Entertainment releases The Flash: The Complete Ninth and Final Season.

Across the truncated season, everyone had a moment to shine, get their due, take a bow and move aside so the Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and Nora West Allen (Candice Patton) center got to have the last word as they finally welcomed Nora to the preset. We’d already seen more than enough of her adult self (Jessica Patrick Kennedy) in previous seasons.

A distracting plot line was the arrival of a new character in a familiar form, that of Khione (Danielle Panabaker), created because they wrote Frost and Caitlin Snow out at the end of the eighth season. There was little need for that, and their absence was keenly felt since this new person was a deus ex machina. It also meant Chillblaine (Jon Cor) spend most of the season moping.

The supporting players show some growth, notably Cecile Horton (Danielle Nicolet), becoming a hero in her own right, although the costume felt superfluous. The Allega (Kayla Compton)/Chester (Brandon McKnight) romance, which always felt like juvenile high school stuff, finally got them together, ending some painful moments for the actors.

It was certainly nice seeing recurring players get their curtain call, notably John Wesley Shipp. More than a few speedsters and villains came but, but it all felt overly stuff and some, such as Dreamer (Nicole Maines) felt rather superfluous. And the series couldn’t leave without Stephen Amell coming back one final time and his appearance was perhaps the best use of a character.

Of course, it was all coming down to a finale between Cobalt Blue/Eddie Thawne (Rick Cosnett) and Eobard Thawne (Tom Cavanagh). But before that, we had to deal with the Red Death (Javica Leslie), alternate reality’s warped version of Batwoman Ryan Wilder. While it was nice to see Leslie, this didn’t advance the story or characters and felt more like filler than anything tasty.

With a finite number of episodes and an ending to reach, one would have hoped that the creative staff more carefully choreographed the events so we were left with a far more satisfying conclusion.

The final season is out on a Blu-ray-only box set without a Digital HD code. All the episodes look fine in their 1080p, 1.78:1 aspect transfer. The colors and special effects play quite nicely. The DTS lossless audio track is a fine compliment.

There are just a few special features this time around, including The Flash: The Saga of the Scarlett Speedster (touching on both the comics and TV series) ; Deleted Scenes, and the Gag Reel.

2023 was not kind to the Flash, with a whimper of a TV ending and a box office disaster with the feature film. One hopes that, in time, we’ll see creators do the fastest man alive some justice.

J. Michael Straczynski is back with a new installment in his imaginative Babylon 5 series. The difference this time is that it’s a 76-minute animated feature film, released this week from Warner Home Entertainment.

B5 launched into syndicated television sixteen years ago, featuring a somewhat darker, more nuanced approach to the future. It was filled before and behind the camera with people well-versed in the SF tropes, but used that to twist things and keep them fresh.

Here, Babylon 5 The Road Home, feels far more familiar. We’re set in the time after the Shadow War as we focus on President John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) and his wife Delenn (Rebecca Riedy) adjusting to running the 12-world Interstellar Alliance. Just as he leaves, he’s caught in the tried and true time warp allowing him to visit various parallel realities as we revisit more familiar characters and settings.

Familiarity, in this case, isn’t all bad since everyone who watched the show was happy to have more of what they liked. With so many of the cast now departed, new voices are recruited so things feel slightly off but that can’t be a fault; it’s a reality. Thankfully, we still have Peter Jurasik (Londo), Claudia Christian (Susan Ivanova), Tracy Scoggins (Elizabeth Lochley), Patricia Tallman (Lyta), and Bill Mumy (Lennier). The substitutions, such as genre vet Phil LaMarr as Dr. Stephen Franklin, are welcome.

Must you be familiar with the five seasons of the series (getting collected on disc in time for Christmas)? It certainly helps, but it’s a solid enough story that you get the gist even if the nuances may be missed.

Director Matt Peters does a nice job keeping things moving so you’re never bored, and you get to see beloved people and settings.

The film is available on disc in 4k Ultra HD and Blu-ray combos, along with streaming. The 1.78:1 ratio,  2160p, HDR-enhanced 4K transfer is above-average, with solid colors and smooth play. Accompanying it is an equally impressive DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix.

The discs come with an Audio Commentary featuring Straczynski, Boxleitner, and supervising producer Rick Morales. It’s nice to hear them reminisce and talk about the potential for additional animated stories.

Only the Blu-ray and streaming options include Babylon 5 Forever (17:57),where returning cast members and others chat about their journey back to B5.

I am not a gearhead, so I have always looked at the Fast and the Furious franchise from a distance. But their popularity makes them hard to avoid. Fast X, the tenth installment in the series, arrives on disc and streaming this week from Universal Home Entertainment and no doubt entertains those who have been there from the beginning.

As with any franchise with multiple chapters, there’s the core set of characters and then all the supporting players who drop in and out of these chapters as needed. And, to keep things interesting, new players are added, usually the antagonist and maybe a new ally or frenemy.

Here, we have the sociopathic Dante (Jason Momoa) seeking vengeance on Dom (Vin Diesel) for the death of his father (Joaquim de Almeida) a decade earlier, as depicted in Fast Five. With seemingly limitless cash and men at his disposal, he has laid out his traps and begins to ensnare the team. We learn some of this when a severely injured Cipher (Charlize Theron) shows up on Dom’s doorstep.

