Mike Spring
What’s New in Home Video & Pop Culture – July 15th, 2025
It is an action movie-lover’s dream this week, with all five major titles I have up for review falling into the action category in one way or another! We’ve got new theatrical releases, deep catalogue cuts, streaming TV hits, and more. Check it out!
In This Week’s Column:
- Sinners (4K Ultra HD + Digital)
- The Amateur (Blu-ray + Digital)
- Fallout: Season One (4K Ultra HD Steelbook)
- Fury (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital – Steelbook)
- Shadow Force (Blu-ray + Digital)
Sinners (4K Ultra HD + Digital)
The Movie:
Sometimes it can be hard to have an honest opinion of a movie. So let me preface everything I’m about to say by saying this: I LIKED SINNERS. In fact, I liked it a pretty good amount.
But did I love it? Did I think it was worth everyone going nuts over and raving about it as if it was the second coming of horror movies? If I’m being honest… not so much.
Ryan Coogler’s latest film continues his amazing streak of box office champions with Michael B. Jordan playing twin brothers who are non-traditional businessmen and wannabe club owners in 1930s Mississippi. On the opening night of their new juke joint – a converted barn in the middle of a bunch of farmland – brothers Smoke and Stack (nicknames, not birth names) run afoul of a traveling crew of vampires who want to convert everyone into fellow bloodsuckers, and a battle to survive through the night begins.
Now, I will say that Coogler has crafted something special here from a filmmaking perspective. The technology that allows Jordan to play twins is impeccable; you never for a second think you’re watching anything other than two separate characters. And the visuals and music of the film are unbelievable; there’s a musical sequence in the middle of the proceedings that is nothing short of astounding. But – and this is a big but – it takes WAY too long for things to get interesting. I can appreciate Coogler taking the time to develop his characters, but it is almost an hour into the film before any real action starts to unfold, and I personally didn’t find the first hour of the film all that engaging. It could really have used some serious editing to get us to the good stuff a little faster. Because the good stuff, it’s really good. It just takes So. Long. To. Get. To.
The 4K Video/Audio:
Sinners looks absolutely beautiful in 4K Ultra HD. The film has a lot of earth tones to it that reflects its rural setting, so while there isn’t necessarily a ton to work with, color saturation still manages to be terrific. There’s a sense of scope and scale that the 4K imagery really gets across, and the razor-sharp clarity is impeccable. The surround soundtrack has a lot to work with and it makes the most of it, featuring strong directional effects and an immersive soundfield, plus a thumping low-end bass that really gives the proceedings some oomph. It’s a terrific A/V presentation from start to finish.
The Bonus Features:
- Dancing with the Devil: The Making of Sinners
- Blues in the Night: The Music of Sinners
- Thicker Than Blood: Becoming the Smokestack Twins
- Spirits of the Deep South
- Wages of Sin: The Creature FX of Sinners
- Deleted Scenes
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
Sinners is a really well-made film that I liked a lot. And its massive box office success would indicate that most people didn’t feel the same way that I did about the slow pace of the movie’s first half. That said, I can only feel how I feel and that’s how I feel about this one. Still, there’s a lot to like here and most people will outright love it.
The Amateur (Blu-ray + Digital)
The Movie:
The Amateur is not quite an action movie. But it’s not NOT an action movie, either. It’s one of those films that lives somewhere in between.
The film sees Oscar-winner Rami Malek playing a genius-level CIA technician whose wife is murdered by terrorists while she’s in London on business. When he tracks down the perpetrators but the CIA refuses to take action, he goes into action on his own. But unlike most vengeance movies, where the hero turns into a one-man army, Malek’s Heller becomes a one-man secret operative. He can barely pull a trigger on a gun, but he knows how to use computers and technology to track down and take out the people responsible for his wife’s death.
So what we get are some incredibly tense action/suspense pieces threaded together with investigation, character development, and flashbacks to when Heller’s wife was alive. It’s an effective mix, and even though the movie isn’t wall-to-wall action, it never gets boring and is instead an effective thriller. Malek is perfectly cast; you would never buy him as an action here, but you would buy him as a guy who knows how to track your cell phone and blow you up with a homemade explosive device.
