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Agent Game Comes to Disc on May 24

Agent Game Comes to Disc on May 24

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION 
A spy thriller about a mission gone wrong set in the world of CIA renditions, Agent Game arrives May 24 on Blu-ray™ + DVD + Digital from Lionsgate. Directed by Grant S. Johnson (Nighthawks), the movie features Academy Award® winner Mel Gibson (1995, Directing, Braveheart), Dermot Mulroney (Hanna, Hard Luck Love Song, The Purge), Annie Ilonzeh (Chicago Fire, Person of Interest, Charlie’s Angels), Jason Isaacs (The OA, Harry Potter franchise, Black Hawk Down), Katie Cassidy (Arrow, Gossip Girl, Melrose Place), Academy Award® nominee Barkhad Abdi (2013, Actor in a Supporting Role, Captain Phillips), Adan Canto (Designated Survivor, Blood & Oil, Mixology) and Rhys Coiro (Entourage, The Walking Dead, A Million Little Things). Agent Game will be available on Blu-ray + DVD + Digital for the suggested retail price of $21.99.  
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
In this riveting spy thriller , no one is safe. Harris (Dermot Mulroney), a CIA interrogator at an Agency black site, finds himself the target of a rendition operation after being scapegoated for an interrogation gone horribly wrong. As the team tasked to bring Harris in begins to question their orders — and each other — Olsen (Mel Gibson), a senior intelligence officer, and his subordinate, Visser (Annie Ilonzeh), raise the stakes. Now, it’s up to Harris and some newfound allies to uncover the truth and turn the tables. 
BLU-RAY / DVD SPECIAL FEATURES  

  • Audio Commentary with Director Grant S. Johnson 
  • Subterfuge: Playing the Agent Game 

CAST
Mel Gibson              The Expendables 3 , The Patriot, Braveheart 
Dermot Mulroney    Hanna, Hard Luck Love Song, The Purge
Annie Ilonzeh          Chicago Fire, Person of Interest, Charlie’s Angels
Jason Isaacs            The OA,” Harry Potter franchise, Black Hawk Down 
Katie Cassidy           Arrow, Gossip Girl, Melrose Place 
Barkhad Abdi          Good Time , Captain Phillips, Castle Rock 
Adam Canto             Designated Survivor, Blood & Oil, Mixology
Rhys Coiro               Entourage, The Walking Dead, A Million Little Things

PROGRAM INFORMATION
Year of Production: 2022 
Title Copyright: Agent Game © 2021 Sky Buddy LLC. All Rights Reserved. Artwork & Supplementary Materials © 2022 Saban Films LLC. All Rights Reserved. 
Type: Catalog Re-Release 
Rating: Rated R for violence and language 
Genre: Action, Thriller 
Closed-Captioned: N/A 
Subtitles: Spanish, English SDH 
Feature Run Time: 90 Minutes 
BD Format: 1080p High Definition 16×9 (1.85:1) Presentation 
BD Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master AudioTM 
DVD Format: 16×9 (1.85:1) Presentation 
DVD Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Audio 

Aquaman: King of Atlantis Shifts to June 21 Release

Aquaman: King of Atlantis Shifts to June 21 Release

BURBANK, CA – Monstrous creatures, devious foes and incredible underwater adventures populate Aquaman: King of Atlantis , an action-packed mini-series now coming to Digital and DVD (USA $14.99 SRP; Canada $19.99 SRP) as a feature-length animated film on June 21, 2022 courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, the mini-series premiered on HBO Max on October 14 to rave reviews from both critics and fans alike. James Wan (Aquaman) served as executive producer through his Atomic Monster production company on this playful reimagining of the iconic DC Super Hero and tells an original tale about Aquaman’s first adventures as King of Atlantis.

Aquaman: King of Atlantis begins with Aquaman starting his first day on the job as king of Atlantis – and he’s got a lot of catching up to do. Luckily, he has his two royal advisors to back him up: the scholar Vulko, and Mera, the water controlling warrior princess. Between dealing with unscrupulous surface dwellers, elder evils from beyond time and his own half-brother who wants to overthrow him, Aquaman must rise to the challenge and prove to his subjects – and to himself – that he’s the true heir to the throne, and holder of the trident!

