Righteous Thieves Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Righteous Thieves Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 19, 2023

It's maybe just slightly hilarious that the IMDb offers a list of projects that have been tagged with the phrase "Nazi stolen art", a list which offers not just expected items like The Monuments Men, The Train and Woman in Gold, but also (and here's where some laughter may result) episodes of such television stalwarts as Hogan's Heroes. One way or the other, as of the writing of this review Righteous Thieves is not among the properties so tagged, which may indicate either it's too new to have been so designated or simply hasn't been widely seen enough for anyone to even want to identify it any way on any online data aggregator.

In a way, this ostensible heist / caper film might be compared to Hogan's Heroes, at least insofar as both properties don't exactly deal in subtleties or nuance. Now, Righteous Thieves is arguably not quite as cartoonish as the old sixties sitcom, but it's relationship to "reality" is at least strained. An erstwhile art thief named Annabel (portrayed by Danube Hermosillo as a younger woman, and then Lisa Vidal for the bulk of the story) recruits a team to thwart efforts of an actual Nazi (neo or otherwise) named Otto Huizen (Brian Cousins), who has come into possession of art once owned by a Jew named Josef Goodman (Mitch Poulos), with whom Annabel has history (of course). Josef's very surname may indicate the lack of subtlety this film's screenplay offers.

The team features a number of supporting players who could have come from the Central Casting offices of shows like Mission: Impossible, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and/or NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and like those latter two outings, a lot of the film's "narrative" takes place with characters huddled around computers. That leaves the actual "heist" section of the film as almost an afterthought in the final third or so of the running time, and unfortunately its late arrival is not aided by any flair in either writing or staging.

Righteous Thieves Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Righteous Thieves is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. There's not a lot of technical information on this shoot available online that I could dredge up, and neither the closing credits roll nor the making of featurette disclosed any cameras, but this is a nice looking digital capture that I assume had a 2K DI. There's a lot of typical "high tech" shadowy interior scenes scattered throughout the film, but detail levels are generally very good to excellent and fine detail in more brightly lit moments is quite appealing. Some very brief occurrences of banding can be spotted in some of the darker scenes where light sources suddenly intrude. The palette is very nicely suffused, even if it's not especially vibrant at times, getting most of its pop from things like the colors on costumes.

Righteous Thieves Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Righteous Thieves features a workmanlike DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which offers some intermittent immersion courtesy of both background clamor in several scenes where the entire team is together, but probably most noticeably courtesy of ambient environmental sounds and some passing source cues in the underscore. The final half hour or so of the film has some decent engagement of the side and rear channels as the team attempts to complete their mission. Dialogue (such as it is) is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Righteous Thieves Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Coming for It All: Making Righteous Thieves (HD; 24:21) is a perhaps surprisingly long form EPK which features a number of relatively interesting interviews with production cast and crew.

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

Righteous Thieves Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The very title of Righteous Thieves probably offers more nuance than the actual film, and it's maybe arguable that the kind of cool animated opening credits sequence is at least as engaging as the ostensible caper at the core of the story. Technical merits are solid and the longer than expected featurette rather interesting, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.