The Bonus Features:
- The Team featurette
- The World featurette
- The Pool featurette
- The Score featurette
- Five Deleted Scenes
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
With a terrific supporting cast that includes Rachel Brosnahan (currently starring in Superman as Lois Lane), Laurence Fishburn Jr., Caitriona Balfe, and Holt McAllany, The Amateur is a sharp little film. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a great watch for fans of good thrillers.
Fallout: Season One (4K Ultra HD Steelbook)
The Show:
The first thing that will strike you about Fallout is not the post-apocalyptic setting, the quirky humor, the intense action, or the occasionally over-the-top blood and guts. No, what will strike you first is just how damn good the show looks. Seriously, I know Amazon has just about an unlimited budget, but the eight episodes in Fallout: Season 1 look like they cost more than the last five Marvel movies combined. Between the sets, the cinematography, and the special effects, Fallout looks like one of the biggest-budget movies you’ve ever seen. Better, even.
Which makes it all the better that the show also happens to be really good. Based on the incredibly popular video game series, Fallout follows concurrent storylines that begin to converge as the season goes on. The main story tracks Lucy, a young woman who lives in one of a series of connected underground vaults that have housed humanity’s survivors since atomic bombs fell in the 1950s. When her father is kidnapped by marauders, she ventures into the wasteland that is the surface for the first time. We also follow The Ghoul, an immortal man who survived the bombs falling and has a complicated history. And then we also follow Maximus, a squire to an iron knight, a warrior in a zealot-like organization that searches for technology from the past and fights against wasteland creatures. There are other storylines as well, including a scientist on the run with his dog, but each story is compelling enough in its own right.
The best part? I’ve never played a single minute of Fallout, and I still really enjoyed the show. I’m 100% sure there are easter eggs and in-jokes that are there for the fans that I missed, but the show is crafted so that you don’t need any prior knowledge to enjoy it, and I love that.
This week, Fallout makes its home video debut in a super-sharp collectible 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release that comes with bonus art cards and some great extra features, making it a real bounty for fans of the show and the game.
The 4K Video/Audio:
Fallout: Season One is available on 4K Ultra HD and the 4K format extremely well for the show, especially considering how good it looks from s production standpoint. The picture is crisp and clean with razor sharp clarity, and the colors have a nice balance between realism and “pop.” The surround soundtrack is where things kick into overdrive. This is a show with no shortage of action, and you’ll feel like every explosion gunshot, and body blow all around you. The dialogue remains centered, and the vintage pop soundtrack sounds both bright and warm. It’s a really terrific effort overall.
The Bonus Features:
- Audio Commentary
- Animated Content
- Becoming The Ghoul
- Console to Camera
- Creating the Wasteland
- Inside Season One
- Meet the Filmmaker (and fanatic) Jonathan Nolan
- Prosthetics & Makeup Gone Nuclear
- Safe and Sound
- Set Your Sets on 2296
- The Costumes of Fallout
- Welcome to the World of Fallout
- Writing for the Wasteland
Digital Copy Included: No
The Wrap-Up:
I had heard really good things about Fallout but hadn’t gotten around to watching it until this review copy crossed my desk, and now I’m sad I took so long to get it to it. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it is a terrific action/sci-fi/horror show that looks like a big-budget movie. Check it out for sure!
Fury (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital – Steelbook)
The Movie:
David Ayer is a filmmaker I tend to generally like, although he can be very hit (Street Kings) or miss (A Working Man) at times. One of his best – and most underrated – films, however, remains 2014’s Fury, the World War II actioner about the hell of being in an Allied army tank crew in Nazi Germany.
Brad Pitt stars as the commander of an American tank crew, which is also populated by deep-fried good ol’ boy Jon Bernthal, religiously inclined Shia Lebeaouf, earnest Michael Pena, and fresh-out-of-boot-camp Logan Lerman. The men controlling the Fury must take on highly superior German tanks and various other obstacles as they try to reinforce American troops in strategic positions. An easy way to describe the film is that it’s a bit like Saving Private Ryan in tanks, and while that’s not entirely accurate, you would be hard pressed not to think that Ayer borrowed a page from Spielberg’s playbook.