Cooper Andrews (The Walking Dead , Shazam!) leads the cast of Aquaman: King of Atlantis as the title character, and he’s joined by Gillian Jacobs (Community, Invincible, Injustice) as Mera, Thomas Lennon (Supergirl, Reno 911!) as Vulko, Dana Snyder (Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Justice League Action) as Ocean Master, Andrew Morgado (Supergirl, Archer) as Mortikov, Kevin Michael Richardson (The Simpsons, American Dad!) as the Royal Announcer, Flula Borg (The Suicide Squad, Pitch Perfect 2) as Mantis, and Kimberly Brooks (DC Super Hero Girls, Batwheels) as Hammer. Also providing voices is Chris Jai Alex, Trevor Devall, Armen Taylor, Kaitlyn Robrock, Regi Davis, Ludi Lin, Robbie Daymond, Erica Lindbeck, Laila Berzins and Erica Ash.

Victor Courtright (ThunderCats Roar!) and Marly Halpern-Graser (Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) served as showrunners and co-executive producers. Courtright and Marly Halpern-Graser conceived the story for the mini-series/film , and Halpern-Graser, Bryan Condon (Right Now Kapow) and Laura Sreebny (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) co-wrote the teleplay. The mini-series was executive produced by James Wan (Aquaman), Atomic Monster’s Michael Clear (Annabelle Comes Home), Rob Hackett (Swamp Thing), and Sam Register (Teen Titans Go!). Keith Pakiz (ThunderCats Roar) served as director on all three episodes of the mini-series.

The Boys S1-2 Come to Disc Ahead of S3

The Boys S1-2 Come to Disc Ahead of S3

UPDATED: Sony announced on April 18 that the release date has shifted from May 3 to Mary 31.

SYNOPSES

SEASON 1
The Boys is an irreverent take on what happens when superheroes — as popular as celebrities , as influential as politicians, and as revered as gods — abuse their superpowers rather than use them for good. It’s the powerless against the superpowerful as The Boys embark on a heroic quest to expose the truth about “The Seven” and their formidable Vought backing.

SEASON 2
In a more intense Season 2 of The Boys , Butcher, Hughie, and the team reel from their losses in Season 1. On the run from the law, they struggle to fight back against the superheroes. Meanwhile, Vought, the hero management company, cashes in on the panic over supervillains; and a new hero, Stormfront, shakes up the company and challenges an already unstable Homelander.

SPECIAL FEATURES

SEASON 1 BLU-RAY AND DVD
• Deleted Scenes
• Blooper Reel
SEASON 2 BLU-RAY AND DVD
• Butcher: A Short Film
• Deleted & Extended Scenes
• Blooper Reel

CAST AND CREW
Cast: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Dominique McElligott, Jessie T. Usher, Laz Alonso, Chace Crawford, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Nathan Mitchell, with Elisabeth Shue, with Colby Minifie, and Aya Cash

Executive Producers: Eric Kripke, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Neal H. Moritz, Pavun Shetty, Ori Marmur, Craig Rosenberg, Phil Sgriccia, Rebecca Sonnenshine, Ken F. Levin, Jason Netter
Developed by: Eric Kripke

Based on the Dynamite Entertainment Comic Book Series by Garth Ennis; Illustrated by Darick Robertson

New Look at Forthcoming Constantine: The House of Mystery

New Look at Forthcoming Constantine: The House of Mystery

Four animated shorts – representing distinctly different art styles and comics eras – comprise DC SHOWCASE – CONSTANTINE: THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY, the third compilation of Warner Bros. Animation’s DC-centric shorts.

Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, DC SHOWCASE – CONSTANTINE: THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY – which includes the shorts Blue BeetleThe Losers and Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth! – will be available everywhere on Blu-ray and in 4K on Digital starting May 3, 2022.

Everyone has their demons, but Constantine is dealing with an entire house full of them – including his beloved Zatanna – in Constantine: The House of Mystery, the lengthy anchoring animated short of the compilation set. Matt Ryan (Constantine , Legends of Tomorrow) reprises his role as the title character, while Camilla Luddington (Grey’s Anatomy) is back for another turn as Zatanna.

The Question discovers a clue to the mystery at hand as the unlikely duo – along with a few other super pals – attempt to foil the nefarious plans of Doctor Spectro. Matt Lanter (Timeless, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, 90210) stars as Blue Beetle alongside David Kaye (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) as The Question, and Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants) as Dr. Spectro.