First, Dante seemingly frames the team—Dom, Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Roman (Tyrese Gibson), Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel), Han (Sung Kang), and Tej (Ludacris)—for an attempted bombing of the Vatican, although anyone paying attention to the data would have seen them trying to stop the bomb.

But, this begins the dominoes falling as The Agency’s current leader, Aimes (Alan Richardson), convinces his superiors to also hunt them down, despite Mr. Nobody’s daughter Tess (Brie Larson) protestations.

And we’re off.

The film has the usual over-the-top set pieces, but these grow tiresome quickly. Everyone is an expert driver and an expert fighter, so there’s no real tension here. Just wanton destruction and a callous attitude toward life.

Dom and Letty are filled with cliché platitudes about family and friendship, but it’s tempered by the lengths they go to protect their son  Brian (Leo Abelo Perry). His protector comes in the form of Uncle Jake Toretto (John Cena).

The screenplay from Justin Lin and Dan Mazeau keeps multiple threads moving but spends zero time of making us give a shit for anyone except maybe Brian. There’s no interesting chatter among the regulars, who seem to be hitting their marks, saying their lines, and collecting their checks. Worse, there are several moments where the story stops making any sense whatsoever, making Dante so perfect, so well-planned that everything breaks his way.

The only ones who seem to be having any fun in this film are Larson and Momoa, both of whom have a cocky attitude that shines among all the scowls and snarls.

The film screeches to a stop with the return of the once-dead Gisele Yashar (Gal Gadot) and the mid-credit sequence that welcomes Dwayne Johnson back to the series after his Black Adam arrived stillborn. The eleventh film is scheduled for 2025, but it likely may move, thanks to the current strikes.

The film was reviewed via digital HD code and looks very crisp and sharp in high definition. It is also available on 4k Ultra HD and Blu-ray in varying combo packs. The Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio sounded just fine on a home theater system, so every boom and punch is quite clear.

Special features include an Audio Commentary with Director Louis Leterrier, plus an above-average assortment of material: Gag Reel’ (4:35); This is Family’ (35;00); Fast Breaks: Scene Breakdowns with Louis Leterrier (8:00); Xtreme Rides of Fast X (13:00); Belles of the Brawl (7:00); Tuned Into Rio (5:00); Jason Momoa: Conquering Rome (3:00); Little B Takes the Wheel (3:00);  A Friend in the End (1:00);  and there are two Music Videos: “Toretto” by J. Balvin and “Angel Pt. 1” by Kodak Black and NLE Choppa, featuring Jimin of BTS, JVKE and Muni Long.

Soldier: From Script to Screen

By Danny Stewart

144 pages/BearManor Media/$32 (hardcover) $22 (softcover)

Everyone has their passion, whether it is universally acclaimed or not. Thankfully, BearManor Media provides an outlet for their authors to share that unique passion with those who also find the subject matter of interest.          

Here, Danny Stewart delves into the 1998 film Solider, which came and went with little notice when Universe released it. Despite some marquee names making the film, it opened to poor reviews (in addition to 15% at Rotten Tomatoes) and dismal box office, earning a mere $14.6 million against a $60 million budget.

It’s justifiable if you don’t recall or never heard of the film. It was based on a script by the noted screenwriter David Webb Peoples, best known for Blade Runner. Some even call the film a “sidequel” to that classic. Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (best known for the Resident Evil series), with the familiar cast of  Kurt Russell, Jason Scott Lee, Jason Isaacs, Connie Nielsen, Sean Pertwee, and Gary Busey.

Set in 2036, Sgt. Todd 3465 (Russell) is the last survivor of a clutch of children raised entirely by military routine. The next generation is ready, and it becomes a new versus old story, with Russell making the most of his 104 words of dialogue.

The organization of the book is a bit of a head-scratcher. After opening with an analysis of Western tropes being used in SF films, Stewart acknowledges Solider’s spiritual connection to the far superior Shane. Then we get a prose version of Russell’s IMDB page, followed by an in-depth piece with Peoples. One would expect something about Anderson, who was not interviewed, but instead, we go right into the filming personnel ahead of the film designers. That said, it’s fascinating to hear from the Second Assistant Director and the Key Makeup Artist, etc. These unsung heroes of filmmaking never get enough credit, and here, they reveal their influences and techniques brought to the making of the film. A special treat is the write-up done to convince the Academy of Motion Picture Aerts and Sciences to consider the film for a makeup nomination.

Stewart then gives us a piecemeal analysis of the film’s story, theme, and characters before running a series of essays and reviews from others. Closing out the book is an essay by Cinefantastique veteran Paul Sammon, whose making of books should have been used as a template.

Most script to screen books give us a better sense of the context from Peeples’ script to release. We have no real idea of how the various jobs intersected or overlapped. A production diary or calendar would have been interesting, as would have an analysis of why Stewart loves the film while the majority of moviegoers gave it the cold shoulder. At 144 pages, there was certainly more room to explore these issues.

The book needed more careful attention to proofreading, especially for style and consistency.