There are a few things that really stand out about the film. First of all, the action sequences are incredible. You will feel like you’re on the front lines in Germany while you’re watching the film. It’s visceral and intense and terrifying and realistic, and it’s one of the best war movies I’ve seen from a purely action standpoint. Second, Shia LeBeouf should have been nominated for an Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance. And I’m not kidding or saying that ironically. He completely steals the show, and that’s not easy to do surrounded by so many talented co-stars. Finally, Brad Pitt isn’t afraid to play a complicated character. I can’t go so far as to say he’s unlikable, because he does have some charm and some moments where his morals shine through. He also does some pretty terrible things in the film that make it hard to fully root for him – or anyone on the crew outside of Lerman’s newbie Norman – and that makes the film more interesting than if they were all squeaky clean heroes.
This week, Fury returns to home video in a terrific new 4K Ultra HD release that’s housed in a gorgeous Steelbook case, courtesy of Sony Home Entertainment.
The 4K Video/Audio:
At first glance, the fact that Fury isn’t as vibrantly colorful as you might have come to expect from a 4K release might be slightly disappointing. However, I think this new 4K master sees the film look exactly the way David Ayer wants it to look. It’s meant to evoke World War II-era Germany in the Spring; there’s a lot of mud and dirt and blood and grass and army fatigues and tank metal. There just aren’t a lot of colorful images in the setting of the film. Again, though, I think that’s exactly what Ayer wanted, not a fault with the transfer. The imagery is as crisp and clean as you could imagine. The surround soundtrack is a marvelous effort; this movie has big bursts of action and war, and everything sounds dynamic and alive. This is a top-notch A/V presentation that truly represents the director’s vision.
The Bonus Features:
- No Guts, No Glory: The Horrors of Combat
- Tiger 131
- Heart of Fury
- Clash of Armor
- Theatrical Trailers
- Over 50 Minutes of Deleted & Extended Scenes
- Director’s Combat Journal
- Armored Warriors: The Real Men Inside the Shermans
- Taming the Beasts: How to Drive, Fire & Shoot Inside a 30-Ton Tank
- Blood Brothers
- Photo Gallery
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
Fury wasn’t a box office smash when it came out in theaters, and I think it’s an underappreciated film that deserves another look. Check out this awesome new 4K Ultra HD Steelbook release before it’s gone.
Shadow Force (Blu-ray + Digital)
The Movie:
Lionsgate’s newest action outing stars Kerry Washington, Omar Sy, and Mark Strong, and it’s solidly… not bad. I hate to damn a movie with faint praise, but Shadow Force (which is the world’s most generic action movie name and I hate it) is just enjoyable enough not to dislike, and just forgettable enough to not truly like.
In the film, Washington and Sy play former members of Shadow Force, a – ahem – shadowy government force that pulls off the jobs that no one else can. When they fall in love and have a baby, they leave the team, even though that is expressly forbidden. The film kicks off several years after these events, with the pair separated as Washington tries to take out the remaining mercenaries who are out to find and kill them. But when Sy has to take action in a public place to save his young son, their whereabouts are exposed and the family has to reunite on the run.
Like I said, it’s not a bad movie at all, and it does work hard to build some good moments of character-building into it. But Mark Strong (who I generally love) is too busy chewing the scenery to really take seriously, and some of the ‘family-bonding’ moments try a little too hard and end up feeling a bit cringey. There are some good action sequences, though, and it’s ultimately not a bad film, either. I expected a little more considering this is a film by Joe Carnahan (Narc, The Grey, Copshop), who has made some great movies in his time, but this isn’t his best work.
The Bonus Features:
- Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Joe Carnahan and Editor Kevin Hale
- Making Shadow Force
- International Waters: The Locations Behind Shadow Force
- Isla Gunfight: Final Battle Breakdown
- Theatrical Trailer
Digital Copy Included: Yes
The Wrap-Up:
I wish Shadow Force had either been a better movie or at least been bad enough to truly take apart. As it is, it’s an enjoyable-enough but easily forgettable Friday night rental at best.