Kamandi goes on the attack while Tuftan and Zuma watch as the adventure unfolds in Kamandi, The Last Boy On Earth! Cameron Monghan (Gotham, Shameless, Reign of the Supermen) gives voice to Kamandi, while Tuftan and Zuma are voiced by Steve Blum (Star Wars: Rebels , Cowboy Bebop, Naruto franchise) and Adam Gifford (Masters of the Universe: Revelation), respectively.

Special Agent Fan Long fighting force – left to right, Johnny Cloud, Henry “Mile A Minute” Jones, Gunner, Pooch and Captain Storm – on a secret mission into the jungles of an uncharted island in the South Pacific. Ming-Na Wen (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.The Book of Boba Fett) leads the cast as the mysterious Fan Long, while other standouts include Dean Winters (John Wick, 30 Rock) as Captain Storm, Dave B. Mitchell (Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms) as Gunner, Eugene Byrd (Bones, Arrow) as Mile-a-Minute Jones, and Martin Sensmeier (Westworld, The Magnificent Seven) as Johnny Cloud.

Fowl Language: The Struggle Is Real by Brian Gordon

Fowl Language: The Struggle Is Real by Brian Gordon

If something works, you do it again. Brian Gordon’s Fowl Language comics – originally appearing online starting in 2013, and ramping up after he lost his cartooning-for-Hallmark-Cards job a couple of years later – were a hit online, and then a hit in their first book form, Fowl Language: Welcome to Parenting.

So, a year later, Gordon’s book publisher, Andrews McMeel published a second collection of the Fowl Language strips, Fowl Language: The Struggle Is Real . (For those counting on their fingers, that would be in 2017.)

It’s not entirely clear if the books reprint all of the strips, or reprint them in order – Andrews McMeel has been doing comic strips in book form for a long time, so I trust they know how to do this right, but this is not a continuity strip in any way. The only real markers of time passing would be the age of the kids, and, well, they’re ducks to begin with. Gordon might well draw them as small hellions for another decade, even as they act like tweens and then teenagers, just because that’s funnier.

So this second book is very much like the first: the kids are mostly in the same life-stage (very young, in their very first school years, the years when they scream and run around for no reason all of the damn time), and the attitude and style are still the same time.

The format has settled down a bit: nearly everything here is that odd Internet main-comic-and-then-a-bonus-panel format, with the main comic on one page and the bonus panel, typically an afterthought or secondary punchline, on the next page. I read this digitally, so each page was on its own, but the book is laid out with the main comic on a left-hand (even-numbered) page and the bonus on the right, so Gordon is not trying to make it a similar “reveal” to how bonus panels work online.

Again, it’s the same kind of jokes and humor as the first book, and the kids are still in the same life-stage: small children are exhausting, demanding, and at least borderline insane, with demands and passions that appear and disappear in a second but are all-encompassing while they last. And the father character has to deal with them, and swears more than is typical for “funny-kid” humor.

It’s durable stuff , and Gordon has a good cartoonist’s eye to make it work, both in his precise writing and his expressive drawing. (He did make cartoons for Hallmark for nearly two decades; he might not have done public-facing stuff with his name on it, but he’s been doing humor in public for a long time and has the chops to prove it.)

Like any book of cartoons, you need to both want a book of cartoons (they’re fun and breezy and may seem expensive for the time you spend reading them) and want cartoons about this (if you’re aggressively child-free, this is not for you). But if you do, and if you do, Gordon, again, is good at this and makes a lot of jokes that land really well. I also still think there’s a potential (and maybe actual; I haven’t checked) merchandise empire in his single-image comics – lots of these would be great as posters or T-shirts or similar.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

In Search of Peter Pan by Cosey

In Search of Peter Pan by Cosey

Some titles are meant to be taken literally; this is not one of them. Peter Pan is not a character in this story, and no one is searching for Peter Pan the person. Or for any fantastic element, actually.

But Peter Pan is also a metaphor – though usually a metaphor for a certain kind of man-child who refuses to grow up, which is not the case here – and that is much more relevant.

Cosey’s graphic novel In Search of Peter Pan  is set in the remote Valais Alpine village of Ardolaz, in the late 1920s. The British writer Melvin Z. Woodworth – he’s of recent Serbian ancestry, which will be important to the plot – is vacationing there, hoping to find inspiration for his next work. He is of course late with that book, with letters from his agent and editor hounding him and threatening dire consequences if he fails to deliver. He is of course carrying a copy of J.M. Barrie’s works, and reading Peter and Wendy.

He is also chasing his dead older brother, Dragan, who left for the continent to become a famous composer, and apparently succeeded, since he sent home regular payment and stories about his triumphs in the continental capitals. He died, in a pointless accident, near Ardolaz a few years back.

Melvin mostly keeps to himself in this snowy valley: skiing and hiking around, reading and drinking quietly in the bar in the evening, wandering the town to look around and chat with a few of the more colorful locals. The reader realizes that he’s looking for inspiration for his next story pretty quickly, and that he’s also looking for traces of his brother, and perhaps the truth of Dragan’s life, somewhat more slowly.

But In Search of Peter Pan is mostly about what Melvin was not looking for, but finds anyway. There are rumors of a major counterfeiting ring, which ran for many years, shut down suddenly, and may have started again. There are ominous rumbles from the snowpack higher up the mountain, and talk in the village that they will all be evacuated ahead of an apocalyptic avalanche….sometime soon. There’s a gorgeous, mysterious young woman who he sees bathing naked in a high-mountain hot spring. Someone is playing the piano in the big old hotel, late at night, and slipping away before anyone else arrives.

All of that is related. All of that circles around the mysteries of Dragan, and of the local outlaw Baptistin, who Melvin aids on the spur of the moment at the beginning of the story and who is key to the counterfeiting ring.

There is an avalanche. There is an evacuation. Melvin does meet the mysterious naked woman – that’s what mysterious naked women are for in fictions by men, part of the rewards for figuring out mysteries and solving plots – and he does learn both what Baptistin has been doing and the true story of his brother’s life. There is a happy ending.

Melvin manages to square the circle of being both a very, very respectable man in a respectable classy occupation and also a master of derring-do criminality, getting all of the benefits and none of the detriments of both sides. I also could quibble that the ending may be slightly rushed, and a little too much of “and then Melvin got all of the good things in the world, all at once, because he’s the hero.”

In Search of Peter Pan is atmospheric and evocative: Cosey is good at both long stretches of dialogue and at entirely silent pages. This is a deeply enjoyable story with real depth to it , marred only slightly by some pretty blatant male wish-fulfillment.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

The Muse by Zidrou and Oriol

The Muse by Zidrou and Oriol

If that cover image trips any warnings on whatever computing device you’re reading this on, I apologize – but it is the cover for this book.

The Muse  is an album-length graphic novel, written by Zidrou, drawn by Oriol, translated by Matt Madden, and published – only electronically; there’s no print version in English – by Europe Comics a few years back. It’s the story of a painter over a hundred years ago, as told by a painter about eighty years ago, doubly distanced.

In the very last days of the nineteenth century, Vidal Balaguer was one of the most talented of the painters of Barcelona – but also in the worst troubles. His father has recently disowned him, so his debts are mounting. The woman who was both his best model and his lover, Mar, has mysteriously disappeared and the police suspect he may have killed her. And the one painting he might be able to sell is his masterpiece of Mar – the one that is the cover of this book – which he can’t bear to part with.

One of his friends tells this story, to another model, forty years later, in a frame story that disappears for most of the book and is not important at the end: it’s a way in rather than a full frame, and I’m not completely convinced it actually adds anything to the core story of Balaguer. I even lost track of which one of the 1899 friends this old painter was supposed to be, since he doesn’t do anything important in the Old Days.

Balaguer is beleaguered – maybe the word is similar in Spanish? I don’t know if this is deliberate, on Zidrou’s part or Madden’s. Things are disappearing from his apartment. Creditors are circling, threatening to take everything he has. A police detective threatens even more.

There is an explanation, and this reader guessed it – and Balaguer’s way out of his situation – much sooner than the book revealed it. I can’t say if that is a common reaction; I’ve been that kind of reader for thirty years or more , always picking apart the stories I encounter and predicting where they will go next. I’m not always right; I was this time.

Oriol has suitably painterly art for this story; the spaces are deep and rich and evocative , the people subtly color-coded, the action mostly interior. Zidrou gives it a leisurely, talky script – these are mostly painters with time to waste in cafes or scraping paint onto a board – but reading it electronically (on a tablet screen, in my case) makes the balloons and lettering smaller than I would have preferred.

I did not find this a surprising story, or a profound one, though I did enjoy the telling. Zidrou may have aimed at surprise or profundity; I can’t say. In the end, there’s no real sense of why this happened to Balaguer rather than any of the other painters in his circle: was he better? was it his connection to Mar? was it just the luck and frisson of a moment?

Muses are fickle by nature, of course. Maybe that’s the answer.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Uncharted Plots Course for Home Video April 26

Uncharted Plots Course for Home Video April 26

SYNOPSIS
Street-smart thief Nathan Drake (Tom Holland) is recruited by seasoned treasure hunter Victor “Sully” Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) to recover a fortune lost by Ferdinand Magellan 500 years ago. What starts as a heist job for the duo becomes a globe-trotting, white-knuckle race to reach the prize before the ruthless Moncada (Antonio Banderas), who believes he and his family are the rightful heirs. If Nate and Sully can decipher the clues and solve one of the world’s oldest mysteries, they stand to find $5 billion in treasure and perhaps even Nate’s long-lost brother…but only if they can learn to work together.

BONUS MATERIALS
4K ULTRA HD, BLU-RAY and DIGITAL
• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Behind the Scenes Featurettes
o Becoming Nathan Drake
o Big Action Breakdown: C-17 Globemaster
o Charting the Course: On Set with Ruben Fleischer
o Never a Dull Moment: Stunts & Action
o The Buddy System
o Villains, Backstabbers & Accomplices
• Commentary with Director Ruben Fleischer
DVD
• The Buddy System

CAST AND CREW
Directed By: Ruben Fleischer
Produced By: Charles Roven, Avi Arad, Alex Gartner, Ari Arad
Screenplay By: Rafe Lee Judkins and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway
Executive Producers: Ruben Fleischer, Robert J. Dohrmann, David Bernad, Tom Holland, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Neil Druckmann, Evan Wells, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway
Cast: Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Sophia Ali, Tati Gabrielle, Antonio Banderas

SPECS
Run Time: Approx. 116 mins.
Rating: PG-13 for violence/action and language
4K Ultra HD™: 2160p Ultra High Definition 2.39:1 | Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible) / French 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Spanish, English Audio Description 5.1 Dolby Digital
Blu-ray™: 1080p High Definition 2.39:1 | Audio: English, French 5.1 DTS-HD MA, Spanish , French, Spanish, English Audio Description 5.1 Dolby Digital

The Thud by Mikael Ross

The Thud by Mikael Ross

Americans are more likely to take this book’s cover wrongly. There’s a young man, tying something around his neck, and a title that could be a vivid, short, violence-tinged name.

Americans are likely to jump into some kind of superhero explanation , either real in the world of the story or imagined by the protagonist – to assume, first of all, that this young man is “The Thud,” and the story is about his adventures, in whatever mode.

The Thud  is not a person. The Thud is an event. It’s a moment, one that led this young man – his name is Noel – to stand outside that hospital, clutching that blanket.

I’ve had Thuds in my life: moments where everything changes. If you’re old enough, you have, too. The point of a Thud is that it’s unexpected, and that it’s usually not happy. Something breaks, something shatters, something is gone forever.

Noel Flohr lives in Berlin with his mother as The Thud opens. He’s twentyish, but clearly has some kind of developmental disability: he’s loud, and not good at social interaction, and seems to be obsessed with a few things. We don’t know his diagnosis. But we know he needs help, that he needs support to make it through life. And his mother is that help and support: it’s just the two of them against the world, and that’s fine with them.

Thud.

One night, Noel heard a noise. He finds his mother lying on the floor, a pool of blood by her head. He knows enough to call the emergency services. He saves her life, probably.

But she’s had a stroke. She’s in a medically induced coma. It is no longer the two of them against the world.

Noel is put in the care of a guardian, who he thinks of as “the man with the ‘stache.” He’s sent to live in a group home in the village of Neuerkerode, which seems to be largely populated by the developmentally disabled and their minders.

The bulk of the story happens from that point: how Noel settles into Neuerkerode, the people he meets there, his new way of living. It’s told in episodes, moments in Noel’s new life. There’s Valentin, another young man in the same home, who becomes something like his new best friend. There’s a woman he is attracted to, and another woman who may be attracted to him. All of them are disabled in some way, all of them have some kind of trouble interfacing with the “normal” world, something that led to them living in Neuerkerode.

So I have a warning for readers of The Thud. We often expect a story to have a certain shape, to be about people who grow and change, who encounter new things and become better people, who fall in love and build lives with others.

Noel, and most of the other characters in The Thud, aren’t capable of that kind of easy growth, certainly not in any short period of time. They are not going to “get better.” They are not going to “learn to be normal.” They are not going to “get over it.” This is who they are; these are the lives they have to lead.

What they can do – what they do do – is to live those lives, as best they can, within the guardrails those neurotypical guardians make for them. (And some readers may find there’s a lot of  leeway in what the inhabitants of Neuerkerode are allowed!) They may act out, they may be inappropriate, they may try to do things for reasons that seem weird or wrong from a neurotypical point of view. But they’re living their lives, as best they can.

That’s what The Thud is about: how Noel lives when the way he lives is completely upended. It’s based on true stories: Neuerkerode is a real place, though I think Noel is completely fictional. Mikael Ross visited it several times while working on this graphic novel: this isn’t an “official” publication of that institution, but it’s close. 

The Thud is meant for younger readers: people a few years younger than Noel, probably in their teens. Maybe neurotypical, maybe not. Maybe German, maybe American, maybe from other places. I suspect a lot of those younger readers will get more out of The Thud than their parents will; I’ve already seen a few wrong-headed reviews by American adults , too focused on their own guardrails and expectations.

If you’re not too rigid in your own guardrails, you should read it. If there’s someone not neurotypical in your life – yourself, a child, a friend, a spouse, whoever – you should read it. If you wonder what would happen to your life after a Thud…read it.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

REVIEW: American Underdog

REVIEW: American Underdog

Okay, so why is ComicMix reviewing a football movie? Well, first of all, we’re a little more than just comics and secondly, it stars Captain Marvel himself, so there’s that.

Besides, it’s about a real-life hero, and who doesn’t love heroes?

Kurt Warner’s story is well worth exploring and the Lionsgate Home Entertainment release of last year’s American Underdog does a fine job recounting the story. For those unfamiliar, Warner was a star at Northern Iowa but spent four years unable to get signed by an NFL team. Finally, the Green Bay Packers signed but released him in 1994. He then played three seasons for the Iowa Barnstormers in the brief-lived Arena Football League before finally making it to the NFL with the St. Louis Rams. Once there, he led what has been dubbed the Greatest Show on Turn, culminating in winning Super Bowl XXXIV.

It’s a story about perseverance and support at home, in the form of his loving wife Brenda (Anna Paquin). Levi, at 41, is a little old to be convincing as a man half his age, but his enduring charm and charisma makes that easy to overlook. Together, they make a charming couple, and their scenes anchor the film’s emotional story. Brenda has a blind special needs son, Zach, and Hayden Zaller make a fine debut in the role.

Dennis Quaid, as Coach Dick Vermeil, leads a fine supporting cast that includes familiar faces such as Bruce McGill and Ser’Darius Blain. Best of all, Levi is reunited with his Chuck costar Adam Baldwin, who plays Warner’s college coach.

Directed by Andrew and Jon Erwin, better known for their Christian-themed movies, certainly are reverent here, avoiding some of the sport’s rougher edges. The film is inspired by All Things Possible by Kurt Warner with Michael Silver, and the screenplay comes from Friday Night Lights veterans Jon Erwin & David Aaron Cohen and Jon Gunn. They are supported by a strong score from Composer John Debney.

Make sure you watch all the credits since there’s some touching archival footage of Warner and Zach.

Available in Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD, the movie look strong with a fine 1080p MPEG-AVC with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio , The high def transfer and rich color palette are nicely presented. The accompanying Dolby Atmos and a core 7.1 Dolby TrueHD Master Audio track works just fine.

The disc is packed with a fine assortment of Special Features, an above average collection including Audio Commentary from Directors Andrew and Jon Erwin and Producer Kevin Downes; “Inspired” (16:08), about the production; “Making the Cut” (13:45) , about the editing; “A Coach’s Faith” (30:48), focuses on Vermeil and his biggest fan, Saturday Night Live’s Heidi Gardner; “New to the Scene: Hayden Zaller” (6:10); “Meet the Champion” (14:49), Warner himself speaks;  “Behind the Game” (8:13);  “American Underdog: Behind the Story” (3:39); and , Deleted Scenes (17:44), with and without director commentary.